There is nothing relaxing about Ame...

There is nothing relaxing about American vacation time. It's too precious. in succession average, we get fewer vacation days (10) than just about each other country except Mexico (6)

A global human resource consulting firm has determined that Denmark is averaging 31 days, Austria and Finland 30 days, and France 25

yet we Americans learn to make do with in extent leisurely weekends at the Wisconsin ravines We like it that way. We work hard, and we ask merely for Dancing Waters in reply

Unles of course, we are President George W Bush. the trinity bless him (and He does appear to be to), Bush takes his vacation time seriously. Last week, he started his traditional August vacation at his Texas ranch - - the same trip that caused all the fuss last year, sole shorter.

For starters, there were those critics who consideration the president's time might be better exhausted running the country rather than playing cowboy for a month Then, anti-war activist/grieving mother Cindy Sheehan camped public a stone's throw from the ranch. Distracting. equable worse, she brought the media along with her.

Finally, the horrific Hurricane Katrina readyed the president to cut his holiday short.

Vacations are in no degree perfect, are they?

It's hard to hindrance go and take time not on That's why I'm so in awe of the president. My alone real responsibility is to make secure that the paper's celebrity section, nap doesn't go a week without a luscious photo of Carmen Electra. And on the same level I am seized with guilt when I suit a few days off.

It must be really difficult to relax while orchestrating war.

High-stakes holidays

"My gues is he's going to be working fair hard," spokesman Tony Snow reassured us. "So this is not something where he's simply going to be gallivanting and ignoring the realities of the situation."

I think we can agree that Snow merits a mini-break, just for working the word "gallivanting" into an official statement. A road trip between the walls of wine country?

Vacations are just too rare to take lightly. We have to make them deem

Luckily, we have of recent origin technology -- technology that may not actually improve the leisure lifestyles of average Americans, further will improve their photo albums.

The Web site snapmania.com is offering a independent service called Tourist Remover. While sightseeing, you just take a series of photos of the same target -- a landmark, say. Upload the photos, and the software will dele any moving variables; in most numerous cases, tourists. You are left with a pristine picture of a triumphal obelisk, unblemished on pasty legs and black sock

It's a photograph of a importance in time that never actually occurr if it were not that who wants to remember their vacations the way they were, anyway?

Montezuma's-Revenge-Be-Gone

If Tourist Remover takes not on there's no telling what they'll tend hitherward up with next to enhance our vacation experiences. Rental Car have a scent Remover? Pickpocket Remover? Cruise Ship Flu Remover?

These are memories we're talking about, clan Let's get them right. It may not have happened that way, yet that's the way we'll remember it.

And maybe, while our Commander in Chief is in Texas, his team can await into presidential applications for the Tourist Remover Annoying Activist Remover? Pesky Media Remover? Dwindling Approval Rates Remover? souls of the Fallen Dead Remover?

This is history we're talking about, tribe A carefully edited, image-consultant-approved version of the president's well-deserved "working vacation" -- what could be a better souvenir for the country?

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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