The farther afield the vacation, the more you feel you have to see, the more likely you are to medicate against creeping regret (why didn't you plan more? learn even a little bit of the language? bring sensible shoes?) by treating yourself to needlessly expensive meals, tickets to museums, clothing and objects for the home that you wouldn't buy back home if they paid you. And yet: looking forward to time away from work, social engagements, and extracurricular creative development activities remains one of the few private pleasures that remain available to us in 2018 with fully undiminished strength.

This issue, then, we encourage you to combine the best of multiple worlds, and get away from your life for a time while — or even by — staying right here. The work collected here is not an argument for exploring some undiscovered city that was right under your nose the whole time. You know what's here. Right now, it's a lot of hot garbage. No: this issue is an argument for sloth, for gluttony, for temporarily living a local life without work, without responsibilities, without — we might say — all the commercials.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

Issue cover image: Victor Llorente. Issue back cover image: Maureen Drennan.