But with stand-up, you can prove, quantifiably, for that night, that you’re funny.

With regard to a woman, at nine years of age, she was, if married, considered entitled to her dower; at twelve, she may consent to marriage; at fourteen, she is at years of discretion, and may choose a guardian; […]

The border of the great north-west province of Xinjiang, a region three times the size of France, lay at the mining town of Mangnai, fifty miles beyond where I was sleeping. This was an old, feared frontierland - High Tartary or Chinese Turkestan - one sixth of all China now, which barged up against Central Asia. But at Mangnai the road roughened to a stone trail, where trucks, even my bus, gave up.

… alone thy food was laughing delight, for feeling's blind and fathomless bliss thy lips were deep in the drink of love — while mine winced at the gall mixed with the woefare of gods? — Thy fooling thought freely then follow ; aloof thou hast left me far.