As we approach the year’s end, the Links are going on a hiatus, until the first or second week of January—I’m heading up to Northumberland next week to have a Christmas in the wilds, with grandparent-childcare, vast amounts of wine and port and several books to take advantage of the familial support...

In 2020, we opened our end-of-year review by saying that “Not even Dr. Pangloss could put a positive spin on… a historic dumpster fire of a year.” The next year, we described 2021 as “not quite the best of times, not quite the worst of times”, which seemed like progress. But if we take one lesson fr...