If an American should be reduced to occupying himself with his own affairs, at that moment half his existence would be snatched from him; he would feel it as a vast void in his life and would become incredibly unhappy.
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Where am I? Delaware? Pennsylvania? Maryland? No, that was last month. New York? Ohio? No, that’s later this spring. North Carolina, then? Sounds likely. Well, whatever the case, from this hotel in Somewhere, U.S.A., let me say that as I continue to have no time for reading online about politics, culture, and current events, I can only laugh in the face of Tocqueville’s ghost. Bounded in the nutshell of my own affairs, I count myself a king of infinite space.