A trader bows his head on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange after the closing bell Thursday; photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images. Just back from lunch, at which Brandeis classicists Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow and Cheryl Walker schooled me…

Photo by Flickr user hakaider. Has all the talk about the debt ceiling left you wanting to reach for a cold one? Or several? How likely are they to be drowning their sorrows elsewhere in the world? You might…