With all due respect to our exploring forefathers...

Why in the name of all that's holy would an explorer land HERE, in what is now Maryland, and think "hey, this would be a great place to settle"??? I like the daring and excitement of the explorer legends, but it's hard to understand why anyone would see this as appealing. If I were an explorer, I would set foot on Maryland soil today and take the following inventory:

Mosquitoes? check
Swamps? check
Blistering heat? check
Sweltering humidity? check

If this list did not deter me, I could stick around a few months and add "extreme cold and ice and snow" to my list of features.

Of course, one could argue that the early explorers didn't have quite the basis for comparison that we are blessed with today, and that they had just been on rickety boats with inadequate food and water for ages, so the real question may be why I am still living here myself. I blame my family. In the meantime, I am going to obey the weather service's advice to "stay in an air-conditioned room."