It is Good Friday, but I don’t care. After all, I am Jewish, and, due to last week’s vacation, have way too much work to take off the holiday. So I am at my office. The rooms are deserted. It is eerily quiet. I am reminded of Yale’s antediluvian Sterling Memorial Library – where I didn’t study even once during my four years. Without a hum of background activity, I am completely unproductive.

To compensate, Miles Davis’ Sessions at the Plugged Nickel pours out of a tinny set of Harman/Kardon speakers. I fight the urge to return home for my stereo system (or at least a decent pair of headphones – Beyerdynamic or Etymotics). I sink into my chair, enveloped in the strains of “Stella by Starlight,” and get to work.