Compay Gato

 

Saturday evening I wore my sunglasses as we drove to the East Side Club, then I left them in the door of the car. That wasn't as stable as leaving them in the console or the glove compartment, but then I thought I'd see them and remember to bring them in the house with me. Of course I forgot they were there, and as Travalon was backing up, I heard something crunch under the tires, but I hadn't remembered seeing anything on the ground. Then yesterday morning I couldn't find my sunglasses and remembered they should be in Travalon's car. They weren't, and I realized they must have fallen out of the door when I opened it the night before, and then that's what Travalon had run over. So sad - I had just bought those sunglasses at Walgreens recently to replace a free pair I had for years and then somehow lost. Fortunately yesterday morning was overcast, and then we went to Walgreens and I got another, very similar pair.

One of my favorite songs on my Cuban music CDs is called "Compay Gato," which is that most sublime of things - a silly song not meant for children. It is from the point of view of a cat ("Compay" means someone who sings a part in traditional Cuban music, like "compay segundo" does the harmony part), and he sings about how he's going to kill all these things, like mice and fish. Then the second part of the song is about how a little dog is called a "perrito" or puppy, but when it's big it's called a "perro," and a little goat is called a "cabrito," but when it's big it's called - "Ai ai!" I listened to the song five times before it occurred to me that the word they weren't singing is a very bad word in Spanish that means "male goat." It's so bad that they call an actual male goat "cabra macha." Now this word has a c and an a and a b and an r and an o and an n in some order, maybe even that order, and it comes right from Latin "capricornus," which gave me pause for a second because I wondered if my own astrological sign was a bad word in Spanish, but then I remembered that they write it "capricornio." True story: my old boss from the private sector once emailed me and said he had built a new deck, and they had a party and christened it this bad word in Spanish. I said, "You did what now? Have you run that name by your Costa Rican buddy?" About a minute and a half later I got a reply from him: "I'm changing the name of my deck!!"

The Killer Building continues to be a confounding place to work. We will get an email saying the west entrance is going to be closed, and I'm not concerned because I use the east entrance... but then when I go to escape for my break, it's the east entrance that has tape across it and says: "Emergency exit only." Just how safe is it to be working in this building??? Fortunately I can use the north entrance.

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