One hundred repetitions three nights a week for four years, thought Bernard Marx, who was a specialist on hypnopædia.

“I can’t be a sponsor anymore.” she wept unladylikely.

Like Bob Dylan's, Nina Simone's, Pavarotti's, Sinatra's voice is improved by age, by years spent fermenting in cracked and whiskeyed oak barrels.

Since 1949, Taiwan has remained under Nationalist (Kuomintang) control along with the off-shore islands of Chin-men (Kinmen) and Ma-tsu (Lien-chiang County) in Fujian Province. Chin-men and Lien-chiang County are to end their period of direct military rule and to elect their first country magistrates in 1993.