THE BONA FIDES

For the people who do not grasp colourful American expressions, I need to clarify that when one says "my piles bleed for" something or someone, it is not to be taken literally. It is meant as sarcastic fake commiseration. As in "he hasn't had a decent job in years". In repsonse to which, if one kind of doesn't give a damn', one might say "my piles bleed for him. Not so much a medical statement as a sneer. There might, in fact, be utterly no piles at all. This comes to mind because of yet another commercial on teevee for a medication for gastric distress or something gut related that afflicts people on a typical American garbage diet.

My piles bleed for them. Maybe they should consider abstaining from all the fried offerings at Uncle Bob's Chunk-O-Rama. Especially the Big Bucket Of Pork Nuggets covered in ranch dressing and crumbled bacon. Eight of those a week is really too much. At the very least, don't always order the combo, you really don't need that thirty two ounce soda.
Or a side of giant onion rings.

On the other hand, I sure am glad that they don't eat at the same places I do. Such as this afternoon, where other than eight Mandarin speakers and probably an equal number of Cantonese speaking individuals there was no one.

I finished eating before the African American Buddhist cum Taoist showed up, so that was icing on the cake. Unique individuals change the lighting on all of us, whereas normal behaviour makes us all seem much more bearable.

Had two good smokes in Chinatown today. First one in banded and blasted Peterson billiard, the second much later before the bookseller showed up, in a Dunhill Bruyere 55 (I think that's the shape number, but I struggle to discern it). Before lunch I ran some errands there which scarcely involved English, and on the bus across the hill I had listened in on an elderly lady explaining to her friend that she was seriously thinking of retiring in Amsterdam, where her sister lives. She looked like an Indo, so the next time I see her I really must ask "engkau bisa bitjara bahasa Belanda?" to which an affirmative answer will establish both. The question itself, if she understands it, will demonstrate that there are various points in common.

Ik ken Amsterdam erg goed. En ik heb vrienden die daar wonen.


In any case. The bookseller is at the beginning of a nine day vacation, in preparation for which he has mopped his front room. So he's in clean digs, which I applaud wholeheartedly, but cannot quite emulate. There is an entire reference library under my bed which I haven't visited in years, so I cannot quite remember what books are down there. See, if I did look, I'd have to get up again. To which I am slightly averse. The creaky joints, you know. I think The Marine Engineers Manual is down there, as well as a tome about map-making, and a thick encyclopedia of literary Chinese. Possibly also an Oxford Dictionary.

He doesn't have that problem. Even though nearly every week a different part of him is out of whack. Sometimes because of pinball-related injuries or bruises. It's a more active life.



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