Many things have made me laugh raucously today. Jojo told a story about a ballistic cat. A second-hand-bookshop-running (it does something to their brains, I tell you) friend of mind took the pants off her Harry Potter doll and made him prance about on his naked girly legs. An online friend used "rearguard action" in a decidedly non-military sense.

But the thing today that made me smile in that sort of smug benevolence of the viciously amused was Jojo saying: "I'm not sure if it's a man or a woman, but China Mieville..."

Yes, I can be petty too. Whoda thunk it?