LIKE A VIRGIN

People complain about runny noses, itchy eyes and scratchy throats when those invisible assailants commonly known as allergens descend upon them come the spring. My allergy symptoms typically assume metaphysical states: ambivalence, indecisiveness, lack of focus, acute scatteredness. Today’s, the first bad day of the season, were so destabilizing they felt synthetic, as though they’d been produced by a narcotic, which of course had been commissioned by the arch enemy of productivity.

And what kind of a day did you have today?

Ironically, today’s sweeps is bursting with riff potential. These two innovative travel concerns and sweeps sponsors, Virgin Atlantic and Kayak.com, both have their offices in my hometown of Norwalk, Connecticut. This is where I grew up, whence I wanted to escape, where I return, every year, over and over, where I have spent every single Christmas of my life. I shall however save this riff, on places of origin and how they provide the expectation template for travel for life, for a cloudy, and, heaven help us, allergen-free day.

Here we have yet another one that makes entrants work for a chance for the brass ring. They want your idea of Virgin Territory. This kind of entry has steps. Step 1: Select a category. (I selected Shopping.) Step 2. Provide a title. (“Exquisite Textile Experiences”). Describe your idea. ( “A trek top the world’s best rug makers, from Turkey to Afghanistan to Persia.”) Step 3. We have to provide between 3 and 25 destinations to the mix. I cannot imagine anyone who would go so far as to take this beyond five destinations; three is plenty enough in my book.

I’m so allergy groggy that I don’t think I’m going to be able to finish and enter this one this evening. I don’t want to compromise my standards and enter inappropriate locales, places where rug makers use synthetic dyes.

I’m going to finish this one anon. Then maybe I’ll have the wherewithal to riff about my hometown as well as my drug dealer. Yes, my rug dealer. I’m addicted.

P.S. The prize is a trip to London, not your idea of Virgin Territory.