Brief Hiatus

Dear Friends,

I apologize to you for being slow to acknowledge your many valuable comments on postings here of late. I've fallen considerably behind, and have taken a brief break — which will probably put me even more behind in replying to your comments. I'm not sure if I will be posting much here in the next few days, and that may be just as well, since I have begun to feel considerably stale, and, as my mother might have said, worn to a frazzle. All of which may well mean you will welcome having a little break from me, too! Wishing all of you a very good week . . . .

The graphic: a landscape sketch for Thomas Eakins's famous painting "The Swimming Hole," from Wikimedia Commons (scanned from Doreen Bolger and Sarah Cash, Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture; original in Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas).