One of the most effective isometric exercises for the deskbound is to sit up quite straight and tighten the large muscles of the buttocks, holding for a count of eight, then release.

Frog meat, therefore, cannot be unsavory. The Chinese call the frog a “rice-paddy chicken”. (The people of Fuchien Province and Taiwan call it a “water chicken”.) Actually, frog meat tastes lighter and sweeter than chicken.

Hockey fiction shows that the focus on ludus in organized hockey threatens to strangle the primal play spirit, which is why shinny is more easily romanticized than versions of the game that seem to require fighting, that motivate parents to violence, and, at the highest level, give rise to lockouts and strikes. In shinny the playful core of hockey is retained, while the overly confining rules and restrictions are discarded.

Perhaps one high heel catching the sunlight, with a bird perched on the end of it; and the other – a stockinged foot, with blood . . . that's dried into the openwork stocking.