This is a special time of year for us academics. Once graduation is over and all the spring term grades are in, it's time to get caught up on the many details that have piled up while the school year wore on.

I just finished leafing through all the journals in a two-foot-high pile that accumulated over the past few months, some since New Year's. Exciting stuff like Richard Wise's page-turner "Caveats When Using Guideline Company Transactional Data in Valuing a Business," in that red-hot magazine Business Valuation Review.

I also just put out curbside for recycling a mess of old newspapers. When I finish my daily New York Times, I often toss it to a neighbor, who enjoys it despite its being a day or two old. But even with this outlet, I tend to pile up the ones that show something of particular interest, until I have time to look them over. Now I've waded through them all, and out the last of them just went. The newspaper rack in the kitchen is in a rare state of utter emptiness.

I must say I could dispose of the Sunday Times Magazine pretty quickly this week, and last week. Nothing in there spoke to me much.