Small things:

• Long post on my other blog about a conversation with a prominent theatre director about Shakespeare adaptation. But I have to mention here that while we were talking, his car was robbed: a theatre staffer came to tell him that someone had broken the window, stolen his cashmere overcoat and the money in the pocket, made off with some CDs, even taken his reading glasses.  The director carried on with the interview as though nothing had happened.
• The Guardian-Observer calls my book “inspired” and suggests it as a “quirky” Christmas present.  Woo hoo!
• Wild rumor circulating about the Salafis: if they come to power, they will try to ban Egyptian women from wearing makeup.  But then, wouldn’t the economy grind to a halt completely?
• Tension and mud-slinging (mutual allegations of voting-day irregularities, etc) between the Brotherhood and the Salafi Nour Party as they contest twenty seats in first-round runoff elections today.  The Arabist has some good charts on what it could lead to.  No telling (because we still don’t know what kind of powers this Parliament will have) what it will mean.
• Nine days later, old-New Prime Minister-designate Kamal Ganzouri has yet to form his “national salvation” government.  And all he has to deal with is SCAF and the Egyptian public. Imagine the government-formation process after an election when you would also have to deal with competing parties and political factions?
• Shades of Hamlet? In the lead-up to last week’s polls, not one but two English-language newspapers, AMAY and Ahram Online, ran the headline “To Vote or Not to Vote?” (Thanks, Amy Motlagh.)