> (although you never know with mav, do you):

mwah~hah~ha, my watched plot never boils...

and yes, the ASp is as perfickly orientatatated as usual :)

edit: to unpackage that a bit more, I thought it was interesting that this early on, they used the description of Asia as a natural 'opposite pole' to Europe, and also thought it was an ironic reference to a far-away place, given the huge numbers of Chinese labourers imported to slave on laying the railroad.