Monthly Archives: August 2010

August 7, 2010 · 3:43 am

I Used To Be A Night Owl

In my younger days, eons ago it seems, I was a night owl. My last semester at the University of Miami rarely saw me going to bed before seven or eight in the morning and the school’s schedule and mine didn’t mesh.

Say what you will about New York, L.A. or Las Vegas, New Orleans (The Big Easy, The Big Sleazy, The City That Care Forgot) is a night owl’s nirvana. You NEVER left your house to go out carousing before 11 p.m. or midnight. Bars open 24 hours a day. Attending a Dr. John session at Tipitina’s that broke up at 7:30 in the morning. I loved watches out at sea from 4 to 6 in the morning and watching things take shape as the sun drove out the night.

But things have changed. Up here on the hill I can’t seem to sleep past 6 a.m. and this morning I was up at five and sitting on the porch with my steaming mug of coffee listening to roosters crowing from all points of the compass and cattle mooing on the other side of the trees on the east side of the field. But I’m nostalgic for those years I thrived in the night. I posted this video by the group Vaya Con Dios last October but it’s worth a repeat.

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August 6, 2010 · 5:13 pm

Language Encounter At The Supermarket

One problem I’ve encountered here in Panama has been finding some spices I need for my favorite recipes, specifically cayenne pepper. None of the four supermarkets I’ve been to in the city of David, Panama’s third largest, has had it and when I’ve asked people who work at the markets I’m greeted with a blank stare. They don’t have a clue to what it is.

Today in the spice section at the El Rey supermarket I found three bottles of cayenne. Pricey but essential. I bought two of the bottles and good guy that I am left the third for some other gringo who might be looking for it, too. In the veggie section there were packages of small peppers, red, green and yellow in the same pack. I thought perhaps I’d buy some and try drying them myself. I asked the clerk in the department if they were “picante” and he answered me in English. “No, sweet. You want hot?”

“Si,” I said.

“Over here,” the clerk said.

What he had were habaneros which I didn’t want. In our brief conversation he spoke to me entirely in English and I responded entirely in Spanish without even thinking about it. Oh, well.

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Filed under Learning a new language, Retirement Abroad, Uncategorized

August 5, 2010 · 9:45 am

This Should Be The Mandatory Uniform For Store Personnel In Panama

This tee shirt and a lot of others you might enjoy can be found here: http://www.neatoshop.com/catg/Funny-T-Shirts

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August 4, 2010 · 3:39 am

More Language Confusion

Yesterday’s post reminded me of this old joke about the confusion of language.

Three nuns die and go to heaven where they are met by St Peter at the pearly gates. St Pete says “Ladies, you all led such wonderful lives, that I’m granting you one week to go back to Earth and be anyone you want. You can do anything you want and there will be no penalties, no recriminations. You’ve earned it.”

The first nun says “I want to be Britney Spears,”and POOF she’s gone.

The second says “I want to be Madonna,” and POOF she’s gone.

The third says “I want to be Sarah Pipalini.”.

St Peter looks perplexed. “Who?” he says.

“Sarah Peplini” replies the nun.

“You mean Sarah Palin?” St. Peter asks going through his huge register of names.

“No,’ the old nun insists…”Sarah Pipalini.”

St Peter shakes his head and says “I’m sorry, I can’t find anyone with that name. It just doesn’t ring a bell.

The nun reaches into her habit and withdraws an almost ancient newspaper clipping. Carefully she unfolds it and hands it to St Peter. He reads the paper and starts laughing.

He hands it back to her and says “No, no, Sister, this says the Sahara PIPELINE was laid by 500 men in 7 days!”.

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August 3, 2010 · 5:49 am

Learning A New Language

Having retired to Panama I’m having to deal with learning a new language. My third, actually. And while it’s a challenge it’s quite fun.

Yesterday I stumbled upon a blog by a French girl living in Australia describing the challenges she’s facing dealing with a new language. Now, Australian is sort of English in the same way the language of the U.S. is sort of English. They both derive from the same roots but each has veered off slightly and have become distinct in their own ways.

Also, yesterday I stumbled across this post in Bits and Pieces which came from A Public Flogging and there’s no telling where he might have appropriated it from. But I think it’s hilarious and is a good example of what people go through when they travel outside their linguistic comfort zone.

In 1965, in a noble attempt to help the rest of us understand Australians, Alistair Morrison published Let Stalk Strine, a glossary of terms used Down Under:

air fridge: average
bandry: boundary
dismal guernsey: decimal currency
egg nishner: air conditioner
garbler mince: a couple of minutes
marmon dead: Mom and Dad
rise up lides: razor blades
sag rapes: sour grapes
split nair dyke: splitting headache
stewnce: students
tiger look: take a look

“Aorta mica laura genst all these cars cummer ninner Sinny. Aorta have more buses. An aorta put more seats innem so you doan tefter stan aller toym — you carn tardly move innem air so crairded.”

The book went through 17 impressions in one year, a sign the problem had gotten completely out of hand. Just a few months before it appeared, the English author Monica Dickens had been signing copies of her latest book in a Sydney shop when a woman handed her a copy and said, “Emma Chisit.” Dickens inscribed the volume “To Emma Chisit” and handed it back. “No,” said the woman, leaning forward: “Emma Chisit?”

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August 2, 2010 · 2:30 pm

Here’s A Tough Quiz

1.  Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2.  What famous North American landmark is constantly moving  backward?

3.  Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons.   All other vegetables must be replanted every year.  What are the only two perennial  vegetables?

4.  What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you  can buy pear brandy with a real pear inside the  bottle.  The pear is whole and ripe, and  the bottle is genuine; it hasn’t been cut in any way.  How did the pear get inside the bottle?

6.  Only three words in standard English begin with the letters ‘ dw’, and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar.
Can you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9.  Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter ‘S.’

Answers in comments…don’t peek.

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August 2, 2010 · 4:51 am

My Fingers Are Permanently Pruned

Well, the numbers are in and July 2010 was the wettest month EVER  since people around here have been keeping track. I thought it had rained every day except for the last one, but my fellow blogger and neighbor, Joyce, says it didn’t rain on the third. Since it rained 29 days out of 30 in June and 29 out of 31 in July if you haven’t written it down it all merges into one big, soggy mess. Thankfully living up around 2,500 feet above sea level flooding isn’t much of a concern but if you got as much rain as we’ve been getting you might consider that ark-building project you’ve been putting off.

July, up here on the hill, saw 59 inches of rain fall. That’s FIFTY NINE INCHES, folks…one lousy inch less than FIVE FEET in just one month! June and July combined saw nearly eight and a half feet of rain which, for most of you reading this, would mean if you live in a home with standard ceiling height  there’d be water in your attic.

As I’ve said in previous posts the mornings here are usually glorious but when I woke up this morning it was raining and continues an hour and a half later though I see through the east window the sky seems to be lighting up a bit on the other side of the valley. But only a little.

Mary Farmer has detailed all the data complete with graphs at  http://potrerillosarriba.com/pages/archives.html#July

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