During winter break, I am struck with the need to waste time and then to pour some guilt liberally over it. The only thing that I really have motivation for is sleep. Hence, the average of 10 hours a night since my return to the Big White House.

Have you ever read "Daddy Long Legs"? Every so often, I remember what a fantastic reader (please, 'fantastic' in the sense of great, large, and broad, not in the excellent sense) I was. Then I try to recapture my former glory with a bout of 'intense' reading, in which I mostly re-read things and not read new ones. I feel the start of one of those periods coming on.