There's still more China coming, as things occur to me; and I'm continuing to upload photos to Flickr, so you can go check that out if you want. I'm up to Turpan, and more places, and more photos from each place, will be coming.

But now that I'm back, other things are happening that I want to share with youse all.

Down at the end of my street two large buildings are going up. Smaller, historic buildings came down to make way for them, in a process the neighborhood fought, but we lost and that's neither here nor there now. These two buildings, both condos, started digging their foundations at the same time and have been matching each other pretty much stage by stage. Which only points up the huge difference in the management of the two sites. You guys remember "Highlights for Children," a magazine you used to find in the dentist's office and the school library? (And for all I know you still can.) They had a comic strip about two boys, Goofus and Gallant. Goofus was a selfish, graceless jerk; Gallant, a prince among boys. They had, as I remember it, the exact same opportunities to do their homework, help old ladies across the street, whatever it was. Goofus never once did anything right; Gallant, of course, never did anything wrong. Well, that's what's going on at the end of my street. The Goofus site is on the north, the Gallant site on the south. The Goofus site has strewn debris, closed the sidewalk without providing for pedestrians, worked early and late without permits, blocked the street with its trucks, and many more evils, from the beginning. The Gallant site cleans up after itself, manages its parking and deliveries, protects its street trees. I, and a number of people, have dropped a dime on the Goofus site more than once, reporting them to the city for endangering pedestrians and other wickedness.

So I come back from China to find that there's a Stop Work Order on the Goofus site. I'm delighted; but it's lifted in a day or two (I don't know how long it was in effect) and they're back at it. And then, lo! two days ago: the Rat! The Rat's a 15-foot-high inflatable rodent with yellow teeth, red eyes, and a hardhat. He shows up rearing on his haunches across the street from non-union construction sites. With him are usually reps from whatever union the site didn't hire, handing out flyers. He's damn ugly, impossible to miss, and he's down the end of my street right now, menacing the Goofus site with his inflated claws. He's here on behalf of the Plumbers' Union, but to me he's a beautiful example of the fact that no one does anything in half-measures. If you're a selfish, graceless jerk in one thing, you'll be that in all things. If Goofus is who you are, it's who you are.