INAUGURAL FUN!

For those of us who aren't in Washington, DC today, it feels a little like being forced to rearrange a sock drawer while everyone else gets an invitation to a big party. Yet--and not to be a kill-joy--it's hard not to feel spared from jockeying with the hordes (and concerns over hypothermia). To wit, here's a dispatch from Democracy in America, The Economist's US politics blog:

YOUR correspondent had woken up at 6 a.m., having survived (sorry, enjoyed) the milennial New Year celebrations in London, with some idea of how to navigate massive crowds. Flipping on the television erased any sort of confidence. At 6 a.m., the part of the National Mall where the U.S. Capitol can be seen, the part that's available to non-ticket-holders, was nearly full of spectators flooding in from off the streets. As many as two million people are expected to fill the mall today; tens of thousands will surely be forced back, to watch Barack Obama's inauguration from somewhere else.

Along those lines, I'm going to sneak into the conference room of our office building and watch the festivities from there. Word is that purple is the new black among the muffler-swaddled dignitaries. ~ EMILY BOBROW