ATDTDA (7): 200-201 decoding

[Peter Petto]

Nochecita - is this supposed to be a town? if so 
I don't find it on the map. It's the name of a 
book by Yuyi Morales, and a song by Flaco Jimenez 
(where's Ry Cooder in this mix?); and it means 
night, or little night in Spanish.

vermilion - this word jumps out at me, because 
it's the name of an album I like by Continental 
Drifters (and a small harbor town on Lake Erie 
not too far from where I'm sitting now.) I doubt 
that either was the reference here. It is a 
mineral-based reddish-orange pigment. I remember 
running into a character once who had a 
world-view as elaborate as any Sanskrit 
mythology, all based upon our under-appreciation 
of the importance of vermilion.

taquerías - Spanish for Taco Shop? although also 
a reference to street vendors of fast food; I 
actually thought it was a made-up word for 
Mexican food brought north in the tradition of 
Starbucks lingo -- but I was wrong

venison chili - well, it's chili made with 
venison. I only draw attention to it because it 
was described as a favorite meal of Ken Kesey in 
Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool Aid Acid Test; which 
reports that Ken laced it with drug samples that 
he'd bring home from the Menlo Park VA Hospital.

natatorium - a building that contains a swimming 
pool -- I don't know if it is meant conveys the 
sense that the name is fancy and highfalutin 
(because the reality is just the opposite) but it 
makes me think of the names of streets I traverse 
in our local suburban sprawl (such as Holden's 
Arbor Run.)


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Peter Petto <ppetto at apk.net>
Bay Village, OH