June 15-July 6

Fortunately, nothing terrible or depressing or infuriating or repellant has ever happened between June 15 and July 6. No one of any ill repute was ever born during that span, and no one ever passed prematurely into the void. Nations behaved themselves; despots halted their relentless sprees of death and immiseration; rare flowers bloomed and extinct species reappeared miraculously, as if there were indeed a god in heaven.

For all these reasons, I will be taking a three-week hiatus from this blog while visiting the various lunatics to whom I am related.