Autumn's here—Happy New Year! Not for me, that pallid substitute in January with its noisemakers and forgotten resolutions. My calendar resets annually with the opening of classroom doors, no matter that decades have passed since I last slammed shut a locker or handed in a textbook. My pulse quickens at the sight of highlighters and lined paper newly piled on store shelves. Long before the first leaf falls, mannequins are draped in earth tones that conjure forest floors and lichen and wood smoke. Despite heat that melts my synapses, a voice within me exults: It begins. For years, no matter how