Last evening, I was visited by the two the younger teachers from Tennessee. They were concerned with Internet access, especially email sites and a few others such as blogspot. Because it's only certain sites that are a problem, they thought the problem might be more than heavy traffic They asked me what I thought could be done. I told them what I thought: nothing. If "information control" is actually occurring, which it may be, no one is going to admit it. Raising question would make things worse, and our hosts might feel we were unappreciative and had bad manners if we did. We represent our universities. Our Chinese hosts are simply doing things the way they do things, and in their own way, they are extremely gracious. We are not in America.

My young colleagues were profoundly discouraged. Truth is, I get discouraged to. This blog is one of my lifelines to America.

But now, from the other side of the world, there's a solution. My good friend Dennis Cope has offered to manage the blog. I'm sending him material; he is doing the postings. Bless you, Dennis.

Above: Dennis, his wife Marie, and of course their all-important dog, Maddy.