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Or, How the Peanuts gang finds relief from the big northern syndicate this Christmas
When I was a child, the holiday season’s shortest half-hour passed during the broadcast of Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown. That, and the other seasonal Peanuts specials, were always over too quickly. These cartoons enraptured everyone—even grownups who otherwise despised cartoons, like those [...]

I do not know how many of you in Readerland wonder why we say “Christopher Columbus” instead of Cristóbal Colón. But this time the wonderment comes from within this magazine. Our copy editor, Matt Bokor, has decided to flatter me by thinking I might be able to run with this question. OK, Matt — here [...]

So the six seasons are the two mini-seasons, and the before and after phases of the dry and wet seasons. Since winter and summer make little sense as universal terms, I would discard them. But I would use spring and autumn.

Speculation on the elusive and mischievous Chupacabra
Goatsuckers are not something you see every day. In fact, they are not something that most of us will ever see on any day. Nevertheless, so many Central Americans believe in their existence that, for their sakes, we need to give a fair hearing to the possibility. Whether goatsuckers [...]

Dealing with Lilliputian cans of sauce and questionable quantification quirkiness on our retail shelves
Tomato paste is mentioned in Guatemala’s Constitution. I have yet to find the paragraph, section, and clause, but I’m certain it is there.
The law in question requires all cans of tomato paste sold here to be the 6-ounce variety. You may occasionally [...]

Some simple steps to avoid the dangers that Hemispherical Discognizant Disorder can cause.
If you are a foreigner in Central America, some people in the home country think that you spend Christmas in sweltering heat and humidity.
“Oh, yeah,” they say. “Down there, the seasons are reversed and all that.”
The charitable response, the one I usually give, [...]

My sons are still in their cavity-prone years, so I attended 19 birthday parties last year—three for my boys and 16 for their playmates. Each had its odd turn or twist. To avoid the charge of ethnocentrism, I’ll admit here that Central Americans do no worse a job of honoring their birthday boys and girls [...]