Taking It to the Streets

Good morning, dear reader. And I really do mean good MORNING. I got to work at 6:20 a.m. today. I can't honestly remember the last time I set my alarm for a time before 6 a.m. that didn't involve a plane. I can't really remember the last time I was up at 6 a.m. that wasn't the end of a day rather than the beginning.

Oh well, such is life.

Not a lot to report the past few days, so that would explain the silence. On Wednesday night, the English movie of the night was actually a good one, "Election". For those of you who haven't seen this film, the advertising campaign that promoted it at the time of its release really didn't do it justice. And everyone knows someone like Tracy Flick, don't they? I was actually struck, this being the first time I'd seen this movie since seeing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, by the similarity in duplicity between Reese Witherspoon's character and Smeagol/Gollum. But perhaps I'm reading too much into it. Regardless, if you haven't seen this film, rent it or get it from Netflix or something.

I have been promising a photo of the offices here in Brussels, so here it is already. This is the headquarters of the Wall Street Journal for all of Europe. Can't you almost hear the frenetic buzz of activity? Of news breaking? (And as a great "Daily Show" ad used to suggest several years ago, us then fixing it?) The sad thing is, you might think an organization with the vast global influence of the WSJ would occupy something grander than this. But we don't even occupy all of this building, just floors 1-3 (don't forget Europeans like to call the ground floor "0".) Among the other tenants in this venerable building are Scor, which I think makes trains or something, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka as the Mormons. I feel like I'm back in Brooklyn sometimes.

To get you updated, our office is fighting a collective cold. Jones, the senior editor here at WSJ.com, has been sounding pretty nasty, and Tina, the No. 2, just was out for two days and then had to leave early yesterday. I've had some nasty sinus congestion myself, though I'm starting to feel better, and just in time, too, since I'm off to Edinburgh to visit an old friend and former colleague for the weekend. So look for lots of blurry shots of the inside of a pub in a few days.