Davos Newbies

Dani Rodrik is wonderful. Have a read of how traffic rules, or the lack of them, in Hanoi and St Petersburg explain different approaches to institutional reform.

Incidentally, if I get back to St Petersburg I’m going to make sure I never go near that intersection on Prospekt Slavy.

If I had the personality and the lack of encumbrances of my older sister I’d be on a plane to Seoul tomorrow.

Why? I’ve just discovered bojagi (sometimes transliterated pojagi) and I want to see more and, if possible, buy some. What are bojagi? They are traditional Korean wrapping cloths, which were apparently made for both everyday and ceremonial use. The few examples on display at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum were breathtaking. They share with patchwork quilts a colorful exuberance but, in a smaller form, have an intensity all their own. (My mother was a fabulous collector of patchwork quilts, before many people recognized them as an art form.)

I bought a good book on bojagi in the museum store, but web resources seem scanty at best (although there are a lot of sites that are about helping modern-day quilters make their own bojagi, which holds no interest whatsoever for me).  I need to see more.