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OK, it’s well-established that the month of August is just about the silliest of seasons. For one thing, it’s when some reporters and editors try to take those much-needed vacations, leaving their colleagues to man the controls by their lonesome.

It’s also breeding ground for whimsical bullshit like this. And snarky bullshit like this.

But maybe there’s a silver lining in this most inane of months. With half the town on vacation, it’s much easier to get a table at area restaurants. Cats might be away, but, hey, this isn’t France or Italy, where half the hospitality takes the last month of summer off. Our restaurants stay open, and with an emptying-out city, those of us who stick local have a better shot at nabbing a decent reservation and table, WTOP reports:

Commute times are shorter. More parking spots are open. Favorite restaurants have open tables.

Around Capitol Hill, the August recess is especially pronounced.

“The wait can be anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour, especially on weekends,” Lewis Titteron, a manager at the Matchbox Capitol Hill location, says of the norm during the rest of the year.

Now if only the same applied to the coffeeshops that those of us who work in the freelance and digital economies use as offices. It’s the middle of August, and some of these places still get overstuffed with laptops and idle chatter.