On (Permanent) Vacation

Here's a quick thought. One of the good things about being on a computer late at night is that you get to have first dibs on the soap-opera that is currently the New York Times editorial page. But today the editorial page is telling me that David Brooks, who of all the columnists has the greatest potential to produce something entertaining, is on vacation. Two questions: what exactly is Mr. Brooks doing that necessitates taking a vacation? Writing a 300 word column twice a week? Second, what exactly is Mr. Brooks doing on his vacation that prevents him from writing and turning in a 300 word column? It might be that either he has to be in his office to produce his column for some reason (which is kind of strange), or that he spends so much time on his column that it would seriously cut into his vacation time to produce it (which is kind of pathetic). I guess all that defending your "conservative" viewpoint can get pretty tiring after a while...