Etc...

And now, let's welcome ...

As it struggles to balance strict communist rule with an economy that may be the world's fastest-growing, China is perhaps the ultimate paradox. And no one personifies that much better than Li Shouxin. A professional actor of sorts, Li has carved out a whole new career for himself as a master of ceremonies at weddings ... by impersonating Mao Zedong. Already a lookalike for the late dictator, who died in 1976, he entertains couples and their guests in the style of blue suit that Mao favored and even the dialect of his home province - a shtick that might have been - ah - politically incorrect just a few years ago. In Changchun, a city in northeastern Jilin Province, Li is so much in demand that he averages six weddings a month at 500 yuan ($6.80) apiece. Each appearance includes the famous revolutionary paen to Mao, "The East is Red."

Many cities are like accordions in the way their "populations" constantly expand and contract, depending on the daily influx and outflow of commuters. For the first time the Census Bureau has taken a closer look at this phenomenon. What it found is that Washington easily leads the nation when it comes to these daily fluctuations. Among cities with more than 500,000 occupants, the District swells more than any other - by almost 72 percent - as federal employees make their way in from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. The cities of more than half a million people with the largest percentage increases in their daytime populations, according to the Census Bureau:
1. Washington 71.8%
2. Boston 41.1%
3. Seattle 28.4%
4. Denver 28.0%
5. Portland, Ore. 23.0%
6. San Francisco 21.7%
7. Charlotte, N.C. 21.2%
8. Houston 20.6%
9. Nashville, Tenn. 19.5%
10. Austin, Texas 19.4%