UNVARNISHED AUNTIE

There will not be any visiting of various dives later this evening, because the bookseller can't make it; he has some visitors in town for a brief period (from Oregon and Amsterdam) who do not share his keen passion for anthropological fieldwork. That means that I will not be observing rats in Spofford Alley or drunks and loons on Broadway.

This bereaves me not.
There's always next week.
They'll keep.


On my way down to Chinatown earier I had an opportunity to listen in on a Cantonese woman's private phone conversation. Honestly, I wasn't trying to do that. But she was loud enough for half the bus to clearly hear. The four other incividuals on the bus who understood Cantonese deliberately kept their faces smooth and inscrutable. As a Kwailo (non-Chinese person) I do not count, as I cannot possibly understand anything.

My ears perked up when I heard her use the term kwailo (鬼佬) several times. As well as the expressions chau hai (臭㞓) and haam kaa chaan (冚家鏟). Pok gaai (踣街) once or twice. Now, as a white person I do not like the term kwailo. But is often used with no malicious intent, merely as an easily understood descriptive. Let it stand. On the other hand, chau hai is a completely unprintable obscenity utilized expletively and as punctuation. And I didn't know women could do that!

SEAL-SCRIPT GHOST-DEVIL SMOKING A PIPE

When I was outside lighting my pipe after late lunch, Howard came up. Remarkably both the proprietess and I had been talking about him earlier. We had not seen him in several weeks. His health is not that good (COPD), and I had been worried about him. So I went back inside and sat with him while he had a snack and hot beverage.


Near the end of my smoke I helped a bystander deal with an old fellow who had tripped and bashed his head. I was not much use; my Cantonese is just not good enough, and I don't really know how to ask the important questions in an emergency. Do you have your son's phone number? Are you taking any medications for bloodpressure, deppression, anxiety, or anticonvulsants? Have you eaten recently? Are you epileptic? Is your blood sugar low?

Fortunately the fire department and the ambulance came pretty quickly, and carted him off to Chinese Hospital. He'll be in good hands there, and there are plenty of people who can communicate effectively with him.



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