Verizon mistakenly shut down our Internet on Monday morning: human error, as far as anyone can figure, someone reading from a six-month-old work order from when we moved to the house and switched round our services. This means that Berkshire Publishing has been off-line for three days, dependent on my AT&T aircard and the telephone (which Verizon did not, fortunately, shut down too). Tom is talking to Verizon every hour, but no one is sure when the service will be up again and we are wondering what kind of obsolete, inefficient systems made such an error possible – and leads to such delay in rectifying it. I imagine creaky, rusty racks and dusty rooms where handwritten work orders are stuck onto prongs.

Fortunately the gang here is resilient, flexible, and cheerful – coping with intense cold, Encyclopedia of China production deadlines, and a particularly bad ‘flu that’s laid many of us low. Amy pointed out this morning that she doesn’t think she’s ever seen people moving around the office so much. I’m not sure if that’s to stay warm, or communicate without having Skype up and running – both, I’ll bet!