Consortium of Seven: Year 4

     This could be relatively brief one.       Thoughts are turned more strongly toward the too many things that need doing, slamming up against so little time remaining in the year. For many of us, with Mon-Fri official jobs, the calendar gives us a little extra padding this calendar year, with the new year starting on a Sunday, spilling that holiday into Monday. Hypothetically, at least, that lets us better land in physical ruin on New Year's Day , knowing we have Monday, too, to better recover and readjust our sleep schedule before reengaging the workweek schedule on Tuesday. We know from experience that these four-day weeks will somehow feel even longer than the five-day ones usually do, all the more so following a general sense of holiday adjacency that's been with us since Thanksgiving.       Anyway, while I will doubtless slip repeatedly into staring passively at screens for chunks of the next few days, it'll pro...