The commencement of the Zhdanovshchina can be dated to the founding of a newspaper that would be the voice of the Central Committee's cultural apparatus until 1950, when the focus on ideology was supplanted by greater attention to personnel issues.

The anaesthetic technique that was used at PMH at that time was safe and simple – but limited. It consisted of an initial injection of thiopentone (pentothal) to put the person to sleep. (Many older people will remember having been asked to count to ten as they were given such an injection.) Thiopentone is a short-acting drug – not a good agent to keep the patient anaesthetized for very long – so a switch must be made to another anaesthetic.

Consequently, as I didn't much fancy shagging someone's granny or risking getting arrested by hitting on a schoolgirl ― indisputably gorgeous though some of them were ― I had gone shagless for the past few months.

The pig-dogs are of rather a mongrel breed, partaking largely of the bull-dog, but mixed with the cross of mastiff and greyhound, which forms the New South Wales kangaroo-dog.