Encounters: Dodging the Issue

Lunching in a brasserie in the Galerie de la Reine in Brussels reminded me of an incontrovertible fact: beer brewed by Trappist monks does not induce silence - at least not at first. I was trying to talk about progress with the development of a pan-European system for securities trading. But the conversations going on at tables all around me rose in volume as the brothers' lethal brew or other equally potent beverages did their work. As a result, rational discussion was proving increasingly