Vacation!

Neon Memes • The eighth annual Vacation Deprivation survey issued by the travel agency Expedia has convinced me, yet again, of Americans' mental instability. "As in 2007 a sizable minority―24 percent―of employed adults check work email or voice mail while vacationing," states that survey, which aggregates Harris Interactive and Ipsos Reid data. Moreover, 27 percent of Midwesterners relinquish some of their accrued vacation days by not using them in a timely fashion. In the simple, bucolic burg from which I hail, we have a word for such folks: fools. I myself just returned from a full week of R&R at the family farm in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., during which time I engaged in various and sundry pursuits: I read a great deal recreationally―Neal Stephenson's entertaining but overhyped Snow Crash, other books, the latest issues of Newsweek and New Scientist. I popped corn and, with my parents, viewed such DVDs as The Wings of Eagles from John Ford and The Return of the Pink Panther from Blake Edwards. I gorged myself on home cookin', including Mom's exemplary chicken and dumplings. And I remained blissfully, unapologetically disconnected from the so-called grid. ―Bryan A. Hollerbach, Managing Editor