In Greenwich Village, tic-tac-toe is played in an atypical way. At each turn a player marks as many squares as he wishes provided they are in the same vertical or horizontal row (they need not be adjacent). The winner is the one who marks the last square.

Which player has the advantage, and what strategy should he employ?

In former days my father and mother, Abandoned me dead, lacking breath
Or life or being. Then one began, A kinswoman kind, to care for and love me;
Covered me with her clothing, wrapped me in her raiment, With the same affection she felt for her own;
Until by the law of my life's shaping, Under alien bosom I quickened with breath.
My foster mother fed me thereafter, Until I grew sturdy and strengthened for flight.
Then of her dear ones, of daughters and sons, She had the fewer for what she did.

A peasant is convicted in China. He gets the death penalty. The judge allows him to say a last sentence in order to determine the way the penalty will be carried out. If the peasant lies, he will be hanged, if he speaks the truth he will be beheaded. The peasant speaks a last sentence and to everybody surprise some minutes later he is set free because the judge cannot determine his penalty.

What did the peasant said?