Appointment Broken

I recently called American Psychiatric Association Publishing Inc. to order my 2006 appointment book, only to find that publication had been terminated after the 2005 book.

I realize with a tiny pang of regret how much I have come to treasure each year's edition, with its pristine cover in the latest somber hue and its crisply blank pages, unsullied as yet by coffee stains and inksmudged scrawls.

I own 40 of these babies. Each is iconic of another year of rewarding work. Each also contains reminders that prompt memories of out-of-office diversions—a Tuesday night poker game, a weekend of companionable bass fishing.

One could, of course, always have saved a few bucks by purchasing the generic annual appointment book found in every stationery store. But then one would have missed that curious reassurance about the daily round offered by APA's sober product.

I am told that APA has finally emerged into profitability, but was it really so necessary to sacrifice the idiosyncratic pleasures of this modest amenity to the almighty bottom line?