Houston-based Lauren Rottet, founder of Rottet Studio, encourages her clients to forgo a formal dining room for a home office with a desk that can double as an occasional grand table, for that rare event that calls for one.

WSJ: Furniture Does Double Duty

But even granted another two months' grace after that they are now at the kitchen table, backs to each other, arms folded, only turning around to shout the occasional insult, apparently not over-worried by the fate of their children.

BBC: Sequester budget cuts: America's grim fairy tale

But what I'm encouraged by is that after all the overheated rhetoric and the occasional demagoguery on all sides around this issue, we've got a responsible set of leaders sitting around the table who want to actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama: Working Together for Immigration Reform