Hello, read­ers! I’m still here—just a lit­tle more dis­tracted than usual.

Fol­low­ing the cov­er­age of Egypt’s rev­o­lu­tion has been grip­ping. The big 3-D map of Cairo in Sunday’s Times brought a stream of mem­o­ries flood­ing back. The Nile Hilton, where all the media was holed up? I’ve stayed there! Midan Tahrir (Tahrir Square)? I’ve crossed the street there! (Accord­ing to one travel guide, my sur­vival means that I can safely nego­ti­ate a street-crossing any­where else in the world.) Rev­o­lu­tion, to Amer­i­cans today, is such a dis­tant concept—something seen only in pho­tographs and shaky video. It’s weird to see it unfold­ing in a place that feels familiar.

On a related note, one won­ders why Al-Jazeera Eng­lish is not avail­able in the USA. I don’t have cable or satel­lite, but if I did, I would harass my provider end­lessly about this chan­nel. My usual hotel in Hong Kong has it and it is 1,000% more inter­est­ing and more cere­bral than any Amer­i­can news chan­nel. And, in my lim­ited expe­ri­ence, much more objective.