Advantages to the congito (sparrow):
- He never has to worry about her leaving him.
- He gets to leave when he gets bored and she can’t come with him.
- He gets all the seed she drops (I notice).
- She’s Maria Callas and Jean Harlow all wrapped up, for god’s sake.
Disadvantages:
- He can’t actually get to her.
Advantage to the Disadvantage:
- He doesn’t have to worry about it, or even whether she wants him at all.
Advantages to the canaricita:
- She has company.
- She has an audience.
- The area under her cage is very clean.
Disadvantages to the canaricita:
- She may not like the sparrow. She may think he’s coarse or incapable of appreciating her art, unimaginative or unromantic or has hair in his ears or something like that.
- If she does like the sparrow, she can’t actually get to him.
I’m told “congitas” is the correct name for the little grey bird, by far the most common in GDL, but it may be a local name and it’s not in the dictionary.
By the way, the winner of the award for best-book-to-stretch-out-the-time-until-the-next-time-you-can-find-an-English-language-book goes to The Golden Bough, James Frazer, the epochal study of religion and magic. Which you have to read anyway, sooner or later. Wonderfully long and repetitive, as well as being extremely interesting in a totally over the top Victorian academic way. Takes weeks to read -- months, if you read it in five-minute snatches.
I managed to get a copy of A Sentimental Education finally.
As of this writing, twelve more pages of the Centro Linguistico Conversa book. Difficult, boring pages. (Editor’s Note: Seven and a half pages as of posting. Difficult, boring pages. Torture.)
One of the things which saves the old residential areas of GDL from utter and totally dispiriting sameness, I realize, is that each little building is unique and, basically, hand made by amateur architects. Not a single building the same in miles and miles of these one story brick/stucco structures. And the building inspector doesn’t get out this far (wink wink).
Excellent local pecans and cashews which are called “nez de indea” or (roughly), “squaw nose (sic). Also, the tamarind, tamarindo, not really a fruit I don’t think, but a flavor. How come no tamarindo-pecan burritos? Howcum no cheese-pecan burritos?
Oaxaca. Not following it much. Have to hand it to those federales, or at least Governor Ruiz, who told his mostly ex-police “paramilitaries” to shoot up an unarmed picket line near a barricade, and then had Fox send in the federal police to “restore order.” Shocked! Shocked to discover gambling in this establishment! I get the impression the occupation is a great disappointment to the business community since the city is still tied up in barricades and demonstrations. This is, apparently, not over. The other funny thing is that all the reporting says both the PAN and the PRD want to get rid of this Ruiz guy, who simply refuses to go.
I have Instant Messaging if anyone wants to chat… my use of the computer is pretty much constant one way or the other so I’m usually online. In any event, I’m at salas_in@hotmail.com if anyone wants to chat.
~Roberto
