Posting wireless from the rooftop bar at Soho House, swank location of the dinner kicking off tomorrow's Personal Democracy Forum. Hubbub of the sound system, view of the new Gansevoort Hotel... Preparing to send the next newsletter for our Peace Building Dialogues. Next to me, checking mail, Sanford Dickert, erstwhile CTO of the Kerry campaign. I called him "Sandy." Annoyed with myself. Okay, and Dennis Quaid just walked in. Sheesh.

I never thought Dean would be the nominee, but the little excerpts from his Portland, Ore. appearance with John Kerry remind me that I miss his pith and passion. Compare Dean's jabbing, upbeat style to the oratorical circumspection in Kerry's quotes. Just makes me wish for a little bit o'Clinton or Buchanan in the mix. Yes, I said Buchanan. If you've got someone pithier and punchier, feel free to let me know.

The other day NYTimes.com info architect Rob Larson pointed me to the newly-launched NYT Travel section online. Check it out - very rich in data and "ways in." I first got the chance to see Rob's thinking in action when he found ways to divide up Times content for AOL readers using sub-collections that you couldn't create on the web. NYT on AOL had a standing archive of Gardening, Wine, Dining, Dance articles long before the web site even had a decent search function. That was all Rob - he thinks in new media ideas the way Neo sees the code. Try going to the new Travel section and searching on the word 'shoes.' Note the results brilliantly sorted into folders on the left side of the page. How cool is that? Flat taxonomies and flat results-lists were two of the earliest features of the web - but I've never…