One of the more amusing stories to make it into the newspapers this past summer was the saga of Maurice the rooster. Vacationers on the island of Oléron in southwestern France had complained that Maurice’s daily wake-up calls had ruined their sleep. They did more than complain, they sued the rooster’s owner in court, claiming that the bird was a public nuisance. Thousands of French people signed a petition in defense of Maurice and, after a long legal process and a great deal of lighthearted publicity the judge ruled in his favor. A rooster has the right to crow, said the judge, it is in his nature. Maurice became quite famous, just for doing what nature intended. He even had his picture in The New York Times , twice, and quite right too. Vacationers often make wrong choices. They look for relaxation in some quiet rural place but, once they are there, they miss the sounds of the big city – the roar and screech of traffic, the sirens, the screams and the gunshots that make up the