FIRST FIND OUT IF HE HAS A HEART

The day of the cardiac stress test (心臟壓力測試 'sam jong ngaat lik chaak si') at the hospital was, remarkably, a day for kiddie-winkies. Vast ruly mobs of 'em, in neat well-behaved ranks along the street, on the way to the hospital. There's a grammar school near the hospital, the kids were being trotted somewhere for a field trip. Hundreds of the little tykes.
I applaud their patient herders, I couldn't do it.

All of you little anarchists, shaddap!
Uncle needs some quiet.

The stress test was easy, no studying required. First we're going to glue things to your chest, then you will run on a treadmill, after which we'll say 'mmm' in a thoughtful way, and start pulling the things off your chest.

There may be a painful ripping sensation. Oh boy.

Presiding medical man: Dr. Chan.


While patiently lying down before it started, I realized that his surname is NOT banner on the left, east (東 'tung') on the right, but banner on the left, invite or choice (柬 'gaan') on the right. Which etymologically makes more sense, as the word 陳 ('chan') means to lay out, to display, to exhibit, as for instance merchandise, or spreading out citrus peels to dry in the sun.

The illustration below shows the character written three ways. On the left side, common quick script, in the middle, nerdly hyper-correct, and on the right the seal script version which shows the parts clearly, with two hands spreading something on a wooden board.

You look up the word under the radical 'fu' (阜 阝) meaning more correctly "mound", "hillock", or "big heap of something", "abundance", but showing the banner planted on the mound, when claiming it against all comers.

Here's a slightly alternate version:

The key difference in modern times is that the wrong way of writing it takes eleven strokes, the right way is twelve. The radical (阝) is three strokes.


By the way: I actually like the free-thinking anarchy of little children, but it is better observed from across the street, like a flock of seagulls or parrots.
You don't actually want to be stuck in the middle.
They object to smoke.




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