> Theoretically, half of everyone’s weekend could be half as crowded, two-thirds of the time.

Excellent analysis, and I particularly liked the above line.

The phrase, "The tyranny of the clock" kept springing to mind as I was reading, and I had forgotten that this is the title of a much older, and shorter, essay[0].

[0] http://www.spunk.org/texts/writers/woodcock/sp001734.html