I’m back from my travels to Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf. I was collecting insights for a project, not for Sandbox, so I won’t be reporting on what I heard. Many thanks to those who gave me their time on this circuit, and also to Tony Badran, the formidable blogger from Across the Bay, who took over the Linkage feature of this website in my absence. His astute selection of interesting links kept readers coming back for more.

While I prefer not to mention the people I met, I’ll make this one exception. In Cairo, I had dinner with the blogger who writes anonymously and perceptively about Egyptian affairs at a blog called Big Pharaoh. I mention him for one reason only: he told me there are those who’ve claimed that he can’t really be an Egyptian, because his English is so idiomatic. Why anyone would think an Egyptian incapable of mastering idiomatic English defies my comprehension. In any case, I’ve met him, and I can vouch for him. He’s as Egyptian as… the pharaohs.