I passed this burnt husk of a car on Armenia & Paraguay in Palermo. Imagine a raging fire in this upper middle class neighborhood as the car flamed to crispy among the other parked cars on the street.
This is the second destroyed car I’ve seen in as many weeks. The first was on Gorriti & Armenia, and was unbelievably rusted, likely burned, as the seats and steering wheel were reduced to thin metal wires as with this one. These cars are about 8 blocks apart. What’s up, gang?
There are quite a few cars being burned in Recoleta, Villa del Parque, Devoto, and Palermo. One paper states 120 cars in a year have been set aflame in Buenos Aires. A group of anarchists called “Amigxs de la Tierra” are claiming responsibility for some of the burnings of high-end cars in wealthy areas. Other areas have also been targeted, with quemacoches in Nuñez, Villa Crespo, Villa Urquiza, Villa del Parque and Boedo. This article is about a car that was burned while in the garage. Unbelievably, the police have found people with containers of gasoline and fuses, and have let them go because they have to be caught in the act. I imagine the person in the Clarin article, who was apprehended by police near the wheel of a Toyota Prius about to light it up, was not let off so easily.
Chester Cheetah! Cheetos, Chizitos, whatever. Yellow crunchies that remind me of being kid.
Flurry of fonts at Taller Carlos
Bajón - downer, munchies, depression. Bajón is the fierce hunger people get after smoking weed, or it can be used as the desire for food to counter heavy drinking. Otherwise, it mainly refers to depression.
Que bajón! What a downer.
Me pego el bajón. I’ve got the munchies, bad. Pegar = hit
Me agarró el bajón. I’ve got the munchies. Agarrar = catch, grab, hold
Me pintó el bajón. I’ve got the munchies. Pintar = paint
Siempre estoy bajoneada. I’m always depressed. Stay away from someone who says that.
Note: you don’t have the munchies in castellano. They do a surprise sneak attack and hit you full on. I heard this used this to explain where the left over Chinese food went. Healthy snack food in da house! At least when I’m cooking. Gracias a Gabi, Andrés y Ignacio.
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My list of complaints is growing over our new neighbors. Coming home to the news that there were squatters possibly dealing drugs out of the house next door gave my brows a reflexive lift. The next contact was cringe worthy: awakening at 4am on a Sunday to a raucous sing along, better suited to happy hour drinking cum karaoke at 11pm. I like a lazy sunlit start to Sunday because I have no obligation to wake up. Stretching slowly, rolling to another part of the bed where the sheets are still crisp and cool. Now I have fears of stretching my toes and receiving a sting. I’m a midwesterner, we don’t do scorpions. The scorpion appeared two weeks after you arrived and disturbed the long vacant space, neighbor. Yes, I’m blaming that on you, too.
In my last house, I lived with stray cats. Crazy wild, moaning, mating stray cats that peed on everything in sight. Scorpions are relatively tame in comparison. The turtle here minds its own business. The birds stick to the trees, dipping down into the grass on occasion before flying away. There are a couple cats that show face in the garden, but they stalk the outer walls for easy escape.
Now, the squatters are using power tools and hammering at 11:41 PM. The electricity in our house is flickering. I’m pissed. I haven’t actually seen a neighbor, but now I imagine them as coked up squirrels, digging to bury illicit nuts in the backyard.
Ideal day: Drooling over yarn together in Milana and knitting in a bookstore cafe. It’s the only thing that makes the dreaded cast on bearable.
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Yarn store display window on Scalabrini Ortiz
There is a tradition in Buenos Aires that anytime you graduate from high school or university, your friends throw egg, flour, oil, and colored powders at you. Kind of like making you into a cake. These are the handprints of adult graduates on the building plaque for the Facultad de Medicina.
It started off with a request, “Babe, come here.” This from someone who is rinsing a shirt in the laundry room. “Hmm?” I look down, and high panic sets in. I’m instantly two steps away from the sink. “What is that!?” There’s a tiny scorpion in the sink, in the big city of Buenos Aires, which like most large cities overrun with human life, is pretty animal-dead except mosquitos, cats, rats, pigeons, and pets.
And scorpions?
It appeared dead but struck out with it’s tail when poked with a clothespin. There can’t be too many as it’s the first I’ve seen…well, ever, outside of a zoo. This midwesterner requires more research.
Last year a scorpion in the household was captured and taken to the Museum of Natural History for identification. “Don’t worry, it’s usually one of two types in Buenos Aires and most aren’t deadly. Oh, but this is a deadly one. Anyone in the house under 5? No? You should be good.”
That’s right, the Tityus trivittatus is the one we found. It is identifiable by it’s light honey brown carapace, 3 long stripes on the abdomen, thin pincers, double barbs on the stinger, and small size (rarely going beyond 6 cm/2.4 in). Tityus trivattatus causes the most deaths by scorpion bites in Argentina, reportedly 19 from 2000-2006, although the ones in Buenos Aires surveyed back in 2010 had less toxic venom than in other areas. Hello and thank you, city life?
Pubmed has an article on General biochemical and immunological characterization of the venom from the scorpion Tityus trivittatus of Argentina, as well as on a new venomous scorpion responsible for severe envenomation in Argentina: Tityus confluens, who’s venom is neutralized by the same anti-venom as Tityus trivittatus and can be considered as lethal.
If stung, immediate symptoms include high level of pain at the sting site (although perhaps not if one’s nervous system has abnormalities), rapid heart beat, high blood pressure, tearing, and salivation. Get ye to the HOSPITAL! and receive anti-venom produced by the Instituto Nacional de Producción de Biológicos (INPB).
These stinging arachnids have been around since the Silurian period, so something tells me they’re not easy to eradicate. They live 4-25 years and are found everywhere except Antarctica. Our wonderful species, Tityus trivittatus, reproduces asexually by laying eggs. The mother then carries the young on her back until their first moult. Each time the scorpion moults, they’re vulnerable for a short time and have to stretch often to maintain freedom of movement as their new exoskeleton hardens (sclerotization). Luckily for human, as it hardens, it begins to fluoresce or glow under UV light. Note to self: raver toolkit needed for a scorpion dance.
Scorpions hide from light and come out at night to hunt and feed. They are known to enter human dwellings in search of water. We found ours in the laundry room sink. Wikihow has some recommendations for proofing your home against them. One I noted is that scorpions can hang out in bedclothes or shoes, so shake them out before entering!
Author Fernando Sorrentino has some sage advice that involves mad scorpion trickery in his short story: Para defenderse de los escorpiones / To defend oneself from Scorpions. Also available in English and French. The original story in Spanish is from his book En defense propia, 1982. I’m in good company as I imagine them nipping at my toes and crawling up from the drains at night in search of a good eyeball to poke.
I searched for the “best granola recipe,” and two of the results on the first page were that of Nigella Lawson and David Lebovitz, and they’re both using the same recipe with minor variation. Score!
I’ve had to test the flexibility of this recipe as I can’t seem to find any sort of malt, rice or barley syrup. This is the Sweetner Substitution Chart I’ve settled on in lieu of using 2 or 3 sites. Beware, the conversions can vary around 1/4c especially with liquid to solid. With stevia substitution, it’s trickier. I’ve tried for the sweetners:
Delicious and Addictive
120g brown sugar + 100 g sugar
230 g brown sugar (brown sugar here isn’t as strongly molasses-flavored as light brown sugar in the states)
OK (Delicious to Those Who Know No Better)
1/4 c (80g) honey + 1/2 tsp stevia
I think part stevia and part sugar could work. I have to experiment a tad more with the stevia. Luckily, I make this twice a month as there are constant requests for more anytime we run out! I follow the recipe on the Lebovitz site - no raisins, more almonds, slightly more brown sugar, and occasionally I double the ginger and it’s still just a pleasing hint of flavor.
In emergency break the windows with the hammer.
