Every object, whether the growth of nature or the work of man, was neat and artificial. It pleased me far better, than if the houses and gardens, and pleasure fields, had been in a nobler taste: for this nobler taste would have been mere apery.

The main difference in Hong Kong was that 1997 witnessed a transition from colonial rule to government by tycoon, as the nice-but-dim shipping heir Tung Chee-hwa became the territory's first chief executive.

That was a shit thing to do to him.

In a recent account of the last of the unconquered Seminoles, who are still living in the Everglades of Florida, I noticed reference to an Afro-Indian who apparently holds a position among these people corresponding to that of a sheriff, since he is described as executioner of the tribe.