Global Blogidays is the new JOHO campaign for a blog vacation; David's probably just drawn out from all that Viennese shopping and will feel much better once the jetlag wears off. Maybe the start of August seems logical to him, but during those particular two weeks my tiny coastal village of 2000 will be pushing pop. 60,000 and I'm going to pause the blog right in the very thick of it? Not likely.

No siree, the logical break time for a synchronistic stunt like this is a time known to all and a favourite of millions and millions for centuries upon centuries. It's called Lent and you don't have to be Catholic to learn deep lessons from it.

Here's how it works: You throw a three day anything-goes whopper of a multi-location blog-til-you-puke Mardi-gras blog-orgy, and then nada, not a peep, nothing for 40 days until the sun sets on Holy Thursday. Ok, maybe a wee dram of a blog on Sundays, but that's it. Nix. Zip it. Up!

Yup, 40 days; them Catholics don't piss around. It's tough -- I tried a lental fast on coffee once, and by week three I decided the oily brown stuff out of the machines in the George Brown college hall was synthetic, it was not the Steamed Essence of the Holy Black Bean.

Of course, tossin' the blog for Lent is all fine and good for a thorough spiritual clensing, but if all you want is a breather to get your minds unbent for two weeks, I have a better idea. How about just limiting ourselves to 100 hand-picked words a day, or while away a mid-summer's night in bloggal limerics ... or trim the fat down to vignette's of 17 syllables.

I don't have any icons, but I'll propose a name: Let's call it the Summer Festival of Blog Haiku.