According to my records, The Economist has published twenty-four of my letters to the editor since 1999. Nothing to boast about in twelve years, but I am still pleased. At the beginning, I had one or two letters a year. In 2008 and 2009 they published four of my letters a year. Last year was rather special: as many as five of my letters got published. The last one appeared in November. Even though I keep sending them five to six letters a week, as I have been doing for at least five years now, they have published not a single one ever since. Zilch. And this means that I have not seen my name in the mighty newspaper for some eight months already. This is a new experience for me, and I cannot but wonder about the reasons for this unexpected shift in the editorial policy. For a shift it might well be. The last letter was about the Chinese elite, and it was rather nasty, too. I went on and on about the country’s surreptitious transition to capitalism, as well as about the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many. I can imagine that someone or other from the Chinese establishment has complained about the untoward letter to the editor. Could it be that I am in the newspaper’s way to the largest market on the planet? Forget it, though. Of course not. I am only kidding, it goes without saying. The Economist is well beyond such petty suspicions. And my idle ruminations, crafty as they get on occasion, are too puny to deserve recognition from on high, anyhow.