It’s the first weekend of summer, so let’s turn our attention, at least momentarily, to summer-like things.

Like the weather, for example. Although forecasts say that Sunday will be cooler, here’s the outlook for Saturday: “Man, it’s a hot one. Like seven inches from the noonday sun.”

And if that makes you think about the Carlos Santana-Rob Thomas smash “Smooth,” well, you are a music lover of a certain age. “Smooth” marks its 25th anniversary this month, and so Rob Tannenbaum in The New York Times has taken the opportunity to explain why the song is never going away: Billboard, based on weighted numbers from a variety of its charts, has rated it the third most popular song since 1958. (It trails The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and Chubby Checker’s “The Twist.”) “Smooth” is a fine song, to be sure, but that doesn’t explain this level of popularity: Tannenbaum talks to Thomas and Santana to try to crack the case.

It is summer, so that means newspapers and other websites are tripping over themselves to write features aiming to crown the so-called “Song of Summer.” Here’s an entertaining feature from The Associated Press’ Maria Sherman listing some of this summer’s contenders. (“Smooth” is not eligible, since it started its No. 1 run in October 1999.)

These 2024 contenders probably will be hard-pressed to beat Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” But let me add a dark horse candidate: “Dance with a Stranger,” the new single from Lake Street Dive, from the band’s almost ridiculously sunny new album, “Good Together.”

“Espresso,” by the way, has prompted The Atlantic’s Spencer Kornhaber to consider what the current success of Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX — all performers with years of work behind them before they broke out — might mean. Here’s his theory, and I think it holds water: “It’s the sound of young women cracking jokes with one another against a backdrop of growing alienation between the genders.”

Moving on to somewhat weightier matters:

Are you concerned about AI-generated “deep fake” videos that are increasingly difficult to distinguish from the real thing? Good; you should be. But you should also be worried about other misleading videos created by the old-fashioned techniques of deceptive editing and incomplete context. A number of misleading videos about President Joe Biden have been circulating in the past couple of weeks — and, to be fair, Donald Trump also has been victimized by these “cheap fake” videos. The lesson here is to be cautious, even with videos, and to seek out the broader context.

Kosiso Ugwuede of the Gazette-Times has an interesting update about the legal arguments swirling around the battle to oust Ward 5 Councilor Charlyn Ellis from the Corvallis City Council. The story is oddly structured, but that’s because you need considerable background before you can follow the arguments. Federal Judge Ann Aiken’s ruling is expected in the next 30 days or so. In the meantime, the city has racked up some $120,000 in legal fees — and Ellis says she’ll run for reelection in November. and likely will be a heavy favorite.

Here’s an interesting, but not unexpected, story from Nieman Lab: As advertising revenue has fallen, newspapers and other publications increasingly have been forced to rely on subscription revenue. But roughly half of subscribers to publications aren’t paying full price for their subscriptions. And the news gets worse: Most people don’t want to pay anything for news. And, sooner or later, that’s what most people will get for news: nothing.

Robert Winnett, the British journalist who had been tapped to be the new editor at The Washington Post, will not be assuming the job after all. Winnett’s decision comes in the wake of news stories that raised questions about not only his journalistic integrity, but that of the Post’s new publisher and CEO, Will Lewis.

If first you don’t succeed: Wild Thang, a Pekingese from Oregon, is the winner of this year’s World’s Ugliest Dog contest. The victory comes after three straight second-place finishes for the pooch. Wild Thang and owner Ann Lewis may be featured on Monday’s “Today” show.

As you know, I keep an eye out for stories — especially from regional and national publications — that might have some interesting angle about Oregon State University athletics and the struggle the program faces in trying to rebuild the Pac-12 Conference, now down to just two members. Even so, I was surprised by this story from The Athletic, The New York Times-owned sports website: EO Sports’ College Football 25 video game is back this July after an absence of more than a decade; it had been sidelined largely because of name, image and likeness concerns. The game allows players to play as any of the 134 Football Bowl Subdivison teams — all the teams from the power conferences and the Group of 5 conferences. In this story, three writers for The Athletic listed the team they were most looking forward to playing, and one of the writers, Antonio Morales, listed Oregon State — but the reasons why might not make Beaver fans happy. Here’s an excerpt from the story:

The path forward is daunting for the Beavers. The Pac-12 disintegrated and left Oregon State without a true conference home. Jonathan Smith did a great job of building the program after some dark years, but he took the Michigan State job after the regular season and brought most of his staff with him. After Smith’s departure, the roster was gutted by the transfer portal, with several players ending up at high-profile schools. So this is a major rebuild, and the first few seasons will be tough. But the reward of starting a dynasty, righting a wrong and getting the Beavers back into a power conference could be worth it.

But any publicity is good publicity, right?

That’s all I have for this week’s Weekend Reader. Stay hydrated, and we’ll huddle again next weekend.