This scroll represents a saying in Korean "horangi dambaepideon shijeore," or "when the tiger smoked" -- that is to say, a long, long time ago. Alan saw the tiger and its folk art representations as a connection to his Korean heritage. Maybe he wanted to be seen as clever, fierce and proud. We always said Alan was like a cat, not a big striped one, but the quiet self-centered slinky kind. He loved cats, and cats loved him.
You may have noticed there are a lot of tigers in this blog, too -- crouching tigers, tigers we don't have. Maybe it's just a coincidence, or maybe not.
The music for today's entry was the number one song on the charts when I was born, but more to Alan's taste.
Now, for the nerdy neurologists out there (I know at least some of you are reading this blog.), this phrase, "the eye of the tiger," brings up images of T2 hyperintensity with surrounding hypointensity in the globus pallidus, most often seen in a disease now most commonly called pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN).
He used to hate it when I would sing along to the chorus, but change the words:
It's the eye of the tiger on the MRI scan,
T2 pallidal signal that's bilateral
And it used to be known as Hallervorden-Spatz Disease
But it's now got some different names... 'cuz they were Nazis
Come to think of it, everyone seemed to hate it when I did that.
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