For those who don't know: Power companies employ what they call a Brown-Out when energy usage levels hit unusual highs (or if energy supply is somehow short during a period of typical usage), in which they reduce the power supply to certain parts of the power grid to keep it stable and allocate power to places where it's gone out or requires repair.

This happens on days like today, the hottest day of the year, when everyone wants to stand in front of an air conditioner or inside a fridge or dress themselves in sno-cones, resulting in what is also the highest usage of power for 2012 so far.

Reuters reports:

A spokesman at Con Edison, Allan Drury, said the demand for power on Wednesday was already higher than Tuesday's record for 2012 of 12,455 megawatts (MW). For Wednesday, Drury said the company forecast usage would peak at about 12,950 MW. That's still below the company's all-time record of 13,189 MW set in July 2011. One megawatt powers about 1,000 homes.

The Brown-Outs went to Midtown East and Sutton Place. They're not as worrisome as blackouts, but it's not the best scenario New York City's power-grid can face. Especially considering the aforementioned nasty labor dispute, which the Village Voice noted as having turned into a "class war" with no end in sight and which is dragging politicians into it now. Heat requires more power, more power presents the threats of blackouts and brownouts, and blackouts and brownouts require the help of a strong power utility workforce, which is currently short a few folks thanks to the dispute. In other words, pray for rain, or better yet, a quick resolution to ConEd's worker problems; one of the two before the heat gets any worse.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek 

"She used to wash her clothes and face with the same soap, said a 2008 Vogue article, and seldom wore makeup, much less luxuriated in the perks of privilege — like the private yoga classes with her friends Kathy Freston and Arianna Huffington — she indulges in today. At Yale, she would stake out Filene’s Basement to procure designer gowns on the cheap. Today, she is regularly photographed wearing Rodarte and Prada."

Ms. Huffington and Ms. Deng recently co-hosted the book party for Ms. Freston's diet book, The Lean. (Ms. Freston is the recently separated wife of ex-Viacom chief Tom.) They served guests Martha Stewart, Joel Klein and Harvey Weinstein vegan hors d'oeuvres made with tofu, quinoa and kale.

Ms. Huffington recalled a toast Mrs. Murdoch gave.

“She said, ‘I grew up so poor in China that one day I aspired to have meat regularly,’ ” Mrs. Huffington told the Times. “ ‘Now that I can have meat three times a day, Kathy tells us we can’t have any meat at all.’ ”

Archbishop Dolan, of course, has been on the job for nearly three years already, so it’s not as though he needs an introduction. But his new title will give him more prominence and influence—not to mention new head gear.

By all indications, the future cardinal wishes to follow in the large footsteps of his predecessor once removed, the late John Cardinal O’Connor, who cast a long shadow over New York’s civic, cultural and spiritual life before his death in 2000. Unlike Cardinal O’Connor’s successor, the reserved Edward Cardinal Egan, who retired in 2009, Archbishop Dolan is ebullient, outgoing and, it seems, eager to make friends in his new hometown.

He is steadfast in defense of Catholic teaching on abortion and gay rights, positions with which this page—and no small number of Catholics, including the state’s leading Catholic politicians—disagree. Still, like Cardinal O’Connor, Archbishop Dolan seems capable of staking out his positions without creating enemies. Cardinal O’Connor famously cultivated a warm friendship with then-Mayor Ed Koch in the 1980s, even though they disagreed profoundly on many political issues.

If Archbishop Dolan chooses to build on Cardinal O’Connor’s legacy, he surely will want to continue the latter’s commitment to Jewish-Catholic dialogue and cooperation. No Catholic prelate in New York history—perhaps even in American history—was more sympathetic to Judaism than Cardinal O’Connor. His empathy for Jews around the world and his understanding of the sin of anti-Semitism and the abomination of the Holocaust led him to be a dependable and strong friend of Israel. Jewish New Yorkers surely disagreed with Cardinal O’Connor’s social views, but many have never forgotten him.

The new cardinal has a chance to continue Cardinal O’Connor’s good works. But he also faces difficult decisions in his own community. During his tenure, Catholic schools very likely will continue to close or consolidate. New Yorkers have a stake in how that process is managed—Catholic schools have been a beacon of hope in many minority neighborhoods, but that beacon is growing dim, indeed. New York’s education officials have to imagine life with fewer, and perhaps hardly any, Catholic schools. That means thousands more students in the public schools, with correspondingly increased costs.

But that is for the future. For now, it is enough to wish the new cardinal well, knowing that he will be with us for a good long time.

Clearly something is amiss in the department. But calls for an outside, independent body to monitor the department are overheated and, simply, wrong-headed. True, the department’s own Internal Affairs Bureau clearly has not been doing its job. But the proper response to the department’s institutional flaws should begin with a reform of the institution itself, not with the imposition of an outside entity that very likely would do more harm than good.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has presided over a continued decline in crime, something many thought would be impossible after the historic decline of the Giuliani years. Commissioner Kelly knows the department better than anybody—he started in the N.Y.P.D. as a beat cop and now has been commissioner for well more than a decade, counting his time as David Dinkins’s commissioner in the early 1990s.

Commissioner Kelly should be given the opportunity to show that New York’s Finest can—and will—do a better job of rooting out rogue cops than it has in the recent past. It is not an easy assignment, for the N.Y.P.D., like so many other institutions, often seeks to protect itself and its reputation at the expense of justice. That said, there is a mechanism within the department designed to investigate wrong-doing by police officers. Mr. Kelly should be given the chance to show that a reformed Internal Affairs Bureau will pursue aggressively any future allegations of misconduct against the police.

The N.Y.P.D. is the linchpin of the city’s reputation as one of the world’s safest big cities. It cannot be seen as a refuge for lawbreakers. But by the same token, it does not need—not yet, anyway—an outside agency to monitor and investigate its officers.

Ezra Klein

As such, the reporters sealed the deal with simultaneous Twitter avowals early Sunday morning.

“Married to @EzraKlein!”

“Married to @AnnieLowrey!”

If you’d like to celebrate young media love, the couple is still registered for a $430 Mauviel copper saucepan at Williams-Sonoma, which, judging by the frequency of their blog posts and tweets, they will never, ever use.

But today Foursquare downsized mayors by removing their ability to edit the venue. Until now, mayors were sort of like Wikipedia power users; they could edit details about the venue, correct typos, even change the phone number and map location.

According to Foursquare, "It just didn't make sense anymore as our user base has scaled so quickly. However, we're working on some tools to give superusers more responsibilities and will be doing a (long-awaited) superuser upgrade soon!"

Is this part of the continuing mainstreaming (lamestreaming) of Foursquare as it closes in on 5 million users and increasingly engages in partnerships with major brands?

If the comments on watchdog blog aboutfoursquare.com are any indication, this move is not being well received by longtime Foursquare fans, who point out that a lot of useful editing was being done by these mayors.

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper