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Bastille Day, France's fête nationale, fell on Thursday, when I was off the air. Thus it went unobserved at SteynOnline, which seems a bit unfair to our many French patrons. So as I chance to find myself on French soil. So, quelques jours de retard, it seemed appropriate to pick something suitably Gallic for our chanson de la semaine. How about..? Je me lève et je te bouscule Tu n'te réveilles pas Comme d'habitude... But no: we did that just the other week. And, if we're going with anglicized franco-pop, we should at least try and pick something that retains...

As autumn arrives in the northern hemisphere, the season's must-have colour for trees is red—again. Researchers are beginning to understand why leaves sport it SHELLEY poetically imagined that in autumn leaves lost their colour as the wild west wind drove them... ...like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes. Well, that is one hypothesis. But it is unlikely to stand up to scientific scrutiny. And a surprising amount of such scrutiny is being devoted to the question of why trees turn such glorious colours. In deciduous woodland, the first signs of approaching...