On a second reading, prompted by the reproaches of several friends and scholars, I conclude that the pun on medlar, slangily known as ‘an open-arse’, and poperin pear, shape-resembling penis and scrotum, is so forcibly obvious that ‘an open et-caetera’ must here mean ‘an open arse’.

Several thousand retired servicemen on Hainan Island demonstrated against Teng Hsiao-ping's economic policies last month at the instigation of Hsu Shih-yu, deputy chairman of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Advisory Committee and a standing member of the party's Military Affairs Commission, according to an official report intercepted by the Republic of China's intelligence workers on the mainland.

Look, I says to myself, Phil is out there trying to live this fucking life of a muke, he has got to be sick of it, but he is not a muke, he is a serious guy.

“What did you follow him below that time for, Mitchell?” I asked presently, for want of something better to say. Mitchell looked at me out of the corners of his eyes. “I wanted to score a drink!” he said. “I thought he wanted one and wouldn′t like to be a Jimmy Woodser.”