Maven: Weather-Related Ridiculousness

The University of North Carolina's Journalism School came forth with a ranking of the 10-best business journalism critics and The Business Press Maven was ranked Number 1. With characteristic humbleness, I just want to say: good call! And thank you very much.

Now, going forward with the onus of a champion, I will get back to the important business of tearing the business media a new one so you, the investor, do not get confused, misled or financially knee-capped.

On the subject of knee caps, let's talk about what the recent nationwide heat wave has done to retail sales. Well, what has it done to retail sales, business media? Do tell. The answers, given this week when July sales were reported, went all over the place to such a degree that The Business Press Maven would have been laughing if he hadn't been too busy crying.

I can pick on almost anyone -- so let's start at the beginning of the alphabet with the Associated Press. They told us that worried retailers got a reprieve in July, "scoring solid gains as searing heat in much of the country sent consumers back into the stores in search of summer clothes."

Walking this line of thought, you have to believe that people sitting at home in the comfort of central air suddenly rushed out into the heat in order to get tank-tops, whereupon, mission complete, they returned to the comfort of their central air.

From that idea in the lead, we are then warned later on in the story not to over interpret the month, because it's one of the least important on the retailing calendar, one in which stores are cleared out to make room for fall lines. Next, an economist told us that high temperatures can be both good and bad for retail.

I think I'm getting heat stroke.