One of my smartest USA exit purchases was an unlocked iPhone4. USD$800 was a bitter pill to swallow. Now a year later, it numbers within my top 5 of things I would grab if I had to flee a burning building. I’m sure that to my Brazilian in-laws my constant fiddling with this little black brick […]
Describing the world around me--from the big picture all the way down to our little local news.
Sexing the Banana*
June 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The epitome of the feminine, the papaya, can only be planted by women. Heck, in some parts of the Spanish-speaking world it is another word for vulva, which in my opinion beats beaver any day. (By the way, I could talk at length at how both Spanish and Portuguese are far better a describing the […]
Animal Farm: Os Bichos
June 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
As a linguist I have a love for words descriptive and versatile. Bicho ranks right up there with fuck in its versatility. Insert it wherever words fail you: pega isse bicho lá para mim? (grab that whatzit over there for me?) and with a certain air of the expletive: bicho está trabado! (damn thing is […]
Animal Farm: Lao
May 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
This week Crônicas do Brasil got an exclusive opportunity to interview one of the more enigmatic characters from Fazenda Pau D’Alho: Lao. While lore tells us that Lao came to the farm as a young cat around the time that Dora and Katya were living here, there are conflicting stories as to how he got […]
