It turns out that this year, the holidays fall very nicely. Our offices are always closed during the afternoons of December 24 and 31, and since Christmas Day and New Year’s Day fall on a Friday, we’re looking at two consecutive long weekends. By taking off the three and a half days from Monday, December 28, through Thursday, December 31 at noon, I get a vacation of ten and a half days, from December 24 at noon through the evening of January 3. This great return on a modest investment proved irresistible: though I didn’t plan to take any time off at first, I changed my mind this morning. Sadly, deals on Christmas trees are far less attractive as evidenced by these grossly overpriced specimens in the Place Masséna in Nice. Maybe it’s the fake snow...