What I didn’t do on my summer vacation

So you may have noticed the Mythographer hasn’t been myth-graphing lately.  I have taken some time off from my busy life of doing not much, and found it to be very restful.  As I rested, many  many myths passed me by.  The New Yorker did that whole thing on parenting myths, a topic on which I have much to say.  There’s that new book Shop Class As Soulcraft which both debunks the myth of craftmanship-as-politically liberal, and sets up some new work-related myths along the way.  There’s the ongoing celebrity folklore surrounding Martha Stewart, one of the more notorious summer residents of my hometown in Maine.  (Purists take note: I know that Northeast Harbor and Bass Harbor are not actually the same town, but for simplicity’s sake.)  Is it really true that she trapped a trespasser behind the gates of her mountaintop ranch while she called the police–who then chastised her, not the joyriders?  Well, yes.  I learned more than I ever wanted to know about lobsters.  Most fun fact: Only about 50 percent of the lobsters that crawl through the trap actually get stuck there.  The rest are too smart; or too small.  Now that I’m back to reality, a.k.a. New York City, I’m waiting for the sunburn to wear off and the caffeine to kick in, and then I’ll bust out the mythography, I promise.