the summer and nothing but the whole summer

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There is nowhere lovelier than the Hamptons. But what would the summer be without reminders of snoburbia? Writer Colson Whitehead reveals the overclass code implicit in a simple question, in his book, Sag Harbor:

How long are you out for?—and the competition had begun. The magic answer was Through Labor Day or The Whole Summer. Anything less was to signal misfortune. Out for a weekend at the start of the season, to open up the house, sweep cracks, that was okay. But only coming out for a month? A week? What was wrong, were you having financial difficulties?

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