To determine which cities qualified for free heating, planners employed the traditional division between northern and southern China that runs along the line of the Qin Mountains and Huai River. The Huai-Qinling line is an arbitrary boundary dating to imperial times, though it corresponds roughly to the 33rd parallel of latitude and the zero degrees Celsius isotherm in January.

Inside its exhibit hall, behind panes of glass, in a white-lit lab, a team of restorers works on an ancient Byzantine floor: 44 square yards of stone shards rescued from Lot’s Cave Monastery.

Being in a spot of bother with the Bolgers was rather like saying he'd had a brush with the Taliban or a minor skirmish with al-Qaida. The Bolgers didn't do spots of bother. They did mayhem. Revenge beatings, drive-by shootings, and in the last few months scalped a guy they felt had slighted them.

One could then speak of 'cisphobia' or 'heterophobia', claiming adequate protection for cisgender and straight persons.