Cooking: Baked chicken with cilantro and chopped chile (a family favorite). Creamy mashed new potatoes.

Reading: Interesting times, still hilarious but I think you need to be a 50 something Englishman to understand all the jokes.

Watching:  The Year My Parents Went On Vacation. How many Jewish/Brazilian movies can there be.


Thinking: Favorite historians: Simon Schama,  Jonathan Israel, J. M. Roberts, Roy Porter, Gary Schwartz and Martin Gilbert.

Listening: Simon Schama on Barak Obama, broadcast on the BBC world service