A rooster this is not.

It's interesting to me which sounds wake me up in the morning. At No. 6 it could be a passing truck on Memorial Dr., or the football coach yelling into his megaphone, or the grounds staff mowing a lawn. Maybe it was someone upstairs playing music too loudly, or a snowplow beeping in reverse as its blade scraped pavement. Sometimes it was my neighbor's alarm clock, screeching ceaselessly and incessantly for the past 23 minutes. Sometimes it was my own alarm clock, reminding me that if I hit snooze again I'd never make it to class. There was a panoply of sounds, each unpleasant in its own way.

Not so, China. There is but one morning reveille- the joyous sound of Progress. Construction wakes me every morning at ungodly hours, and on the bad days it doesn't stop until well after dark. There is no break for holidays, no rest on the sabbath, only endless building. It's not just up and out and bigger, in my building it involves gutting the place and redoing every wall, window, door, and floor.

I think the Chinese have admitted defeat. The truly rich have moved away from the construction, the poor are the ones who run it, and the middle classes have surrendered to and been subjugated by the dust and the jackhammers and the drills.

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It's been pointed out that my practice article's paragraphs are too long (true); that there aren't enough quotes (that's because I didn't interview anyone); that I use acres, square miles, and kilometers at different points; and that the 30 year estimate is awfully precise to be used without an approximation word. I only went to MIT, and you want consistency of units and error bars? Picky.

I LIKE saying, "Mr. Xiaoyuan". I think the Economist gets the title thing right, and saying, "Mr. Bush" gives it that pleasant invective feel without being too obvious.

I also noticed that I assumed that Yu Xiaoyuan's surname was Xiaoyuan because that's how it was written on an English language site, but upon further thought I'm almost certain it's Yu. We have an interesting way of addressing that problem at the UN, or maybe it's in all business in China. We write the last name in all caps, so you sign your email LEI Nuo, or John SMITH. It's like that on my business card, too.

My defensiveness aside, thanks for comments from those who gave them, and feel free to make your own if you haven't.