“You can tell a lot about a person’s character from their handwriting, you know?”
“Oh, really? Well, I have a couple of letters here. I wonder if you could tell me about the two writers?”
“Sure, let me see… Well, this first person is an extravert. You can tell from the big loops that they use in their a’s, b’s and d’s, etc.. And the rightward slant of their letters indicates an expressive personality.”
“I guess that sounds kind of accurate. And what about this second letter?”
“Oh, that’s easy. This was written by a doctor.”
“That’s incredible! How did you know that?”
“Because I can’t read a word of it. Only doctors have handwriting this bad.”
*
There was an interesting story from India this week. A judge ordered that all doctors in the Punjab region write their prescriptions using capital letters. This came after a government doctor was asked to make a medical examination of an alleged crime victim. The handwriting of his report was so messy that not even one word of it could be understood by the judge. He became concerned that this could lead to chemists misreading prescriptions or directions, and patients being given the wrong medicine.
*
“Well, Madam, it says here that you are suffering from heartache and are looking for a pink kitten. I’m not sure our pharmacy can help you.”
“Um,
no. I am suffering from headaches and am
looking for a painkiller.”
Vocabulary:
an
extravert – a person with an outgoing personality, who is not inward looking
[eg., For
an actor or other performer, it helps to be an extravert.]
a slant – of
a line, the property of not being straight and leaning in a particular
direction
[eg., The
Leaning Tower of Pisa has a very noticeable slant.]
a
prescription – a note written by a doctor which allows a patient to order
medicine from a chemist
[eg., Don’t
forget to take your prescription to the pharmacy.]
