Don’t just sit there lighting an imaginary candle and praying that the power grid won’t fail. Get cool!

1. Eat ice cream. The places that serve it (there are probably more—feel free to add them in the comments): Odeon (when the cart is open), Tribeca Treats, Takahachi Bakery (black sesame!), Cosmopolitan Café, Kitchenette, Hudson Market, Whole Foods Tribeca, Shake Shack (but it’s not very good, is it?), and François Payard Bakery, which sells ice cream sandwiches made with macarons. (I don’t go to the ice cream trucks and I’m not sure you should either, unless you’re under 12.) Coming soon: Blue Marble Ice Cream at All Good Things on Franklin Street. Oh, and don’t forget the foxy Magnum bars at Pier 25. The “double caramel” one is perhaps too much of a good thing.

2. Go to a movie. Currently at the Regal Battery Park: Prometheus, That’s My Boy (don’t go see that, though), Snow White & the Huntsman, Madagascar 3, and Rock of Ages. Several of those might require getting stoned and/or drunk first.

3. Listen to cool music. I’m not sure how to define “cool music” except to say that I know it when I hear it, and it’s not songs about summer or sun or the beach or whatever. I made a playlist but I’m too lazy—I blame the heat—to figure out how to share it on iTunes. The songs aren’t in any order, so buy ’em all and shuffle. Actually, if there’s a common denominator, it’s that most of those are by women singing a little sluggishly.

4. Take a long, cold soak. The two cold pools at Aire Ancient Baths aren’t very big, but they’re so cold you won’t be in them for long. Then loll in the body temp pool for an hour. Avoid the hot ones until September.

5. Hang out on the corner. Not just any corner, though. Stand at the southwest corner of Franklin and Church. The vents in 250 Church blast out air-conditioned air. OK, so it might not be a destination, but it’s a nice break on your way to get ice cream.

6. Drink something refreshing. It doesn’t have to be alcoholic. I’ve recently fallen for the lemonade of the day at Made Fresh Daily in the Seaport—it’s been strawberry lemonade, tart cherry lemonade (the best), and currant lemonade (below). In Tribeca, meanwhile, I love to get the ginger lemonade at Tribeca Treats, take it home, and make a spritzer out of it.

7. Mix up a special cocktail. Then again, when it’s 95 degrees out (but feels like 103, according to my app), some alcohol might be called for. Brushstroke graciously passed along the recipe for its delicious Shiso Cocktail. Shiso is an herb common in Japanese cooking; Lani’s Farm at the Saturday Greenmarket has it. Just mix up the following: 3 leaves of shiso, slightly muddled; 2 oz gin (Brushstroke uses the brand Blue Gin), 3/4 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice, 1/4 oz simple syrup (Brushstroke uses a syrup that’s 60% sugar and 40% water syrup), and 2 oz club soda. Garnish with 1/4 shiso leaf in a clear glass. “Sexy looking ice cubes also make for a better presentation,” say the instructions, and when reader Andrea made the drink—it was she who urged me to get the recipe—she even rounded up sexy ice cubes!

UDPATE: I meant to include this and forgot. Last time the heat peaked, I crawled into Weather Up Tribeca and begged them to make me something cool and refreshing. What I got was an East Side Rickey—gin, seltzer, lime, cucumber, mint, and probably simple syrup. It was like a cocktail-as-spa-treatment.

8. When all else fails, suck on a boozy popsicle. The Loopy Doopy, the new rooftop bar at the Conrad New York, serves a very adult frozen treat. When I was there, there was nowhere to hide from the sun, so you might want to wait till the sun goes down, or at least bring sunglasses and a hat.