Temps de la picor

The itching time came up yesterday, probably referring to Francoism, while I was prancing around in a new wig for purposes that will shortly be revealed. DCVB says “l’any de la picor” refers to distant times, and proverbologist Víctor Pàmies cites Joan Amades’s hypothesis that it comes from the Year of Fleas and Famine, 1471,…

Ngram: afternoon nap vs siesta

Rather weary yesterday PM after a morning’s rabbit-hunting, so bumbled through Evelyn Waugh’s brilliant Decline and fall and Vile bodies, which contain quite a number of afternoon naps. Conjecture: the British began to replace the expression with “siesta” as they started staying awake after lunch and drowsing off became associated with the lazy Latins. Refutation:

El gran problema de los pequeños órganos

Ayuda encontrarás en The Big Problem of Small Organs de Alan Kitley (h/t Transblawg), que cuenta como la mujer de E. Power Biggs le sopla su órgano. A ver si la RAE se anime a admitir este anglocabronismo, cuyo uso ya es generalizado. Y no olvidemos los entendres dobles de Clarence Williams en el Organ Grinder Blues:…

A cowboy mouse: Hello you! let me out! and don’t catch me like a trout

Francisco Gabilondo Soler has been denounced for his song, Ratón Vaquero, from the Cri-Cri show (more here), in which a Yankee mouse demands his freedom from the trap into which he has fallen: The offending lyrics in full: What the heck is this housefor a manly cowboy mouse?Hello you! let me out!and don’t catch me…