Is the best available description of an item I pulled from my mailbox today on returning from a rather harried "break": a letter from the board of trustees (aka: BOT) approving my sabbatical application.
Now if you don't mind, I think I'll dedicate a little song to the occasion. It's a Flaming Lips number called "Free Radicals," and I like it on its own, but it's also handy because the word sabbatical substitutes nicely for the word fanatical to yield lyrics that John and I improvised some time ago when I was working on the application. Sing it with me, then: "you think you're radical/ but you're not so radical/In fact you're on sabbatical!!! Sabbatical!!!"
With apologies to Wayne Coyne, and to anyone who tries to find me next spring.