Whereabouts.

I went to China. The day I left, Beijing was aflutter with Hillary Clinton's visit. I expect the Madame Secretary made no friends with this exchange:

QUESTION: (Via interpreter.) With CCTV - I have two questions to Madame Secretary.

In your speech at the Asia Society last week, you said how essential it is for China and the United States to have a positive and cooperative relationship. I wonder if you can further elaborate on the China policy of the Obama administration. And do you think you can tell us who will be the next U.S. ambassador to China?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we are committed to a positive, cooperative relationship. We had a very good beginning today in our discussions. I will be seeing the president and the premier and the state councilor later, as well, to discuss in greater detail some of the issues we raised, and some additional ones.

But the Obama administration wants very much to work with China on the range of issues that Minister Yang and I discussed. And Minister Yang and I will have further discussions when he comes to Washington in March. And our presidents will be meeting when they are together in London for the G-20 summit.

And when we have an announcement about our next ambassador, we will certainly make it.

The previous ambassador, Clark Randt, was well-liked by the Chinese and people I spoke with said that, in the best of all possible worlds, he'd stay on. But he won't, so the smart money's on John Thornton. Under normal circumstances, his immense wealth might present a p.r. problem, but the lack of speculation about the ambassador position suggests that no one inside or outside the U.S. government is paying too much attention.

Which is fucking nuts.

...I needed to get that out of my system. Back to your regularly scheduled snark shortly...