While senators are in Washington, their days are scheduled in fifteen-minute intervals: staff meetings, interviews, visits from lobbyists and home-state groups, caucus lunches, committee hearings, briefing books, floor votes, fund-raisers.

NEWYORKER: The Empty Chamber

Those of you who follow these things will recall that Microsoft announced on the shortest day of 2011 that it will no longer provide a keynote speaker nor fund a booth presence on the floor after 2012.

FORBES: Parasitic Vendors May Kill Trade Show