Pains

174 years after his demise, Hon­oré de Balzac stays an excessive­ly mod­ern-sound­ing wag. Have been he alive at the moment, he’d little question be pound­ing out his provoca­tive obser­va­tions in a cof­fice, a café whose free wifi, lenient employees, and abun­dant elec­tri­cal out­lets make it a magazine­web for writ­ers. One has a hunch Star­bucks wouldn’t…