zhè
shì
kǎ
ěr
This is Kal.
(pronoun) this; these / (bound form) this; the (followed by a noun) / (bound form) this; these (followed by a classifier) (in this sense, commonly pr. [zhei4], esp. in Beijing)

= + : James II of England (zh) is carrying a heavy book (文) in the elevator's bathroom (e4). This (这) book is so heavy that his gladiator sandals (辶) are sinking deep into the sand.
variant of 是[shi4] / (used in given names)
to be (followed by substantives only) / correct; right; true / (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well / (adverb for emphatic assertion)

= + : Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".

Sherlock Holmes (sh) starts his day in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) with a mug of coffee (旦). Holding a skull (mnemonic symbol for 是) in his hands, he asks himself "to be, or not to be" (是). He wonders if he can make the skull come back to life using lots of coffee, and injects coffee from his mug into the skull using a syringe (龰).

= + + : Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".

Sherlock Holmes (sh) watches the Neanderthal Man (人) trying to climb to the sun (日) on a ladder (下) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4). Sherlock is afraid that he'll open the window, so he puts on a big skull (是) and scares him off.
to stop / to block / (computing) (coll.) slow / (loanword) card / CL:張|张[zhang1],片[pian4] / truck (from "car") / calorie (abbr. for 卡路里[ka3 lu4 li3]) / cassette

= + : Karl Marx (k) wants to destroy capitalism by crushing credit cards (卡) with a voodoo staff (卜) and by stomping on (上) them in the ashram (a3).
to block / to be stuck / to be wedged / customs station / a clip / a fastener / a checkpost / Taiwan pr. [ka3]
variant of 爾|尔[er3]
thus / so / like that / you / thou

= + : Mnemonic symbol derived from the components: a peace dove. Albert Einstein (Ø) wants to send a message of peace to earth from the space station's living room (Ø3). He wanted to give a dove (尔) a daisy (小) so that it can bring it to earth, but the dove is late! Albert has no choice but to give it to a passing crane (⺈) instead. Thus, the crane flies to earth with the daisy in his beak, just like a peace dove.