Dr Cole suspects this could help explain not only why the lonely are iller, but how, in evolutionary terms, this odd state of affairs has come about.

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The state's only representative is often a lonely school teacher, subject to harassment and possibly murder from one side or the other.

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During his career, Ronald Reagan passed through a thousand crowded places, but there was only one person, he said, who could make him lonely by just leaving the room.

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Another well-known feature of the local architecture is the particularly small windows, designed not only to keep thieves out, but also to make it harder for lonely wives to take on illicit lovers.

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