Meghan Cox Gurdon: The summer of the blackout

“Oooh!” came the sound of 40 female voices, as the lights went out in a Bethesda nail salon earlier this week. A moment before, under bright lights, the customers had been jiggling pleasantly in their massage chairs as a rank of dark-haired pedicurists bent over their feet.

Now it was silent, with an occasional murmur. A single safety light flicked on overhead, and its pale light turned everyone cadaverous.