This outlook, masterfully given shape in Borges's best books, furnished artistic fuel for the supine antiwar and hostile antileft politics of our 1960s liberal literati.

He bustles me into a cubicle and locks the door. I'm not really in the mood for a gobby, I slur, and laugh girlishly at my joke as I unzip my fly, but if you insist...

Sorry? What was that? The phone cut out.

All openings of and under 20 feet span have deep dropwalls built from abutment to abutment, both up and down stream, with flooring between (laid in mortar) 4 or more feet below the natural level of stream-beds, at inclinations varying between 1 in 5 and 1 in 10, according to the locality; and it is expected these precautions will prevent back-scouring from the down-stream sides.