He caught a bullet in the back of the head last year.

the Duchess tribe of shorthorns

He might orchestrate the curved lines into stepped, hivelike hills punctuated by dark tunnels where ornate trains and buglike cars or buses chug in or out along extravagantly banked roadways or railroad beds defined by further lines.

It would be merely feckless to frame American choices about China on the Micawberesque hope that something will turn up, or that China will turn down.