Chirimoya

October 25, Friday
You know how the avocado has it's momentito of perfection, when the black skin gives just enough to let you know the green flesh inside is ripe ... but not too ripe.

Same with the chirimoya. You let it rest on top of your refrigerator with the bananas, checking it every day to see if the flesh has begun to give. The first one we bought was a green-skinned baseball when we brought it home from the market. After about four days, when we skinned it and ate the tender, white, custard-textured, piña colada-flavored flesh, it was delicious perfection. Mmmmm. We bought another one the next day.
Not such good luck with the second chirimoya. By the time it felt soft enough to open, more than half the inner fruit was dark brown and sour. Ai, so many skills to learn. (P.S. the photo is borrowed from the web)

Our newspaper, El Llanquihue, carried a review of a new, local book called Araña Gris, a collection of stories and essays from over twenty years of a literary journal published in Chacabuco, near here. I'll find it, and read it; but now, how am I supposed to know whether the meaning of "Araña" in this case is spider or chandelier, the translations so generously offered by my dictionary? Richard says, what difference does it make? The spider is the same shape as the chandelier. One wears it's legs down, the other up.

Here's another observation about the newspaper: the other night, when a friend came for dinner, I bragged to him & Richard that I had completely read that first newspaper we'd purchased last week. Including the classified ads. I wanted to talk about the real estate ads I'd seen, since our friend says he's looking for property in this area.
Oh, no! Both capitans asked me at once: Did you read the Otro Servicios ads? Well, yes. I'd read them. They all seemed to be offering, in coded language, sex of one kind or another. I'd interpreted one of these ads to indicate that the women to be provided were at least over the age of 20. "Newly arrived" and "anything allowed" were some of my translations made with the help of el dictionario. Nothing amusing about these ads, as far as I'm concerned; and I shifted the topic immediately to the Ms. magazine article I've been reading (an old issue, Summer 2010) about a new law in New York that attempts to change the story. Instead of arresting 12 yr. old girls for prostitution, the police are supposed to get those girls to services that will help them into a more humane life. Ai! What a world, huh? Richard says that when he first encountered these Otro Servicios ads, he asked his amigo if prostitution was legal in Chile. Not on the streets, he was told.
According to the Ms article, Atlanta, GA tried to pass a similar law but was not successful. Here's the 2010 mayor's effort in Atlanta: