[About complaint letters to Poirot's Chinese laundry service]
When the boy brings your laundry back, he brings the letters back too for me to explain to him.
And you do?
No.
Why not?
I don't speak Chinese.
So what do you say to him?
Well, I say: "Him collar no very good starchy". I show him the collars and say it.
Hastings, my friend, you spent some years in China, did you not?
Absolutely. Fine fellows, fine fellows.
Did you ever have any trouble with your laundry?
Yes, I did, as a matter of fact.
And what did you say to them?
Well, I said: "Him collar no very good starchy".
That's where I got it from, sir. I asked the Captain knowing he'd been in the East.
But Hastings, my collars, they do not get any better.
No. Neither did mine, now that I come to think about it. Why don't you get yourself some turn-down collars? They're much more the thing, you know.
The "thing", Hastings? You think Poirot concerns himself with mere "thing"ness? The turn-down collar is the first symptom of decay of the grey cells!
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