Daddy Geniuses

Daddy is really a bright spark with a big heart. He wasn't highly educated. In fact, my sister and I are even more academically qualified than him or Mum (thanks to his financing, though), but this does not make us (or only me) more knowledgeable than Dad in all aspects of life.

Every Sunday, Dad makes it a point to buy Sunday Star for our reading pleasure to complement the Borneo Post. I bet you Dad would rather buy Sin Chew Daily since it's cheaper than The Star and has a wide coverage of both local and national news with some added bits and pieces of information that can't be found in English dailies. But being an accommodative person that he is, Dad would spend RM1 more to by Star because of my linguistic ability in the Chinese language that is beyond salvage. Yes, saya seorang rakyat Malaysia berbangsa Cina tetapi tidak fasih bertutur, membaca and menulis Bahasa Cina. For the record, I can speak a bit of my mother tongue (often with inaccurate pronunciation) and understand some normal everyday conversations but I have lost the ability to write and read Mandarin characters in Primary 4 (the day I finally managed to convince Dad to let me quit Mandarin tuition since it was pointless sending me there as I consistently failed every tests and a nice egg for my spelling test that I call the "listen, write". I could have passed if the teacher did not help me jumble the words up during test time!!!). Yup, I'm a gone case. Therefore, I should change my bangsa to Pisang the next round I fill in any forms. I'm proud to be a banana.

Anyway, last Sunday, as I was flipping through the Sunday Star, I saw the word "caveat emptor". Thinking that it was some legal term like stare decisis, res ipsa loquitur, obiter dicta, ratio decidendi, per incurium, mens rea, or something related to caveat on land, I asked dad what it meant as he knows some legal terms too. He's not a lawyer, doesn't have an LLB nor a diploma, did not study Commercial Law or Company Law unlike me, but he's one street smart guy, I have to say.

Me: Hmm, caveat emptor.... D [short form for Daddy], what is caveat emptor?

Dad: You know the answer
Me: Huh? If I knew the answer, I wouldn't be asking you.
Dad: You know the answer..

Me: *silent* (tried recalling back where did I hear that word.) Oh yeah, caveat emptor and caveat venditor. Yup, I learnt it in Consumer Behaviour lecture. (Heck, how could I forget the words caveat emptor and caveat venditor? Mr Alan was trying to drum those two terms into our saturated brains that night while I related the word venditor to vendetta as in V for Vendetta. Problem is I have forgotten what it meant.). *ran to get my CB textbook and start flipping through the pages to find that word. Why must it be so thick??*

Me: Oh yeah, caveat emptor means let the buyer beware. Profit maximization, subjected to legal constraints. Consumer interests less favoured. The antonym is caveat venditor which means let the seller beware. Consumer interests favoured.

Dad: See, I told you that you know the answer.
Me: Ya lah, but I forgot ma...
Dad: *smirks* Forgot. Exam's coming up, ar you....

Me: Aiyah, I haven't started my revision for Consumer Behaviour. I will start as soon as Leadership's over. Wait a minute, D. How did you know that I know what caveat emptor is? Have you been reading my Consumer Behaviour textbook?

Dad: Just a wild guess. Why would I be reading your textbooks, anyway??

Dad's a genius, man.

Position of:

"the world's most loving, caring, considerate, understanding, thoughtful, smartest, best-est and all those other characteristics that make a father a one-in-an-infinity position"

is hands down filled by my Dad :)

Happy Father's Day, D.

You are the best daddy.

老爸, 我爱你.