Connections count, but word is comfort Trumps the field

Are you comfortable? If you're reading this on the subway and your nose is closer to someone else's armpit than your screen or your origami-style handiwork of a folded-up page, then come back to me when you've put your slippers on.

Now that we're relaxed, I want to share you that I walked the streets of Beijing on Friday with reddened cheeks.

My ruddy complexion may have owed much to the first snowfall of the season in the capital and those winds－not the season's first－but even more so to the rush of blood that followed a check of my email inbox.