Maybe there's always a thread of authoritarianism in the French mentality.

Typically, cheap teacup mats are less shoddier than cheap place mats, I think.

I always want to soup up my Windows computers experience with keyboard shortcuts. Sigh.

D had greenly and selfishly handled his people, most of whom just came and went. So his entrepreneurial initiative deceased helplessly, it appeared.

The index of Particulate Matter 2.5 in Beijing has reached a critical level from time to time. A lot of people have been risking their lungs and health in that modern mega city.

See 网友申请公开PM2.5数据_网易微博.

All in all, this era is an opportune one for information junkies like me.

"Sorrowful" and Jack Ruby

I consider the following piece good writing:

"Mrs. Kennedy walked beside it, her face was sorrowful. She looked steadily at the floor. … Her hand rested lightly on her husband’s coffin as it was taken to a waiting hearse."

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/nov-22-1963-president-kennedy-is-assassinated/

There's only one adjective in the piece -- "sorrowful".

By the way, Jack Ruby, who killed JFK's assassin, appears mysterious and suspicious.

Dead people's bodies used to be interred into the ground. Nowadys oftentimes it's the ashes of them which get kept.

What will be the form by which human corpses are kept in the future? Stem cells?

The MOST important battle in Canadian history is the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (a.k.a. the Battle of Quebec) which took place in the siege of the Quebec City in 1759, during the Seven Years' War.

As the French commander General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm lay dying due to a bullet which had hit him on the Plains of Abraham, he said (probably with much regret which he should have expected that the British would scale the very steep cliffs on the riverbank outside Quebec via the Anse au Foulon route), "I am glad I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." On the other hand, the British commander General James Wolfe also lay dying on that battlefield, and he said, "I die happy", after he heard that the French army had just collapsed and been escaping.

What a bitter and tragic battle.

My subtle thoughts only can emerge drizzlingly in quiet settings.

Are there a higher percentage of people who catch some sort of cancer nowadays than before?

Personally I think the noun 'bow' (pronunciation: /bou/) is a fine word.

An arrow flies from a bow, a violin is sounded by a bow, a gift box wears a bow on its top, and a house door presents a red pretty Christmas bow in this holiday season.

Maybe I'm escaped by the hugger-mugger of how modern countries' economic and financial system works.

As the mess in Europe has been keeping unfolding, I for one has gotten to know the differences of economy and society between the group of Germany and U.K. and that of Greece and Italy.

And I guess I've become wary of the latter.

Simmons and Simons

I used to be ignorant about the difference between the Simons (pronunciation: /'saimons/), which is a Quebec fashion retailor, and the Simmons (pronunciation: /'simons/), which is the American flagship mattress company.

By the way, Simmons was translated to Chinese as "席夢思". What a fine translation!

Not everything new is an opportunity. One shouldn't get muddied over that.

In terms of measurement, a cup is different than a cap.

How much has the phenomenon of information overload been bedeviling average Joes and Janes?

1756 - 1763 年，英、法两大欧洲强权在北美洲这个 new world 为了争夺国土和经济利益，Seven Years' War 打得白热化。

英国从本土动用超过 5 万的陆军、超过 160 艘 warships 的海军，参与这远隔大洋的 Seven Years' War，和法国陆军、海军在北美洲艰苦对决。

同一时段，中国为大清帝乾隆统治，闭关锁国、“禁海、毁船、禁船、迁界”，完全扼杀航海（见 http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/no05/1/161560.shtml ），真的是不知今夕何夕。明、清二朝，没能与时俱进，框定中国几百年的衰弱落后格局。

It seems that every mass migration of an ethnic group which is forced by another government causes tremendous misery and poverty for that group. For instance, the Acadians were forced by arms to leave their homes in Acadia for other British colonies in North America in 1755.

See The Acadian Odyssey. I read the section "A Day of Great Fatigue" in it.

And this poem Evangeline seems to be powerful and gripping.