Well, we’ve passed Labor Day in the US, the unofficial end to summer, so perhaps a review of the season of bloom and fruitfulness is in order. After a very wet spring, July and August have more or less reverted to form in these climate-change times, coming in considerably drier than was the norm in my youth. With a few notable exceptions, however, the summer enjoyed average to somewhat-below-average temperatures, which made the drought seem less … droughty?
In his new royal biography, “Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York,” released 14 August 2025, author Andrew Lownie thoroughly exposes and consistently trashes HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth II’s second son. Andrew is mercilessly depicted as arrogant, self-serving and in denial about his links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In 2021, one of Epstein’s many victims, Virginia Guiffre, brought a civil suit against Andrew, to whom she alleged Epstein had trafficked her at age 17. The suit was settled out of court in March 2022 for a reported $16 million, with a substantial portion of the award to go to Giuffre’s sex trafficking charity.
The Sun’s annual opposition to Pluto (in 2025 extending from July 15 to August 5) cast a bright spotlight (Sun) on themes of death and mortality (Pluto), showcasing the passing of two iconic ‘80s figures, and the unveiling of a memorial to commemorate the passing of a third. On Sunday 20 July, actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, part of the ensemble cast on the megahit “The Cosby Show,” accidentally drowned while on holiday in Costa Rica. On Thursday 24 July, WWE pro wrestler Hulk Hogan died at his home of cardiac arrest. And on Saturday, 19 July, a mural was unveiled in Paris to honor Jazz era American-French dancer, singer and actress Josephine Baker, marking the fiftieth anniversary of her passing.
“Who’s Sorry Now?” Legions of Connie Francis fans, that’s who, mourning the death of the singer whose signature tune that became. Francis herself hated the song, but it was her breakout hit from 1958, and she paid homage to its importance in her life and career by using the phrase to title her 1984 autobiography. Francis was translated to the celestial choir on 16 July 2025, aged 87.
Perhaps not everyone will remember where they were the day that the Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez wedding redefined “conspicuous consumption,” but as these things go, the day was surely memorable. Or perhaps we should say “days,” since the nuptial celebrations sprawled across three days in Venice, Italy, with pre-and post-ceremony festivities, though the actual union came on Friday, 27 June 2025. It was then that billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the fourth-richest man in the world, wed his bride Lauren Sanchez, a former journalist, in what was likely the fourth-costliest wedding in history, with a price tag coming in somewhere around $55 million. Just a drop in the bucket for Bezos, however, with an estimated net worth of $244 billion.
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “It never rains, but it pours.” Well, that was May 2025 in the garden. After a dry, showerless April, the May flowers were distinctly lacking, but 9” of rain that month brought on the vegetation like gangbusters, and by summer solstice, the garden had become a tangled jungle.
Between the incessant rains and then a physical setback when a burst water cyst behind the newly replaced left knee kept me in pain and off my feet for two weeks, there was no curb on the ambitious plans for world domination clearly hatched by my local weeds during their dormancy. I hadn’t even finished the last of the winter cleanup when the deluge began, and that boat has now sailed, with the eastern bank of the sand mound a revolting mix of old and new weeds. Well, there’s always 2026.
