At the height of summer, the pace of life slows. Languorous weekends—occasionally annexing Monday and Friday—are the rule. Whether you call them the dog days or the doldrums, this stretch of the season can seem oddly unbound by time; protracted periods of relaxation can subtly turn into a benign sort of boredom. It's kind of like watching the washing machine, much as this loyal hound was doing in 1954.
