In a way, Labor Day is like New Year’s Eve. Both days straddle the old and the new, and both days offer the opportunity to start fresh. Even though many people use New Year’s Day to get busy with a list of resolutions that are meant to change their lives (quit smoking, lose ten pounds) in reality the new year often means little more than vacuuming up dried fir needles and writing the wrong date on checks for a few weeks.

By contrast, Labor Day is when we really get to start over. Kids go back to school in carefully selected school clothes and spanking new notebooks. They see old friends and tackle new cliques, and their report cards are blank slates. Adults forgo sneaking out early on Friday afternoons and give up their shares in beach houses. Everyone is back from vacation, and that big project you shoved to the back of your desk can’t wait any longer.

Labor Day also signals the transition from easy to more difficult. Summer is all about sundresses slipped over the head, dinners of sliced tomatoes and basil, and sunscreen and a swipe of lipstick. Life is simple. Perfume is likely to be something fresh and easy: an Eau de Cologne during the day and a narcotic floral at night…

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