Turns

You may wonder why should our government spend money to support building a park (or holding a meeting, or whatever) that puts quite some emphasis on Roman Catholics. Politics should be independent from religion and a government should always be neutral on religious matters.

No, it should not - if there is only one park.

But, if our government does not last merely for a year or two, being neutral should mean that it supports a theme park by Christians this time, a conference of Muslim next month, a movie of Buddhism after next, and so forth. Fairness means that each small group of people (or, actually, each individual) would have an equal chance of enjoying certain benefit - not that if not everyone could enjoy a benefit at the same time, no one should have the benefit.

Well, even my little daughter knows this basic principle (after watching a cartoon, in which two kids want to play their own favorite game with the other): We take turns.

Go read http://ccszeto.blogspot.com/2008/07/thermodynamics.html

Trip

Went to the theme park at Ma Wan over weekend - it was a trip organized my Euterpe's kindergarten.

As always, the arrangement was marvellous. True, the place may not be attractive enough for our billionaire friends from the mainland to pay and spend a day at, but it is a superb experience for local parents to share with their children.

If you've ever been to the place, you may argue there's a shade more of Christianity than many atheist or non-believers would like to see. Some critics would further point out that part of the set up money of this park came from the government, which should not be mixed up with religious matters.

On a superficial look, the comment sounds entirely legitimate.

But, I beg to disagree - for a reason that I would elaborate tomorrow.

PS. Although I am sure making money is not the primary objective of the owner, I have a gut feeling that this very place would break even in its balance sheet sooner than its competitor from the States.

Banks

(Further mails a few days later.)

****************************

Dear LS,

With further meltdown of financial system in US and Europe, those foreign banks will beg you to buy their holdings of CCB at very bargain price in the next several months. There is no need to rush.

I am still confident that HSBC’s economic franchise and monopoly will ultimately be realized with the fall of all other international banks and even insurance companies ... but there is mounting evidence suggesting that the worst of HSBC hasn’t arrived yet and the proposed price of right issue is actually unsafe. I am also quite disappointed with the decline in its corporate governance, which does not match its track record in 20th century.

If it falls further, I am sure the 3 big brothers (CCB, BOC and ICBC) will become the major shareholders of HSBC before British government can take any action (because it will be going bankrupt as well).

How can we Chinese find a better way to revenge the Opium War by acquiring HSBC as a Chinese bank?

Warren

****************************

Dear all,

I think HSBC is really disappointing in the way they handle the present situation, especially when compared to Standard chartered. I think the current problem is not about buying the issues or not, it's a matter of holding on to HSBC or not. If one decided to hold on I think one should buy the issues. But if the stock price continue to fall to approach $28, no one will buy the issues and I think it will end up in further disaster. Therefore one of the important factor will be the stock price in the coming few days.

Warren might be right perhaps putting the same money into 2888 (for emerging markets), 11 (for HK), and 3328 (for China) will fare better if the only portion making money in HSBC is from the above.

I haven't decided yet, I will decide next wk.

Cheers,

TW

Archive

While looking at the recent correction of the market, I came across some archive emails in March 2009. Even on looking back, they remain illuminating.

********************************

Dear Szeto,

I have glanced through the report of 5 and do some simple calculations on the right issue.

Although the “actuarial” earning of 2008 is much better than reported (YOY down 30% rather than 70%) and the right issue will ultimately be a very bargain one in 5 years time, the projected figures are in fact extremely unfavorable in the coming 2-3 years.

That means, if I accept the right issue of HSBC, the opportunity cost will be very high because I will miss the chance of having at least 30% equity + dividend growth through investing on China Construction Bank in the same period (modest estimate of 1.5 times of GDP= 1.5 x 6.5% in the next 3 years).

So I will decline the offer and put the same amount of money to CCB instead.

Warren

********************************

Dear Warren,

I sold most of my HSBC some time ago and the remaining ones yesterday; I did not have time to go through its report but I made the decision for some different reasons. Sincerely,

Szeto

PS. For more updated opinion, I would agree with my friend TW. See http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/cal-culator/article?mid=156

Open

In the very evening after the gangster meeting, our man from Pluto gave the (probably his last) medical grand round. It was the rare occasion when our weekly presentation had a full-house of audience.

The topic was so so. I stood at the back of the lecture theatre and was engaged in some casual conversation with LS and SN.

All of a sudden, LS said, "Look what our students bring for the grand round - they are taking notes by laptop computers !"

"That's been going on for a year or two already." I pointed out, "Now many doctors could not practice without referring to the book and on-line resources."

The three of us fell silent for a while, and I moved on, "In fact I suspect we will eventually have to do open book examination for our medical students - written and clinical alike."

The two ladies starred at me. On their face I could see the question plainly: Aren't you against the idea ?

"Oh, I'm all for an open book examination. To say the least it simulates real life practice. It would also alleviate their anxiety and our blame for putting up too much information for them to memorize ..." I said. My angle of mouth obviously twitched.

"Eh ... ?" My audience were puzzled.

"I tell you, even if we do not change the questions, open book does not help their result." I could not stop putting up a wicked smile.

PS. You think my proposal outrageous? Many other professions - for example, lawyers - have their formal examination in the open book format.

Off-site

Shortly after the evening symposium on the after-eighty generation, I attended (yet another) gangster meeting.

Take aside those eternally controversial items, a hot topic this time was the on-call system of subspecialties.

For those who are not familiar with the event, it all comes from the Court of Final Appeal, which recently ruled that doctors could get a day off or a full-day's pay for off-site duties, even though they might not need to work or answer calls. (The whole event was stirred up many years ago by a few persons who claimed themselves to be fighting for the benefit of junior doctors and possibly patients. Regular readers of this blog would know my view.) Our friends outside the solar system obviously asked for an urgent review of the current off-site call system in order to stop the bleeding.

How could that work out ? Alas, there are limited number of options:

• Stop the off-site call for some subspecialities.
• Put the off-site subspecialty call simultaneous with the on-site call (for example, general medical take) for the same doctor. (In other words, they are more likely to be on call during weekends and holidays.)
  
• (Apparently proposed by the heads of those extra-terrestrials) In the long run, stop all off-site call and put all essential subspecialty calls as residential.

Well, it is too easy to imagine the consequence but impossible to find anyone who gets the benefit. As my friend KM pointed out: It puts an end to all doctors who want to improve patient care by goodwill.

PS. What question would you ask when there is Sichuan pepper on those few persons' tongue ?

Generations

During the farewell dinner of WC, a hot topic around my table was the after-eighty generation (八十後).

(Of course we all declared to be the after-ninety generation: We all joined the department after 1990.)

During the discussion, WH cited the opinion of Lui Tai Lok (呂大樂), described in his book The Four Generations of Hong Kong People (四代香港人):

1. Born before 1945: This is a group of people who got through the war. The economy was rapidly expanding and they could be successful by hard work.
2. Born between 1946 and 1965: This is the group from the baby boom. The economy continued to expand and the society became more stable. They could be reasonably successful with a good education.
3. Born between 1966 and1975: The economy began to flat out (by the time they grow up); social resource and senior positions are mostly occupied by people from the first two generations. Most of them could just stay in the middle position.
   
4. Born between 1976 and 1990: The economy is stagnant. With an improving life-span, there seems no chance that the old people would step down from their senior position. No wonder many of them feel hopeless and eager to try social rebellion.
   

Alas, the view is not new - Adam Smith said that much in his masterpiece.

PS. Vivian reminded me that the after-eighty generation is actually a term used in mainland China to refer to those who were born after the year 1980 - when the one-child policy was enforced.

We could understand the rest.

WC

On the next day after buying the columbarium niche, I went to the farewell dinner of WC - a senior consultant of my department and a treasured colleague of mine.

I first met WC over 18 years ago, shortly after he joined the department - as soon as I graduated and became his house officer. At that time, he was the youngest one in the division.

"Now, I am the oldest one - and it is time to leave." He murmured during the dinner.

*******************************

Many of us know that WC is probably the most out-spoken person in our department. Although he does quite some administration in recent years, we did hear from him some comments of wisdom that evening:

• Do not propose any change or new policy.
  
• If your boss (or any one high up) proposes something, said that you would look into it.
• Follow the regular rule to pursue the new thing - do not lead.
• Never take any new policy too seriously - it may only last as long as the contract of whoever proposes it.

PS. As a house officer, I loved WC very much - he made most of his decisions by clinical judgement; investigations were minimal.

A lost art.

Niche

Bought a columbarium niche (靈灰龕位) for my mother over the weekend.

Oh, don't worry. My mum is entirely well. As always, she's just cautious and well planned ahead. We all had the not-too-satisfactory experience of trying to find a columbarium urgently when my father suddenly passed away twenty years ago, and my mother would never wish that to happen again.

As you know, it is not easy to find a columbarium niche in Hong Kong. The niche that we finally put our money on was actually the third place that my mother checked and had a look. The first turned out to be illegal (how could that happen !?) while the next was an open sale that ended up a chaos.

To an amateurish investor, it is in fact somewhat surprising not seeing more people joining this business (not as the customer) while the property market for living people is frothy (alas, no bubble). Take the niche that we fixed up, it costs HK$150,000 - take aside the service charge and the others. You know what. The small place had nearly 100,000 niches, meaning a total sale of HK$15 billion. What could be better ?

Maybe that's why we see no listed company of this kind on the stock market. Since the business is so profitable, the owner would not be in his right mind if he prefers to share the company with other people.

PS. Actually I bought two niches - so that my parents could stay together forever. What better could a son do ?

Here

You may think my discussion on the old Chinese political system irrelevant. That may be true - unless you begin to see what's going around.

Alas, why does certain Mr. Tsang face so much difficulty ?

Putting it back to our algorithm, local government policies are:

• proposed by our dear Donald and his civil servants
• endorsed by the Legislative Council
• executed, again, by the civil servants

You see, the Council is the king of the Ming empire (or the bottleneck of administration, if you like). Well, I'm not saying the policies are good or bad, but much energy is wasted in the conflict between civil servants and our noble council members - half of which from the opposition, while the other half hijackers.

On the other hand, in the old colonial government, members of the Legislative Council were either senior civil servants or people appointed by the governor - there was no conflict what so ever.

Again, I shall not soil my hands and join the discussion of general election here.

Bottleneck

Once you realize there are three stages to materialize a government policy, the problem of the Ming government - as pointed out by Huang Zongxi (黃宗羲) - becomes crystal clear:

In short, without a prime minister, government policies were proposed and executed by government officials, but endorsed by the king (or eunuch by proxy), who would see things differently and became the bottleneck of pushing forward any important policy. Moreover, the system inevitably led to a conflict between government officials and the king (or, actually, eunuch).

For comparison, Han, Tang, and essentially Sung empires used the Three Department System (三省制): Principal Secretaries (中書省) made policy proposals, Under-Secretaries (門下省) endorsed and countersigned the proposals, and the administrative departments (尚書省) carried them out. (The English translations of the three departments are my own invention. My apology if they do not sound appropriate.) The three of them were independent but they came from the same group of people, and it was common to see officials promoted from one department to another - so that coordination was not a problem.

PS. In early Ming period, the king's decision relied heavily on his political advisers, with a poetic official title Principal Scholar of the Wenyuan Chamber (文淵閣大學士), so that the government could have an efficient running. I shall not bore you with the details further.

Trias

The favorite government structure nowadays is often called the Trias Politica (三權分立), with independent executive, a legislature, and a judiciary powers.

I shall not soil my hands and join the discussion of an independent judiciary. There are, however, a fourth domain for running a government that may skip your eyes.

Take aside judiciary, they are:

• proposal of a policy
• decision on a policy (i.e. legislature)
  
• execution of a policy (i.e. executive power)

The last of which is usually straightforward and almost always relies on civil servants. It is the first two that often cause the problem. Take Britain as an example, policies are mostly proposed by the cabinet or the dominant party, and endorsed by the parliament - in which you could hear the voice from the opposition, but is essentially controlled by the same group of people from the dominant, so much so that policies could move forward.

PS. For those who have a grip on British politics, or did read the masterpiece of Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay, you may know the civil servants (i.e. the executive power) have much indirect influence on the proposal and decision of policies. That's another story.

Minister

One prominent theory to the decline of Ming empire, first proposed by Huang Zongxi (黃宗羲), was the removal of Prime Minister from the government structure.

The original idea of Huang was simple: Without a prime minster, all government decisions are back to the king, which results in multiple problems:

1. The king is usually not the most capable person.
2. No one could change the king if he does not perform well.
3. The actual decision of the government falls to the eunuch.
   

In the modern translation by Yi Zongtian (易中天) and others, the king both owns the country and runs it - analogous to having the CEO and the chairman of the board of directors being the same person. It may do well for a small family business, but would inevitably be inefficient and lack of external scrutiny for a multinational conglomerate.

But there are further serious implications of the theory. For those who are more familiar with European history or interested in contemporary politics, I shall give a slightly convoluted elaboration tomorrow.

1587

My recent bedtime reading is 1587: A Year of No Significance by Ray Huang.

It is about the history of the mid-Ming dynasty, with an aim to explore the reason of decline and fall of the last empire of the Han (漢) people. The idea was simple: You cannot run a country with a population of tens of millions merely by Confucianism and people's good will - you need some well structured legal system.

I am no expert to comment on this theory. Suffice to say any broad theory to explain everything could hardly be proved wrong. To me, the book gives a deja vu feeling of MD thesis: a collection of loosely connected chapters around a theme of ignis fatuus - without really getting in to the heart of the problem.

And it is horrifying to learn that some universities in the States use this book as their textbook for teaching Chinese history. Haven't they heard of Zhang Tingyu (張廷玉) ?

Egg

If you consider shark fin too expensive or not that friendly to the environment, there is no short of cheap but tasty food around.

For example, how about an egg ?

My friend KM recently described his experience of boiling an egg (see http://drkmchow.blogspot.com/2010/01/eggs-on-my-face.html). Although I know how to boil an egg in theory, and I was one of those who laughed at him when he told the story to us during a meeting, I must admit I have never boil an egg myself.

Neither did I ever steam one. Yes, I do a bit of cooking, but I always make scrambled or fried eggs.

You know, one favorite test that Chua Lam (蔡瀾) put up for a chef is to make an egg. Simple as it seems, it is also most testing - because an elaborated technique generally does not work.

For me, if resource is not a problem, I would roast a pig on coal fire. When the pig is almost done, make hundreds of needle picks on the skin over the back, so that some of the subcutaneous fat leaks out. I will then break an egg onto the red-hot pig's back (now covered with a layer of grease), take the whole thing out of the fire, let the egg set (with the yolk still liquid), and serve with that layer of roast pig skin.

Alas, WAKE UP ! Let's go back to work.

PS. What's the next egg dish that I would try to learn ? In real life, it would be the Chiu Chow egg custard (煎蛋角).

Fin

In a casual conversation, my friend CB asked me about the nature of various types of shark fin. I am no professional gourmet, but it does no harm to share here what I know.

Let me put it in a Q&A format:

Q. What is "金山勾" ? (A poetic translation would be the San Francisco hook.)
A. First, it comes actually from Mexico rather than San Francisco - which is too cold for that particular species of shark and the place serves only as the export center. (The situation is similar to Boston lobsters, which are generally caught at the bay of Maine and transport to other places via the port of Boston.)

Q. What is "勾翅" ?
A. It is the pectoral fin of a shark. Traditionally, expert chefs of southern China consider it as the second best type; the very best is skirt fin (裙翅), which is the pelvic fin or anal fin.

Q. How about the dorsal fin and caudal fin ? Aren't they even bigger ?
A. They are so big that their basal parts are calcified, which need to be removed during processing. As a result, the fin fibers fall apart, and the thing becomes loose fin (散翅).

Q. Why Mexico then ?
A. Shark fins in that area are nearly white in colour and therefore most appealing. Those from many other parts of the world are dark yellow or brown when raw, which require bleaching (by smoking with sulfur dioxide). The whitish colour is nevertheless artificial, and, more importantly, the procedure leaves a tinge of sulfuric taste that could be detected by real gourmets.

Not me. Thank god.

Accurate

(cont'd)

"Maybe I could explain," the cabinet secretary interrupted.

The other two starred at the seasoned government servant, who continued in a plain official voice, "We are doing the regular validation exercise of our satellite and radar system - this is part of the quality assurance program."

"Yes ... ?" The General looked confused.

"In short, we invited an external group to audit our performance, and they check to make sure the alarms and alerts put up by our Missile Detection System are accurate."

"But ... that's a good thing. I do not see how the audit would affect us." The senior soldier remained at a loss.

"Sir, they audit the accuracy and nothing else. When we found a missile, our men would therefore double check - actually quadruple check - and make sure it is true before releasing the information." The young sentry seemed to know the rule of the game well.

"God, how could an alarm be useful if it is accurate but dead late !?" The old military specialist found himself becoming a tenor.

"Yes, sir, but, I'm afraid we've used two-and-a-half minutes on arguing this point ..." his junior hesitated.

Missile

(Our little story turns to a new chapter.)

While the two military specialists were discussing on their policy on the new armor, there was a knock on the door.

A young sentry was standing there.

"Em ... excuse me," the junior soldier was slow to pick a correct word, "Sir, our radar detects nuclear missiles coming from the other side of the Pacific ..."

"What ... ?" The General jumped up. But, in no time he calmed down, "Hold on. We shouldn't panic. It takes no less than a couple of hours before those deadly bombs arrive. We have plenty of time to plan our response."

"Sir ..." the man at the door seemed shivering, "The bombs are going to hit us in three minutes..."

"How could that be ? Isn't our satellite able to detect missiles across the Pacific as soon as they set off !?" The senior soldier roared.

(To be continued ...)

Consent

(Conversation between the Secretary of Defence and the Chief Commander of the Army continued.)

The seasoned soldier asked, "Well, let's be pragmatic. Even if your plan works, would it be sufficient to turn away enough member of our army ?"

"Quite right. It may not. But we could do more." The government official seemed confident.

"Eh ?"

"You see, we've got to explain all the pros and cons of this armor to whoever getting it. All soldiers are encouraged to come and take one, but, before doing so, they have to receive a full explanation by dedicated officials and then sign a consent, in order to prove that they understand the potential risk - say, hurting their back, slowing down their movement, or whatever." The secretary explained.

The naive general hesitated, "Do you mean a lengthy procedure to get the armor would turn them away ?"

"Oh, that's the minor part of it," the politician-to-be chuckled, "The real point is: They would all think such an elaborated protecting mechanism to the administrator would mean the risk of wearing the new armor is real and substantial !"

PS. You may think the conversation I recently described weird - that could not be what actually did happen. Yes, I tend to agree. Nonetheless it proves again the very principle: It is usually impossible to tell an ingenious crook from a complete idiot.

Armor

(In a meeting between the Secretary of Defence and the Chief Commander of the Army.)

"You see, Chief Commander, this new armor is gorgeous. I am sure it's the perfect attire to protect our army from all injuries in the battle." The secretary exclaimed.

"But, the problem is, we do not have enough for all soldiers ..." the general hesitated.

"Indeed. Well, can't we just select a few troops to have it ?" The cabinet member suggested.

"Oh, no. You should know it better - there is the Council of Equal Opportunity. Well, just between you and me, there's no particular troop that I specifically prefer." The senior soldier murmured.

"Quite true ... I mean your first point," replied the administrator, "Let me see. Ah ... I have a plan." He found himself sounds like Baldrick of the Blackadder.

"Well ?"

"Let's ask our king and the prime minister to wear the armor and tell the advantage to the others." The senior official could not help smiling.

"Wouldn't that encourage everyone to ask for the armor ?" The simple-minded military specialist was incredulous.

The secretary explained, "That would be if the heads of our country have good enough a reputation. But, you know, at this moment ... what they do would just create suspicion !"

And his smile seemed more wicked than ever.

Diary

In a sense lab-book is the working diary of a scientist. (Of course the purpose is not at all romantic. You could well consider it as a remedy for dementia.) It may be slightly disappointing to know that the other species that keeps a diary of this kind is senior government officials.

You may think blog is another kind of diary we keep, but it is not - it is meant to be read by the others. As my friend KM pointed out, we write in an attempt to bury painful memories or stories, and we display the best of our image by self-censorship. In his words, I show you the wardrobe where my best clothes are being displayed. (See http://drkmchow.blogspot.com/2007/12/eavesdropping.html)

In addition to this blog, I am still writing my own diary - by pen and ink in a hard-cover book - four or five times a week. Rosy as it sounds, the content is actually boring. After all, nobody but I would read it again. Therefore, there's no need to elaborate on an event. I could actually put a short note barely sufficient for bringing back my memory in the future.

Moreover, the life of an academic and a father is not very exciting, and my written diary seems to bear much similarity to that of Nicholas II of the Russian Empire.

PS. The diary of that last emperor of Russia is in a sense amazing - it is exceptionally boring when read on its own, but probably the most thrilling tragedy in modern literature when put in parallel with what actually was recorded in the history.

Lab-book

During a casual conversation, I was amazed to find LS and PS - two friends of mine who are clinicians - did not know what a lab-book is.

My memory went back to 12 or 13 years ago, when I was planning to go for overseas training. In short, it was supposed to be a whole year of laboratory work on an animal model of an immunological disease. The problem was, of course, I had no experience in any bench work. In theory, one could learn everything during the training, but it would seem more fruitful to be able to handle some basic techniques (as elementary as using a pipette or making phosphate-buffered saline myself) before I set off to Bristol.

I told the man who still had a moustache, "May I join the laboratory for a short period before I go for the overseas ? I know it needs a full time effort. Maybe I could take my three weeks of annual leave this year and do the attachment ?"

And that's fixed. In the first morning when I went to the laboratory, I was introduced to JL - the scientific officer of my mentor, and later turned out to be an excellent teacher. He looked at me through his glasses, and, after a while, gave me a black hard-cover A4 size notebook:

"Well, this is your lab-book. From today onwards, write down everything you do, and put down all raw data that you find. This is the routine for everyone who does serious scientific research."

I duly complied.

PS. I had one lab-book for that three weeks, which unfortunately I lost when I moved my office, and another for my year in Bristol, which I left for my boss there for his reference. It is in fact a pity I do not have a chance to have another one after I was back Hong Kong.

茉

友誕女取名茉，內人竊怪之。

噫，茉者，外負芝蘭之姿，內懷丹桂之質，其色雅淡，其香雋永。上益百藥之功，下添盞茗之芳，不趨富貴，不矯君子。廁身閨閣之幽，怡然自矝，見諸廟堂之盛，殊顯大度。亥豕以推，可卜能察秋毫，見而知著。縱非錦帷繡被之中，亦副千金之實矣。

或曰，茉者乙木，冬月何如?故也，當啟以日月之光，潤以甘林之翠，方成妍卉。勉之勉之，勿捨本逐，勿失薪輿。他日茱萸再種，必也逸乎?

《己丑歲次太宰塗鴉》

財.印

You may feel it slightly inappropriate for an academic to be interested in finance and investment.

That my be right. Friends with some background knowledge on the traditional Four Pillars of Destiny (子平術, more commonly known as the Eight Characters - 八字) may have heard of the orthodox sayings: Too much money would damage academic study (財多壞印).

But no. The traditional teaching of Chinese astrology is actually a piece of wisdom. It says: 先財後印，反成其福；先印後財，反成其辱。《三命通會：四言獨步》

Translating into modern English, it means: If you start with a lot of money, it is very well to pursue on academic study. On the other hand, if you start with serious academic study, it is unlikely to make a lot of money - you just make a fool of yourself.

How true.

Investor

My friend VW asked what's the other book I bought for Christmas.

It was The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham.

Oh, this is certainly not the best book on investment. But it remains a superb one to start with - ironically because one would not have a gush of enthusiasm or a delusion of knowing all tricks in the stock market after reading it. Our pioneer in value investment did not tell us how to become rich; he showed us what is realistic.

And, if you found this little book illuminating, go and read its elder brother: Security Analysis by Graham and Dodd (especially the first two editions). No, you won't find tips to become a billionaire either. But there is a ingenious discussion on investment and speculation, followed by a treasure of case scenarios on how people are trapped in the stock market.

(The only problem is, however, one needs some background knowledge in finance, and, for example, knows how to read a balance sheet, in order to understand the cases.)

As Sherlock Holmes said, "There's nothing new under the sun. Everything has been done before."

Character

You may notice I pay all my attention to the characters and did not quite touch on the story.

But Guy Ritchie was right. To a genuine fan, story is always a less important consideration than the character of Holmes and Watson.

Maybe the comment of Hercule Poirot (in The Clocks) could best expresses my view.

******************************

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," (Poirot) murmured lovingly, and even uttered reverently the one word, "Maître !"

"Sherlock Holmes ?" I asked.

"Ah, non, non, not Sherlock Holmes ! It is the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that I salute. These tales of Sherlock Holmes are in reality far-fetched, full of fallacies and most artificially contrived. But the art of the writing - ah, that is entirely different. The pleasure of the language, the creation above all of that magnificent character, Dr Watson. Ah, that was indeed a triumph."

PS. In terms of complexity - and scientific accuracy - of a story, Ellery Queen, especially when disguised as Barnaby Ross, is way better. But the New Yorker could never overtake the position of his predecessor in London. To say the least, despite carefully conceived, I have very little recollection of Drury Lane as a person - not to say Queen himself.

Adler

My only disappointment with the movie Sherlock Holmes is its Irene Adler.

(Other supporting characters, however, are entirely satisfactory. Mary Morstan is the same governess whom we know from Conan Doyle, while Inspector Lestrade is nothing but just slightly more adorable than the stern man we found in A Study in Scarlet.)

Alas, I have no problem to have Adler's relation with our great detective much enriched in the film. Nonetheless, like Holmes himself, I have a high opinion on the woman. She could be a secret agent, or mixed in a group of European nobles, but she would never abuse her charm and try to seduce a man.

And, as it appears, Rachel McAdams behaves like Countess Rossakoff of Hercule Poirot, rather than the woman whose photo preciously kept in 221B Baker Street.

Guy Ritchie could have done better.

PS. If there is a second part of the movie, I'm sure we will see Mycroft Holmes - and possibly Colonel Moran ?

Holmes

Watched the movie Sherlock Holmes during the holiday.

(My first choice was Avatar, but, for a number of coincident, Vivian and I picked the second on our list.)

I must say, to begin with, I did not have high hope - as a rule I do not like movie or TV series adopted from a novel that I am quite familiar with.

But, I am happily wrong again. Although the story is quite simple and much of the logical deduction child's play, a good length of the film was used to describe the main characters - that's the most enjoyable bit.

And Guy Ritchie achieved an impossible mission: I did not meet new tenants at 221B Baker Street. Although the story is new, Holmes and Watson are the same good old ones whom I knew for decades - just that they have certain aspects of character that I did not quite notice previously.

PS. The story obviously happened shortly after The Sign of Four, before Watson married Mary Morstan. At that time the military doctor should be living on pension (as a result of his injury from Afghanistan) and had not returned to civil practice - and Irene Adler's photo should not appear on the table of the Baker Street apartment yet.

That's a minor slip.

Higurashi

My recent bedtime reading is Higurashi (終日) by Miyabe Miyuki (宮部美幸).

I must say the plot is so-so, although the story is brilliantly told. After reading nearly a dozen of Miyabe's novels - thanks to AL - I found stories in the Edo period (江戸時代) more enjoyable.

And that's a remarkable period. It was the Qing (清) Empire across the East Sea; both countries faced military and cultural invasion by the Europeans.

But, their fate diverted in 1867, when Sakamoto Ryoma (坂本龍馬) led the famous Taisei Houkan (大政奉還), resulting in the new policy of Meiji (明治維新).

By the way, while talking about Sakamoto, a story of his appears to my mind.

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One day, Saigo Takamor (西郷隆盛), an ally of Sakamoto, asked, "What you mentioned the day before yesterday is different from what you're saying today. How could you win the trust of any people? You, as the world famous figure, must have a firm belief!"

The pioneer of democracy in Japan replied, "Saigo, once you decide on one thing, you want to be consistent. But to do so, you will be behind the times in the future."

As the old Latin proverb says: Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.

PS. The story of Higurashi largely took place at Hatchobori (八丁堀) of Tokyo - exactly the place where Vivian stayed when she was doing elective in the National Cancer Center.

Son

(My discussion with L continued.)

"Your landlady really doesn't treat that boy well. Is he really her son ?" I asked, rather lightheartedly.

"Now you come to this," L said grimly, "I tell you: I am not sure."

"Eh ?" I raised my eyebrow.

"You know, all I could tell is the boy lived in that house and loved it very much - after all, however old and poorly maintained, it is a decent place and brought him much good memory. Well, I'm not sure the woman is old enough to have such a grown up child. He does give money to her every month - he calls it the rent but she seems to think otherwise."

"Maybe that's the point." I said.

"No. The point is actually the woman insists that anyone who lives in the house and loves it must call her mother !"

Landlady

Had a short conversation with my friend L recently. He was not quite happy with his landlady.

"You know, she beat up her son again."

"Oh, I hear it so often. What's up this time ?" I was slightly concerned.

"Alas, the boy is no longer a kid and has seen the world. He pointed out that, despite making so much money over the years, she remained ignoramus and did not behave as a noble woman."

I couldn't stop making a wicked smile, "Well, was he beaten up for spreading a rumour or leaking the truth?"

"Neither," my friend sighed, "That's the worrying bit. My landlady thought that her son was secretly planning to take over her business !"

And a famous Chinese saying came through my mind: 君子眼中，天下滔滔皆是君子。小人眼中，世上無一而非小人。

PS. The sobering truth is: this statement of wisdom was made by Yue Buqun (岳不群).