Weather Update: Not That Bad After All (With Romanian Culture Note)

Well, maybe I overspoke: by twilight last night, the smoky inversion layer over Palookaville seemed to have lifted, and this morning bids fair to be, I guess you would say, almost fair (we've gone so far as to dare to open a window).

We celebrated the irrelevance of my Romania joke by watching 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (link), which sounds like it ought to belong at or near the head of anybody's life list of edifyingly dreary movies: abortion under Ceauşescu!--right up there with Salaam Bombay, not far behind Dead Men Walking!--you'll be hummin' the tunes on your way home from the theatre! It wasn't that dreary, really, thanks to some flawless acting, lots of photography that was surely imaginative (if a bit showy) and a plot that wasn't quite as hackneyed as you might have expected. Still, there were moiments when I went plunging into the sofa cushions to find out whatever happened to Sound of Music.

Three Things I Learned on a Nine-Hour Flight

Nothing like a long plane ride to help you catch up with The Economist. If you can believe it:

• Cancun has an average of 190 flights a day.
• Admitting Romania more than doubled the European Union's population of bears.
• Half the world's population enjoys fuel subsidies.