Robert suspected his wife's strange preoccupation with Beijing Opera was beginning to affect their marriage. While he had always been aware of her fascination with Chinese culture, after she became involved in a local theatre troupe, June seemed much less willing to compromise on the small issues, or even consider things from his perspective. And then there were her midnight practice sessions, furtive telephone calls and paranoid protectiveness of personal toiletries.

Learning Chinese? Our elementary lesson today is a bit trickier than most, but if you've been with us for a while we think you'll enjoy it, since it introduces a new sentence pattern we haven't run into yet, and that we're not aware of being covered in any textbook we've stumbled into to date. Despite the hour of pain that preceded the recording, we had a good time making this show and hope you enjoy it too.