August 2028: the year's heaviest working month
Dispatch, Saturday 5 August 2028. The Open is into its third round at Royal Lytham & St Annes. The full moon rises tonight, and the working year reaches its ceiling. August stretches from Tuesday 1 to Thursday 31 August, 31 days of it, and holds 23 business days. That is as many as a month can carry. The Paralympics open in Los Angeles on Tuesday 15 August. Our correspondent has checked the lunar diary. Every moon phase this month lands on a weekend.
An August Open at Lytham
The oldest championship in golf has landed in August, which its own tradition did not plan. The championship rounds at Royal Lytham & St Annes run from Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 August.
The links have not hosted an Open since 2012. The move keeps the week clear of the Olympic golf tournament in Los Angeles. Practice days had started by Sunday 30 July, when the Olympic flame went out.
Tomorrow's final round, on Sunday 6 August, decides the last men's major of the golf year. The Lancashire coast will have its opinions about the weather. It usually does.
Los Angeles goes again
Los Angeles closed the Olympics on Sunday 30 July and left the venues standing. Los Angeles opens its Paralympics on Tuesday 15 August, and they run to Sunday 27 August. No Paralympics has been held in the city before, and none in the United States since Atlanta 1996.
One city will have carried 45 days of Games summer by the closing ceremony. The count starts at the Olympic opening on Friday 14 July. Visitors mostly chose Olympic week or Paralympic week. The quiet week in between belongs to the locals.
The 23-day month
Tuesdays land on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th. Wednesdays follow on the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. Thursdays finish the job on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st. The remaining four weekdays appear four times each.
The ledger reads 23 business days against 8 weekend days, and weeks 31 to 35 carry the count. The moon, meanwhile, has arranged a weekends-only roster.
It is full on Saturday 5 August and reaches last quarter on Sunday 13 August. The moon turns new on Sunday 20 August. First quarter lands on Sunday 27 August, the night the Paralympics close.
July spent both of the season's eclipses. August holds none at all, and the sky stays quiet into September.
The moon has kept strictly to weekend shifts and clocks off on Sunday 27 August. The rest of us get 23 business days, which seems a poor exchange.