Category: Humor

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Hispanic Christmas Tradition – Caganers

I was working online with one of my Spanish teachers, a Venezuelan woman who has fled her country with her husband to Buenos Aires.  We were reviewing and discussing an article that listed various Christmas traditions from around the Hispanic world.

There is a tradition from the Catalonia region of Spain that we glossed over as neither of us really wanted to discuss it.  The tradition struck both of us as a little gross.  The traditional there is to place a defecating – pooping if you will – figurine discreetly?? in one corner of the Christmas Nativity scene that folks commonly put out this time of year.  Typically, this figurine has always been of a peasant in the traditional dress of the region.  And like most of these things it is supposed to bring good luck.

It has since morphed so frequently the figurines are of famous people from around the globe.  This has grown into a big international souvenir business, with the majority of the online sales going to the United States.

Fast Forward

Talking about synchronicity… Looking at the news online this morning there was an article from The Guardian: Christmas caganer figurines of Catalonia Just a warning if your are sensitive to such things, there is a bit of a yuk factor associated with the pictures in the article, but on the whole it was an interesting read, at least for me as I had touched on the subject just a couple days before. It was also amusing to see which public figures they chose to depict.

If you are curious, look up the Spanish verb cagar (the noun caganer is derived from the verb) in an online translator.  When I was young it was a word that was not used in polite company.

Oh we humans… I wonder how far we really are from the bonobos.

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Spanish Tutor Cracked Me Up

You are going to need just a wee bit of background to appreciate this… or not.

There is a stereotype involving Latino mothers – especially Mexican mothers – involving their ability to do accurate long distance child correction using a well launched chancla, chancla being the Spanish word for flip-flop. Practically every Latino I have spoken to more than casually has a chancla story. If you doubt the stereotype, just type chancla into the YouTube search box and you will have a wide selection to choose from.  One of my favorites can be found at this link: Hispanic moms don’t miss with that chancla or the video at the bottom of this post.

I’ve been working with a Mexican young man, Saúl, via Skype for Continue reading “Spanish Tutor Cracked Me Up”

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The Most Accurate STL Anthem Ever?

Song just about says it all, no need for comments from yours truly.

I came across it in an article in the alternative newspaper, Riverfront Times: ‘How Does St. Louis Do It’ Is the Most Accurate STL Anthem Ever

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Cousin Perry Nailed Señora

My cousin Perry, whom we sometimes insult by calling him the sixth Rush boy, sent this to me with the comment “For Robin.”

Señora and I were on a camping trip a few years ago. I did not think my Tacoma was going to make it back home due to all the rocks she loaded on to it. Her many flower beds are bordered with rocks she has collected from various places, a couple of which are almost big enough to be classified as boulders.

Since I “borrowed” their cartoon for my blog, let me add a link to their online store: Luna’s Spiritual Shop

And so it goes.

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Show Them to Me

Just cuz I needed a laugh… and this made me smile.   It is a little racy, but only a little.  Without further ado, my new favorite Country song – Show Them to Me

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New Balance, The New “IN” Sneaker

Several months ago a group of us old fogeys went to a local comedy club here in St. Louis.  The reason we went was that the niece of one of the gentlemen in the group was the opening act. She was reasonably funny with many of her comedic stories stemming from the 13 years she spent teaching on the South Side of Chicago.

The headliner was a black man (for the sake of me I cannot remember his name) married to a red headed white woman. They have a couple of biracial children. I mention that as a good part of his act was edgy racial humor centered on his personal life situation. At some point, not sure how he segued to the subject, he got onto old white folks and Continue reading “New Balance, The New “IN” Sneaker”

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Celebrating 60 Years of Matrimony

Okay, this is an observation that Señora has grown quite tired of, but I still find immensely entertaining…at least until I get her chancla upside my head.

It works like this.  Señora was married 28 years her first go around.   I was technically married 22 years, but the number of years living together were somewhat less than that figure. However, the paperwork says 22. Nuff said.

If you add those two numbers, 28 and 22, you arrive at 50 years of matrimony between the two of us.

Señora and I have been a couple for 15 years, but married only the last 10 years of that period.  So much like an IRS tax form, take the number Continue reading “Celebrating 60 Years of Matrimony”

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Priest for Dinner

Our friends, Harry and Susie, were in town for some fun with Susie’s family that lives here, her sister who came in from West Virginia, Susie’s niece’s family, and one of Harry and Susie’s daughter and her family who also came down from Chicago.  Susie and Harry spent Sunday night with us.

We are sitting on the patio Monday morning, drinking coffee, listening to the birds, watching the chipmunks and squirrels,  enjoying the cool, breezy morning, and chatting.  Harry was relating how his father had been very active in the church and the Catholic parish where they lived in Chicago. Susie added that Harry’s family frequently had priests for dinner.

So I asked, “Are they better rare or well done?” I suppose I could have asked, “grilled, blackened or fried?”

Sometimes I just crack myself up, nobody else, but I find me to be very entertaining at times.

And so it goes.

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Another Opening Sentence

Another opening sentence for a larger story or possibly a story in itself.

Rising from the bed, stretching, he began wading through the archipelago of scattered, hastily discarded clothing on his way to the bathroom, glancing back towards the bed before he closed the door, a wry smile crossed his face as he remembered the activities of the previous night.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know… from time to time these musings pop into the labyrinth that passes for my mind.  I need to do something with them, so here it sets. Don’t worry, I’ve become very adept at dodging rotten tomatoes, thank you very much.

“Blissful smile” was my first choice, but I went with”wry smile” as it puts a completely different spin on the sentence, leaving questions unanswered.

For another article along this same vein: 2 One sentence short stories

And so it goes.

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Overheard…

“Your mama wears army boots!”

“So what… your daddies drink Bud Light.”

So it went in the cultural wars of 2023 before Skynet sent a cyborg back in time to quell the quibbling amongst the devolving, ironically named Homo sapiens.