Co-blogger Gordon Smith complains about the withdrawal symptoms of being stuck without internet even for a day. I think I have the modernization bug even worse than he does: The power went out in my house for about two hours and I was almost apopleptic. I couldn't find any candles or flashlights, couldn't leave in search of them because I couldn't find my shoes. The modem needs electricity to function, I can't do my laundry without electricity, can't see to clean up the kitchen without light, and it was too dark to read Ravelstein.

I tried reading via the light of my cell phone (it worked pretty well but I didn't want to run the battery out if the power was going to stay out for a while) or by a succession of lit matches (which didn't work well at all) before giving up and taking the time to stare into the oppressive but beautiful silence of my back porch and meditate on how depressing it must have been for those in Lincoln's Washington to face that kind of smothering darkness every night.
Surely even in North Korea they read books at night.

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