Lovely piece! You're developing into quite a nifty journo
[you did miss a teensy verbal trick ... having pointed out Ming's pointy digits and immediately followed it by that allusion to what people do when bored ... you might have joked about doing himself some damage ] Though, of course, I realize such crassness is way beneath you!
Funnily enough, I did think about that, BB. But more qualifiers would have tortured that paragraph, already crowded as it is. Gotta pick your battles, and all that.