While the calendar may have just turned officially from winter to spring this past week, for us, this next week's spring break couldn't come fast enough.
With family visits, trips for work, and plenty of meetings to attend, the first three months of 2012 have been anything but slow. This past week alone has seen the worst punishment by the NFL in its history, a groundswell of public opinion driving justice forward in Florida, and another GOP primary win by Mitt Romney - which, like many of the other primary wins by Romney, was spoiled less than 24 hours later by something he or someone linked to his campaign said.
That doesn't even include the damage the conservative-leaning Supreme Court did this week, or the shocking fact that Congress appears to actually be accomplishing a few things.
Of course, this week, there were also a few bits of shocking speech too, including leading GOP political operative Karl Rove's false claim that killing Bin Laden was no big deal, or Mitt Romney's Communications Director claiming that Romney will be able to get rid of his extremist right-wing positions just like shaking an Etch A Sketch.
With all these different divisive ideas, and certain political and media folks attempting to use every one of them as a wedge issue, we're very glad to be taking sort of a break from our usual production schedule next week.
Admittedly, some of our time will be spent at home, TV off, talk radio off, and newspapers and magazines... only gently skimmed. We love reading though, so we'll certainly be picking up a book or two - or three. We also plan on visiting a few old friends, having some dinner at great restaurants, maybe even going to see a museum or two.
Don't expect us to be completely cut off from the world, though.
Paul will also still be working, just a bit, drawing a few new cartoons for his syndicate, and the great folks at the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists. You can check out the AAEC's daily cartoon blog to get your Paul Fell fix - and while you're there, you can also check out the work of some of the other great cartoonists we know.
Amy, of course, is a mom - so she never really gets a complete day off. Still, we hope that she has a chance to enjoy a few more days at the park with her young child this week.
Our workaholic webmaster will be traveling back and forth along the East Coast, though he's promised us he'll take at least a few hours off each day and disconnect. Truthfully, we think he'll probably just turn off the ringer on his smartphone - but even that's more disconnected than he usually gets, so we'll give him that one.
Spring break, when one gets older, may not exactly be the wild, hedonistic, week-long party that some college kids experience. It's usually not even the family trip to see relatives, or the week of time watching cartoons that it might have been when we were kids.
What it is, is a chance for us to re-energize, to sleep in, to take a step back and realize that not everyone is a Cro-Magnon caveman constantly trying to divide us all from one another.
We'll hope you have a good week. We'll resume publication April 2, 2012. Enjoy your Spring Break too.
