July 19, 2013--Jay Z?

I was on line browzing among weather forecasting Websites to find one that said that the heat and humidity were about to break.

No such luck. They were unanimous--no relief in sight until at best Saturday and only after thunderstorms that threaten to be "dangerous." It's even hot here on the Midcoast of Maine. Maybe 90 in the shade.

And then between the Weather Channel and the Weather Underground up popped the headline--

Jay-Z Changing His Name.

For relief from the heat and depressing news from all over, and as someone who has an ongoing interest in the doings of Beyonce's husband, I clicked on that to see what's going down.

Here's the scoop--

His new name appears to be Jay Z, changed from Jay-Z.

He was born in Brooklyn and named Shawn Carter and I understand that in the hip-hop world adopting a name like Jay-Z makes a lot of sense.

In Shawn's case, Jay-Z was derived from two sources--his musical mentor, Jaz-O, and the fact that both the J and Z trains stop at the Marcy Avenue subway station near the projects in which he grew up.

I don't get the dropping of the hyphen. I sort of liked it. But he does have a new album, "Magna Carta . . . Holy Grail," that he's promoting so I guess anything for a headline and a few more bucks.