But don't call too often or speak too loudly or whine too much, we told ourselves, or else they'll get an noyed and she'll get fired and the summers will end.

Then, at the far end of the Potomac River bridge, the first shots were fired.

Most of the decline in Britain, however, is the result not of a big policy effort but of the “dash for gas”—the move away from coal-fired power stations that followed the end of coal mining.