Poor Mojo's Newswire

We arrived a few minutes late and found Vincent already there, along with Michael, the DM he'd found. Vincent turned out to be a lanky and nondescript fellow in a gimmie cap. Michael was a big unwashed fat guy in shorts and a T-shirt.

. . .

Then he had us roll for breast and penis size. Not both, obviously. Vincent, first in line, looked as embarrassed as Spider and I felt, and tried to duck the issue. Michael ended up giving a long speech about how he only put this in character creation because players asked him to. It didn't seem to dawn on him that he should probably alter rules if players didn't want to determine their character's sex characteristics.

Vincent eventually rolled to shut him up, and Spider and I did as well. He got really apologetic about my character having a B cup, as she was also 6 feet tall. I pointed out that my character wouldn't want anything getting in the way of her warhammer anyway. He looked skeptical. . . .

The order is not likely to bother many residents. Though dogs have been raised for food in China for thousands of years, you have to hunt around to find the meat on modern menus. Certain regions, like Hunan and Guizhou Provinces, are known for their canine predilections — but even in these places, dog is a relative rarity. And in Beijing itself, you hardly find it except in a few Korean and regional Chinese restaurants.

Dog eating, in any case, tends to be a seasonal pursuit. According to Chinese folk dietetics, which classify every food according to its heating and cooling properties, dog is one of the “hottest” meats around, best eaten in midwinter, when you need warmth and vital energy, not in sultry August.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services quietly drafted a rule that would put into federal code this radical definition of abortion.

"The basis is ideology," said Rachel Chanes, the Tucson-based vice president of community services for Planned Parenthood Arizona. "We think this is coming from the Bush-appointed ideologues that are in there who are not apologetic about (the department's) stance on being anti-woman, anti-birth control and anti-abortion."