Arrival

I am enjoying my first day in Paris, and tomorrow I start a five-day stint for the State Department. The Star Wars DVD set is advertised more heavily here than back in Virginia. (Remember the Australian who said something like “Any country that makes a movie like Star Wars deserves to rule the world”? I once cited this and many readers did not realize it was meant ironically, both by him and me.) The French have the new Che Guevara movie, but not yet the delightfully retro Sky Captain. The new Philip Roth novel appears to have been translated into French already. You will continue to hear from me and Alex, and to make up for the trade imbalance we are importing a European guest-blogger…stay tuned…!