Open this photo in gallery: Photo Illustration: The Globe and Mail. Sources: Getty Images Ian Brown is a feature writer for The Globe and Mail. I have no trouble remembering the hottest nights, nights so abroil my skin felt liquid and the world seemed to be on the verge of melting. When I was getting to know the woman who became my wife, she rented a room in Manhattan for $450 a month in a fourth-floor unair-conditioned illegal sublet on West End Avenue between 72nd and 73rd streets, a place with two roommates and a vast living room but, oddly,…