My father, a prolific storyteller, likes to spin a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of the English language. It's the '60s, and he's a young intern at a small public hospital on the Jersey shore. He has been in the United States for only six months or so. After years of college and medical school, medical internship and residency in the Philippines and another half a year of surgical residency in the states, he's feeling very secure in his chosen profession.

When he tells this story, my mind paints his images in sepia tones.