Then in 1868, a Maine peddler named Edward Sand Frost began stenciling—and selling—his own hooked-rug designs on burlap. Soon, other entrepreneurs followed suit, and the kit craze was off and running. Rather like ruggy versions of paint-by-number sets, these temptingly convenient pre-stenciled patterns were at once a boon to the artistically challenged and a bane to original enterprise.

If you underchallenge yourself, the goal won't serve its purpose of providing meaning and orienting you to the future.

At another level, there are what the Americans describe as Iraq's salami tactics - picking at weak points in the rules of sanctions, preferably in ways that cause disagreement between the US and other countries.

By October the 24th, headquarters had passed from Huayuan to Hsiaokan, only 45 miles from Hankow, and in a telegram dated from that place on October 25th it was announced by General Yin Ch'ang that the main body of the Imperialists had moved forward to Niehkow, some six or seven miles from Kilometre Ten, and that he himself was following.