Oh, Eees Sooo Hot . . .

The best thing about Jennifer 8. Lee’s story about what may be the hottest September on record is the retro-sounding headline, “Just Try to Remember So Warm a September,” which sounds like a freakin’ Jimmy Walker song. Still, it’s important to stay focused on the fact that it has been hot this month:

Air-conditioners are still blasting. Rooftop bars are still bustling well into the night. Women are still wearing flip-flops and tank tops. Coco Helado street vendors are still scooping with gusto.

The symbolic end-of-the-summer Labor Day weekend passed more than two weeks ago, but as of Monday, the average temperature for September was 75.4 degrees, about 6 degrees above average, according to the National Weather Service. The warmest September on record was in 1961, with an average of 73.6 degrees for the entire month. In particular, the evenings have been about 10 to 15 degrees hotter than normal, said Alan Reppert, a meteorologist with AccuWeather, a private forecasting company. If this trend continues, this September could end up being the record holder, he said.

Ice cream sales are up . . . folks are still getting tanked in garden bars . . . women in flip-flops are still getting their toes stomped on . . . and that all-important summer-economic indicator: Coco Helado vendors are still scooping with gusto! (Go, Jennifer 8. Lee, go!)

That said, seditious talk like this should be stopped. Like now. Idiots:

Brooklyn Industries has introduced down coats and vests in its stores, anticipating an eventual change of seasons.

“It’s the eternal Indian summer,” said Lexy Funk, one of the co-owners. “Right now we are waiting for cool weather. We want to sell our down coats. We’re dreaming of snow.”

Speak for yourself, Jackson!

Bright Lights, Big City

Bird apologists have convinced some building owners — including the Chrysler Building! — to turn off their lights late at night so as not to lure wayward birds into a tragic, sudden and rather gruesome death:

City officials and NYC Audubon want all lights decorating the outside of buildings above the 40th floor to be turned off by midnight from now until the end of October.

The initiative, called Lights Out New York, is to be announced today and is designed to help hundreds of thousands of migrating birds navigate safely through the Big Apple on their annual route south.

Every year, 10,000 birds, among them red-tailed hawks, kestrels and white-throated sparrows, flap their way through the city after dark, get thrown off by the high-perched lights and crash into the skyscrapers — most often fatally.

“We find hundreds of birds every year injured or dead in the city,” said NYC Audubon Executive Director E.J. McAdams.

“We’re not asking building owners to turn out the lights all year round,” he said, pointing out that the migrating season is only a few months long in the spring and fall.

. . .

The Empire State Building — which experienced a lot of problems with birds in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s — already turns off its famed lights by midnight, McAdams noted.

The 77-story Chrysler Building now keeps its decorative lights shining until sunrise — but it will soon join the Lights Out program, a source said.

See also: New York City Audubon Society’s Project Safe Flight: Compassion in Action program (“Windows kill millions of birds each year . . . and New York has a lot of windows”).

Subway Rules, Not Mine

The MTA has backed down from a proposed ban on drinking any kind of beverage in the subway, saying “it ain’t worth the fight”:

Sip away, straphangers

A proposal to ban drinking nonalcoholic beverages on subways and buses will not be adopted by the MTA, sources said.

“It ain’t worth the fight,” one source said.

For years there had been a rule, rarely enforced, against open beverage containers on subways and buses. Transit officials seeking to ban people from drinking said they just wanted to close a loophole.

But the spectre of police hitting riders with tickets for sipping cups of coffee or drinking water sparked outrage.

What will be enforced is the ban on walking between cars, which will carry a $75 fine.

How Much Are You Under/Overpaid?

New York Magazine investigates what we all make, with data. Included, a hedge fund dude pulling in over a billion dollars (no wonder there’s such income disparity!) and a panhandler making more than most editorial assistants.

My own subjective view: Channel 7 weatherman Sam Champion is well worth his $1.5 million salary, while Anderson Cooper is overpaid at $2 million. The guy selling knock-off accessories on the corner gets over $30,000 while New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz makes $90,000? Hmmm . . .

Michael and Emily Hold With Variants of Jayden Rising

Although “Michael” and “Emily” are still the top two names for babies in New York, the list is becoming more diverse:

In the last several years, New York City has had more baby girls named Fatoumata than Lisa, more Aaliyahs than Melissas, more Chayas than Christinas. There have been more baby boys named Moshe than Peter, more Miguels than Jeffreys, more Ahmeds than Stanleys.

Yesterday, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released the name breakdown for the 124,099 babies born in New York City in 2004. That, together with data stretching back to 1920, shows that in a city that is fashion-conscious and full of immigrants, some foreign-sounding names have become arguably more New York than American classics like Carol, Susan, Stephen and Harry.

As reported last May, “Brooklyn” has become quite the popular name around the country, a trend apparently not replicated in the five boroughs:

There is one popular name on which New Yorkers differ sharply from the rest of the country: Brooklyn. The name, a combination of two girls’ names, Brooke and Lynn, has soared up the list of the nation’s top 1,000 female baby names since 1990, landing at No. 101 in 2004. But in New York City, Brooklyn has barely registered, appearing nowhere in any of the Health Department rankings.

“New Yorkers hear Brooklyn, and they have an image of a place, despite its many charms, that doesn’t seem very delicate and feminine,” Ms. Wattenberg said.