By the little garden pergola open to the winds some fluttered peacocks were blotted nervelessly amid the dripping trees, their heads sunk back beneath their wings: while in the pergola itself, like a fallen storm-cloud, lolled a negress, her levelled, polecat eyes semi-veiled by the nebulous alchemy of the rainbow.

So I have found it to be a good rule of thumb that anyone who identifies as a philosemite is to be treated with the same amused contempt as anyone who says they love “the African people”.

Wu Xinrong, also a Xiao county native, was a landlord who controlled a local armed force. He was also a mayor and had jurisdiction over the counties of Xiayi, Yongcheng (both in Henan), and Dangshan (Anhui). Liu Ziren, a native of Yongcheng county (Henan), was an old-style army commander. These three local power holders were recruited into the Communist camp at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War through coalition politics.

Two of the broodingest singers in alternative rock, Greg Dulli (of the Afghan Whigs) and Mark Lanegan (of Screaming Trees) are the Gutter Twins, groaning through their debut album, “Saturnalia” (Sub Pop), as if answering a dare to the make the most aimlessly depressive record ever.