{"id":435,"date":"2004-12-09T14:24:29","date_gmt":"2004-12-09T19:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=435"},"modified":"2005-12-08T18:17:58","modified_gmt":"2005-12-08T23:17:58","slug":"waffling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/waffling","title":{"rendered":"Waffling"},"content":{"rendered":"

That cathedral I mentioned a few days ago? It really does<\/a> look better at night.<\/p>\n

I took a couple more pictures of the Christmas setup at Grand’ Place on Wednesday. My publisher, associate publisher and I took our European sales rep out for dinner near there, and meandered around in the cold after (whence the following pictures). The rep, from Switzerland, had no idea how to deal with the dynamic that’s developed among the three of us in the past five years.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are times when we<\/em> don’t know how to deal with that dynamic, either. Which is what makes it dynamic, I guess.<\/p>\n

On our way out of the restaurant (Aux Armes des Bruxelles) that evening, the rep, who’s from Switzerland, pulled me aside and quietly asked, “So, were the three of you for push or carry?”<\/p>\n

“Excuse me?”<\/p>\n

“You know: push or carry?”<\/p>\n

I pondered the metaphorical implications of that question, thinking it was some sort of referendum on welfare reform, before it hit me: “You mean Bush or Kerry?”<\/p>\n

Sigh.<\/p>\n

In the past few days, as I’ve witnessed the decimating effects of the weak dollar on my travel budget, I’ve developed a theory: Pres. Bush doesn’t want a weak dollar because it spurs U.S. exports. He wants a weak dollar because it makes it tougher for Americans to visit Europe<\/em>. It all makes sense now (unless he actually wants a weak dollar so as to get more Europeans to visit the U.S., in which case my wacky psychologizing is out the window).<\/p>\n

Anyway, happy Chanukkah to the Jews in the audience. I’m headed to Amsterdam tomorrow morning (Friday), but I have some neat pix from Thursday to process and post. You’ll be sorry . . .<\/p>\n

(My Brussels pix via Flickr)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That cathedral I mentioned a few days ago? It really does look better at night. I took a couple more pictures of the Christmas setup at Grand’ Place on Wednesday. My publisher, associate publisher and I took our European sales rep out for dinner near there, and meandered around in the cold after (whence the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Waffling”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brussels","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4C7K-waffling","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":789,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/year-zero","url_meta":{"origin":435,"position":0},"title":"Year Zero?","author":"Gil","date":"January 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A week or so ago, I mentioned a whole lot of reading that I'm doing as part of my attempt to understand what can be done to help New Orleans recover from the devastation of last August's hurricane. The fact that I'm starting with Virginia Postrel and Jane Jacobs probably\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/new-orleans"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":753,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tanning-is-immoral","url_meta":{"origin":435,"position":1},"title":"Tanning is Immoral!","author":"Gil","date":"December 8, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The House of Representatives passed a tax cut yesterday for the Gulf Coast, to help redevelopment after Hurricanes Katrina & Rita. The \"Gulf Opportunity Zone\" includes tax breaks to help rebuilding in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, including new bond authority and incentives to rebuild houses. However, according to the Washington\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tanning-is-immoral#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/see-you-in-the-funnies","url_meta":{"origin":435,"position":2},"title":"See You in the Funnies","author":"Gil","date":"August 7, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry I haven't written. Been busy with the magazine, the book, housekeeping, and the barest vestiges of a social life.Things are mostly squared away with my printer. My rep is trying to get me 5,000 color postcards of the cover as a make-good for messing up on the cost of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":897,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/roses","url_meta":{"origin":435,"position":3},"title":"Roses","author":"Gil","date":"March 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Until last night, I hadn't watched The Colbert Report on Comedy Central (myriad reasons, centering on lack of time & disinterest). Over dinner, Amy & I caught the broadcast, which included a profile of Congressional District 29. As part of the segment, Colbert interviewed Rep. Adam Schiff, which included this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1038,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/ralphie-cakes","url_meta":{"origin":435,"position":4},"title":"Ralphie Cakes","author":"Gil","date":"July 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"F*** Ralph Reed! I bet Rep. McKinney will come out swinging.","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1021,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/a-la-carte","url_meta":{"origin":435,"position":5},"title":"A La Carte","author":"Gil","date":"July 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Somehow, I missed this story last February. Rep. Randy \"Duke\" Cunningham wrote down a \"bribe menu.\" On Congressional stationery.","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}