Blessed are the poor, the sick, the crossed in love, for at least other people know what is the matter with them and will listen to their belly-achings with sympathy.

Joanne went for a sauna after her swim.

According to a recent escapee from the mainland, no less than 700,000 of the youths forcibly sent to the far northwest in the last seven or eight years—since Peiping started an allout downward transfer operation—had died from overwork and exposure to bitter climate or as victims of shifting desert sand. The escapee, a Mr. Hsia who came out early in February, said the figure was based on the reports and other data he had handled while working at the Shanghai Office of Downward Transfer Operation. The deaths, he said, had been recorded in Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Sinkiang, Ninghsia, Kansu and Shensi. He gave no breakdown but noted that the Takla Makan desert of Sinkiang was responsible for the biggest kill.

When he was quite satisfied with his handiwork, The Poet opened the toilet window, and then walked quickly from the gents' into the ladies'.