LOOKING AT MY ARCHIVES FROM 2004, I realize that I took a week off in late October (I wasn’t teaching that semester) and went scuba diving in Cozumel. For a week I didn’t think of anything involving politics, and — except for an emergency-decompression stop brought about by an equipment failure, which sounds more exciting than it actually was — it was entirely stress free. At the moment, I’m wishing I could have done that again. If I’m still blogging in 2012, I’m making a week off in October a priority!