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By the stifling standards of August in New York, last week really wasn't so bad.
The summer air, for a change, was almost fresh. The humidity, especially late in the week, was blessedly low. Even the temperature - my God, yesterday's high never even got to 85 degrees. For once, those of us stuck in the city all summer are snarling less in August than we did in July. And the weather people were saying yesterday we should expect more of the same.
So how come the subway is still so suffocatingly hot? Frank Brody was slumped onto a stool in the subway elevator at Broadway and 168th Street. This is by far the busiest station in Washington Heights, a two-level affair where the 1-and-9 lines connect to the A and B. It is also, as a practical matter, the gateway to the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, which sprawls into the teeming blocks upstairs.
I did not happen to have a thermometer with me as I got into Brody's elevator. But it had to be an easy 100 degrees in there. And Brody, who has worked as a bus driver, a station cleaner, a token clerk and now a supervising subway elevator operator, looked like he was more than ready for a cold shower and a tall glass of lemonade.
"The first thing you do is you don't think about it," said Brody, explaining his trick for beating the heat. "Thinking about it, that's the worst thing you can do."
As he sat there, moving his elevator back and forth...