Thursday, November 20, 2008

Under the Coffee Table



Bet you've never seen a coffee table with a table base like this one before!
I stopped dead in my tracks as I was walking around Puebla. Here was this tasteless coffee table right in the doorway of a furniture store. Obviously a big draw! I wonder if you put cold drinks on the tabletop, her ............... Nah, won't go there.

And, to give you an idea of cultural conflict.....in another shop window, just a block or so away were 35 Baby Jesuses. Yep, laid out flat on their backs, naked, chubby arms. What's with that, you ask? I'm guessing the centerpiece for the family creche.

Other culture shock: yesterday, at lunch, the waiter in the restaurant called me "whitey." In Spanish, he said, "Aqui esta, guerro." Which translates, "here's your lunch, whitey." Now, he meant no offense. If you have dark skin, they'll refer to someone as "negrito." Or if you're fat, they'll call one another "gordo." It's just something they do in their culture. And--not too long ago in the U.S. culture we did the same: "Fats" Waller, Fatty Arbuckle, nicknames like "Slim," and "Tiny."