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Maybe you were hoping you'd never hear the phrase "fiscal cliff" again after Congress passed legislation Jan. 1 to address that tax-break-expiration deadline.

Sorry.

Three more cliff-type deadlines are fast approaching. They involve: 1) raising the federal debt ceiling 2) modifying automatic, across-the-board spending cuts and 3) funding the government to avert a shutdown.

The deadlines all hit between Valentine's Day and Easter, which means new rounds of chaotic congressional negotiations may start up just after the Jan. 21 presidential inauguration parade ends.

Indeed, President Obama's choice for his second-term Treasury secretary is a budget-battle warrior, Jack Lew. During his first term, Obama chose a banking expert, Tim Geithner, to head the Treasury Department. Now Obama needs a budget expert like Lew, the former head of the Office of Management and Budget, to lead the White House negotiations with Congress.

January 10, 2013

Boeing generated more cash than expected last year and reclaimed the top spot over rival Airbus as the world's biggest airplane maker.

But all that was overshadowed by the fact that its entire fleet of 787s is grounded after batteries on two of its planes either overheated or caught fire.

"For 2013, our first order of business, obviously, is getting the 787 back into service," Boeing CEO James McNerney says.

With the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration investigating the incidents, McNerney said repeatedly on a conference call he could not hazard any guesses about how and when the review would turn out. .

"I can't predict an outcome and I'm not going to," he says. "We're in the middle of an investigation. We're making progress on the investigation. We've got every expert in the world looking at this issue."

In the meantime, McNerney says, Boeing plans to keep building the planes on schedule.

"Business as usual, let's keep making planes and then let's ramp up as we've planned," he says.

But some are not so sure about continuing the assembly line.

"I'm skeptical, only because we don't know what we don't know," Scott Hamilton, an aviation industry consultant, says.

Without new information, he says it's impossible to gauge the potential impact of the 787's grounding on Boeing.

"We don't know what the problem is, we don't know what the solution is, we don't know what the design of the fix will be, we don't know how long the planes will be on the ground," Hamilton says.

The investigations have centered on the plane's new lithium-ion batteries — notable for both their power and volatility. Several media reports said airlines had returned large numbers of faulty batteries. In Wednesday's call, however, McNerney dismissed those issues as routine maintenance unrelated to the recent overheating incidents.

The Two-Way

Fuel Leak At Logan Airport Adds To Trouble For Boeing 787 Dreamliner

The Reuben has long suffered from two problems. Firstly, it often lacks the structural integrity to hold together as a sandwich. The second problem is that I am not constantly surrounded by a dozen of them.

The Reuben Egg Roll from Hackney's in Chicago solves the first problem, at least, stuffing corned beef, sauerkraut and swiss cheese in a crispy egg roll shell, Thousand Island on the side.

Ian: I feel like you meet this food, and you're like, "Wait, your name is Reuben?"

Mike: This makes me think we need more Chinese-Jewish fusion restaurants. I love PF Changsteins.

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As you make your way up the inside steps of its tower, there are portents of what's to come: religious music and signs with messages such as "Of thy sins shall I wash thee." That phrase evokes an ornery response from DeWitt, "Good luck with that, pal."

At the top of the lighthouse steps is a chair; you strap yourself in, and you're transported with a noisy blast to another world.

This moves the game along to what Aristotle considered the most important element of tragedy: the plot. You, as DeWitt, are getting paid to rescue someone. You're reeled into rescuing Elizabeth — a character who's been imprisoned since childhood — from a city called Columbia and return her to New York.

It may be a first-person shooter game, but the killing doesn't start when you get to Columbia — a floating city in the clouds.

You spend an hour of the game exploring streets and gathering supplies. The city is filled with quaint turn-of-the-century buildings. People seem to peacefully meander along the sidewalks, stopping at shops and cafes.

'Cluing You In'

But everything is laden with clues of a darker story that will bring this floating city to earth. There are preachers and statues of historical American leaders.

"This city is run by a prophet figure who created a new religion that worships the Founding Fathers of the United States," Levine says. He describes their religion as "a mixture of Christianity and a sort of Founder worship."

But what makes this different from a tragic play is that you aren't just watching Hamlet — or rather Dewitt. "You are him," Levine says. "So we have lots of ... cleaver ways of sort of cluing you in to who you are, and what your mission is and what your purpose in life is."

In Hamlet, the audience watches the prince struggle with the implications of taking violent action. In BioShock Infinite, you struggle with it.

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