Faux Pas*

We all have our foot in the mouth moments in our lives. One that comes to mind is an incident that happened some 20 years ago at a time when spaghetti was a carbohydrate filled meal (not an outdoor outfit) and visible bra-strap was dented modesty (not a fashion statement). And values were values... And this is after the time when subtle remarks like "Your Monday is longer than Sunday" were passed between girlfriends when their petticoat was visible.
One Monday morning, the operating theatre staff were excited to welcome the newest addition to their army of married women. with their heckling and giggling. It was common knowledge that a colleague got married recently and had just returned from her widely publicized honeymoon. So, there I was, after finishing with my work, bumped into newly appointed Mrs X. She was sitting in a corner feeling distraught and retching away. Being the joker that I am, I joked, "Wow, just came back from honeymoon and you are having morning sickness! Fast worker".
To my dismay, she sheepishly answered, "Actually, you are right. I am 2 months pregnant!"
Suddenly I felt the flushing of blood to the back of the neck and occipital region and the tingling sensation of my wriggling toes at the back of my palate and uvula!" I shrivelled up into a ball and disappeared from the scene with my tail behind my back after expressing, "Congratulations!"

faux pas ( /ˌfoʊˈpɑː/ plural: faux pas /ˌfoʊˈpɑːz/)

 a slip or blunder in etiquette, manners, or conduct; an embarrassing social blunder or indiscretion.The term comes originally from French and literally means "misstep" or "false step".
This expression originated during the time of Louis XIV. During his reign, dance was so important in the royal courts that to make a false step in any one of the many dances could get you thrown out.


N.B. Just for the record, Mrs X's unabated precocious love life did not last long. Mr and Mrs X went separate ways after 10 years and 2 kids later.

No child's play!

In the footsteps of Ethan Hunt (Mission Impossible), Jason Bourne (Robert Ludlum's Bourne Identity fame), Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy's hero), Jack Bauer (24) and of course the legendary unforgettable James Bond (martini, shaken but not stirred), I found another quick thinking, invincible, away from danger without a scratch type of a hero in the form of Jack Reacher in Tom Child's Gone Tomorrow. All hail Jack Reacher! I bet it will be made a movie soon. The last time I heard, Tom Cruise has been rumoured to be casted in the leading role. (Oh,no!)
I just completed reading this book which I bought from my last holidays! It is just another thriller with an ala-John McClane (Die Hard) type of a hero who could get away from any situation with his thinking cap and nerdy type of knowledge of plethora of issues. Nerdy book worm, he is not. Reacher is an American ex-Special Forces army personnel with expert know-how on weapons, ammunition and combat. He appears to be a drifter now with no permanent address (that is what I assume from my reading) and no family members to moan for him if ever anything happens to him. The enjoyable part of reading this book is the soliloquy manner of writing in the first person where the hero thinks aloud his thoughts. His reasoning and deductions to coming to a conclusion is much like Humphrey Bogart's role (Sam Spade) in Maltese Falcon! 

Bogart and femme fatale
in Maltese Cross

The story (see trailer below) starts with Reacher travelling in the subway train at 2am (don't ask why) when he notices a suspicious lady in the same coach who fits the description in his book of experience of a suicide bomber. The only problem was that she committed suicide alright, she shot herself, but no bomb was around! That started a snowball of events with him being on the run. Suddenly, he is wanted by everyone - the NYPD, FBI, an up and coming Senator's henchmen and a mother and daughter team of Ukrainian / Afghan descent.
The benefits of reading a book versus watching the film (as I mentioned before) are the small itsy-bitsy information which are mundane and of doubtful use in daily life that you get from books that no film will ever mention. For example, people are the least alert at 4am in the morning, so if you are planning to attack a nation (like Japan did in Pearl Harbour), that is the best time and the best time to break in to rob a house! The book also educates us of ways to get a fresh shower from a medium range hotel by tipping the home keeping men and to get a good nights' sleep at a hotel by checking in late (very late, past midnight) into the hotel and tipping the front desk for a fragment of the regular cost! And the technical facts about the subway which was not too challenging for a mentally challenged person from a non-engineering background like me.
Reacher's escapade is the result of the hunt for information allegedly held (memory stick) by the suicide victim in a form of sensitive photographs involving Osama Bin Laden and the Senator during his tour of duty. After all the swashbuckling, as usual, the good guys (also known as Americans) came out as victors but the memory stick with all the sensitive information gets run over and crushed in the streets of New York (the big Apple)!
Posted on 11.11.11 @ 11.11am
To commemorate Remembrance Day which is observed on 11 November to recall the official end of World War I on that date in 1918; hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice ("at the 11th hour" refers to the passing of the 11th hour, or 11:00 a.m.)

Act of God through Man!

As long is everybody is happy - the men for heaven on earth at demand; the women for answering to God's self made decree (through men's scriptures) to satisfy men at a drop of a hat even on a camel back. (As mentioned in this mocking documentary!)

Traders and shopowners have become good friends over the years (Star)

Thursday August 25, 2011
By YIP YOKE TENG
teng@thestar.com.my
Photos by LOW LAY PHON

Naina Mohamed took out a black and white photograph kept carefully between the pages of his thick accounts book. The stall with a wooden rack fitted to the wall was neatly lined with toiletries, cigarette packs and books, much like how it is today. A young Indian boy manned the stall, sitting at the very location Naina sits every day.
At first glance, the boy in the photograph looked like a young Naina but he was quick to point out that it was his father in the picture.
If there is anyone who is most familiar with the day-to-day life in Jalan Sultan for the past decades, it is none other than Naina who mans his bookstand attached to the 83-year-old Hotel Lok Ann from Monday to Satur­day, and watched how the face of Jalan Sultan changed bit by bit.The bookstand has been there since 1955. Naina’s father took over the business from a friend and they had never left the spot since then.
He narrated how the place had changed from a bustling but dust-free area plied by tricycles to a perpetually congested hub now.

Naina Mohamed manning his bookstand in Jalan Sultan.
– By LOW LAY PHON / The Star

Rich history: Ng showing old photos of Yan Keng

He had witnessed some of the major events in the country’s history, including the funeral of Botak Chin at the nearby Chik Shin Tong funeral parlour amid a strong police presence.
“I have spent my whole life here. This stall helped my father raise me and my siblings and helped me raise my three children who are now successful in their careers. All my friends are here and I meet interesting people every day who come to visit Chinatown, this is my life,” said the 56-year-old who speaks fluent Cantonese.

He said he could not sleep well in the past weeks knowing that the pre-war buildings in Jalan Sultan had to make way for the Klang Valley MRT project, adding that a small stall like his would surely be washed away by the waves of development.
He is now grinning from ear to ear, upon learning that the building had been saved from the bulldozers following a meeting between MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek and the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD).
“All of us are very happy, the traders and shopowners here are very close friends. We really do not want to be separated from each other,” he said.
Dr Chua, who brought the good news to all on Tuesday, said the decision not to demolish the buildings was important to maintain the identity of Chinatown.
“The area is also an important tourist and historical landmark in Kuala Lumpur,” he said after leading a delegation of Jalan Sultan traders to meet SPAD.
Fashion accessory wholesaler Daniel Wong, who is one of the three who heads the committee of traders and shopowners in Jalan Sultan affected by the project, said they were delighted that the government had heard the people and saw the value in these heritage buildings.
However, he said the committee hoped an official letter could be released to nullify the Form E issued under the Land Acquisition Act 1960 and to ensure that the acquisition of the buildings would not happen.
“We feel relieved that the government had taken the people’s voices into consideration but we need assurance as we still feel threatened by the powerful Land Acquisition Act,” he said, adding that they needed to learn about the project’s engineering plans and hoped that the stronger buildings would not need to be vacated.

Saved from demolition: An aerial view of the popular Jalan Sultan.

“Also, we hope that the government would compensate the traders and owners on the loss suffered during the period of six months they have to be moved or more if there is a delay,” he added.
The Selangor Yan Keng Benevolent Dramatic Association’s secretary-general Ng Siak Wing and Lok Ann Hotel’s operator Stephen Yong had expressed gratitude that the old buildings would remain intact during and after the MRT project’s construction.
“Yan Keng was formed in 1920 but the building was already there when we moved in. It is a priceless structure of more than 100 years and we cannot afford to lose it.
“We are very relieved that the government sees its value and has saved it even while development moves on,” he said.
Yong, who had invested a handsome sum in refurbishing the interior of Lok Ann for the comfort of backpackers, echoed Wong’s concerns.

Just where do you draw the line?

Dr Steven Shafer, the Columbia University Anaesthesiology Professor, at Michael "Whacko" Jackson's trial on using propofol as a sleeping aid....
"'Yes' is not what a doctor says to a patient request that is not in their best interest."
"We are in pharmacological never-never land here, something that was done to Michael Jackson and no one else in history to my knowledge," he told the jury.
"...Dr Conrad Murray had acted like the pop star's obedient "employee" and not his doctor, who should have refused the star's requests for propofol."

FG was once told by his part-time casual employer not to return to do locum work as the patients were unhappy with FG's refusal to administer a narcotic analgesic injection as outpatient to someone  for something trivial (a headache) when a oral  medication should suffice. The joke is on FG as the employer went on to prosper to become a local leader and was bestowed numerous suffices to go behind his name for services rendered to society. He was also honoured with honorary prefixes to his name while FG still ploughs along, living from hand to mouth, with a clear conscious hoping to have garnered plus brownie points when he is judged at the Pearly Gates and St Peters as well as when he has to continue the karma and cycle of life in his after life!

The honourable physician's excuse of justifying administration of a narcotic injection with his ensuing danger of haemodynamic collapse and secondary injury as result thereof is that the patient will still get it elsewhere if you do not oblige!

This incident resurfaced in my mind when Michael Jackson's trial came to fore. This guy just loves pomp and publicity. When he was alive, he created a blast and he went off with a blast as well! When everybody else can go to sleep by tiring themselves or with beer or even counting sheep. No! When some of the recalcitrants sleep like a baby sucking their thumbs with Dormicum or Xanax, no, MJ needs general anaesthesia! And The King of Pop became a statistic in the Doctor's file.
Why did the good doctor do it? To anaesthetise someone for sleeping disorder? Whatever we discuss is pure speculation, as he is not giving any press statement for fear of retribution.  
Imagine what being a personal physician to MJ would have done to his serendipity of a career. Dr Conrad's asking rates would have skyrocketed and he would be confiding in his friend just to say that if he does not the take the ridiculous offer from this fool, some other clown would have taken a killing and at least he would give superior care as a cardiologist!
It is just like a state physician whom I used to know whom used to be called 'dei' in derogatory way by the not so intelligent state monarch for the flimsiest discomfort. This friend of mine used to oblige as that was his nature and he was happy that he was serving the King and country! 
Money clouds everybody's sane judgement and in the race to make a killing in the financial sense (sorry for the pun) where the margin of moral and finances is blurred, anything goes. We can go on talking and talking till cows come home and go grazing till our time on earth is up and we would have not come to a reasonable agreement!

An Excellent Lecture on Neuroscience

Back in PPSP, USM, we had a a few expatriate lectures who knew their subjects literally better than they knew the back of their hands - NBR- Anatomy; PC- Neurology; PKD- Pathology; DCA- Internal Medicine; Ed- Surgery; TS- O&G; ME, WA, LKC and many many more...
Listening to VS Ramachandran just cascaded my mind into the psychedelic spiral staircase of time into my undergraduate days.
V. S. Ramachandran, product of Madras' Stanley Medical College graduate and a post graduate from Cambridge is a Professor in Neurology in University of California, San Diego. Known by some as Marco Polo of neuroscience, he has been a recipient of multiple academic and honorary awards including Padma Bhushan from India. Listen and learn....There is a reference on him in Wikipedia.too. I just happened to stumble upon him through one of the many free TED talk podcasts found on Apple's i-Phone 4!
N.B. Prof Ramachandran's grandfather was in the panel that drafted the Constitution of India and his father was an UN diplomat who was posted in various towns in India, Bangkok and England in tour of duty.

Toloooong..! Ah Long!

Just the other day I saw two mean bad looking (not the opposite of good looking - like the lyrics of The Beatles' Come together - "Got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see" but rather the one referred to in Jim Croce's Bad, Bad Leroy Brown -"The baddest man in the whole damned town, Badder than old King Kong, And meaner than a junkyard dog"!) - late teenager young men with a skeletal like physique with matching drainpipe slim jeans and tight ebony black t-shirts to attenuate their appearance, blondish streaks on their otherwise straight Oriental hair pasting away A5 sized stickers to their heart's content of their services on the road signage and road side pillars! Their services? Answer to you financial woes, call mobile ##! Or rather the start of your woes!
Now, what should a law abiding country loving who loves himself more, do when public property is being defaced? Just pass through looking the other way  whistling to your favourite tune oblivious to what is happening around you, that is what! Even the long arm of the law in the country cannot do anything about it, what can a lowly ordinary citizen like me do?