dinner tonight with…

Journalist/adventurer GRAEME WOOD of The Atlantic, briefly passing through Cairo en route to his next quasi-risky location (I won’t blow his cover, but it should be an interesting trip).

We went to the Thai place up the street, which is good enough that it’s become my default Zamalek restaurant. I usually head there first unless there’s a good reason to do otherwise.

On the rooftop many floors above the restaurant, there is also a café featuring phenomenal night-time views of the larger branch of the Nile. Zamalek is on an island. The portion of the Nile to the West is rather tiny, while that on the East has more of the majesty that you’d expect the Nile to have.

Also today, I taught my first class in a full year. I didn’t teach in the Spring, for various administrative reasons, and I’d forgotten how much fun it is. This is an especially nice group of kids, as well. We’re starting with that old Intro standard: Plato, Five Dialogues, and I have to say that over time, the Meno has become one of my handful of favorite philosophy texts. There’s so much in there, so delightfully compressed.