Substitute that phrase into the lyrics of the song Never Ending Story, from the 1984 movie, Never Ending Story, and suddenly, you explain the phenomena we're experiencing here right now! Here's a picture of Pennsylvania Avenue in the haze of a brutally hot summer day. It seems that summer refuses to give way to winter with temperatures posting near the 70 degree mark yesterday (my car's thermometer read 74 degrees when I left my office building yesterday). Officially, I think the temperature was posted as 69 degrees, which is still 16 degrees above the average 53 degrees (that's as a HIGH temperature) for this time of year. As I sit here typing at 5:00 am, the temperatures have only dropped to 63 degrees, hardly what one would expect for November 29 in a "temperate" zone (my son's science book puts Maryland in the "temperate" region, meaning warm summers and cold winters... yes, cold winters). Summer's obstinate refusal to cede to winter reminds me of Dylan Thomas' villanelle, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night:

Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas