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If you own a car or light truck ...or maybe just have paused to wonder while looking out the window of a taxi or bondi ...you might be interested in the mysterious way license plates in Argentina are numbered.

Another thing about patentes here that we yanquis find curious is that different provinces don't have different plates ...like our states do.

The modern method here is so much like my Illinois that I barely noticed.  But there are some variations around town that have caught my eye ...as well as the habit of country people of painting their own plates or just painting the license number directly on their car like aircraft or boats do!  Today I stumbled on an article in Wikipedia that explains it all.

Today's "3 letter/3 number" scheme dates from 1994 when private passenger vehicles were required to display the national plate that we all know ...that is issued in alphanumeric order no matter where you live in Argentina.

Before that, however, there was a national license plate that you can still see sometimes: an all-black plate with nothing more than a white letter followed by 6 white numbers.  Sometimes it was the size of a European plate ...sometimes it was the size used today.

The "letter" was supposed to be the first letter of the name of the province the car was from.  That was cool... except that Capital called dibs on "C" so Córdoba was stuck with "X".  La Pampa took "L" so La Rioja got "F" ...and poor Formosa, the only province that begins with F, was forced to use "P".  Mendoza got "M" but did Neuquen get a "N"?  No.  Missiones grabbed "N"... leaving pobre Neuquen with "Q".  Jujuy, with TWO "J's" was forced to take "Y" in favor of San Juan.

That lettering system may strike you and me as wacky ...but the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) thought it was so good that they still use it today.  And if you look at the postal codes for Argentina, you can see that they survive there as well!

But as you might have guessed, that system was only good for a million vehicles in each province.  Two places exceeded 1,000,000 pretty quick: Capital and Buenos Aires Province.  What to do?  Put the "1" underneath the letter!  That explains a few weird ones like this you might have seen.

For any good yanqui kid who's ever been on a roadtrip, however, the standardized license plate in Argentina is just plain boring.  I wonder if pre-1972 Argentine kids came to regret not having permission to slug their brother in the shoulder upon seeing these two beauties.

Although it probably made it easier for the provinces to simply assume the standard plate and numbering system, any time you lose public graphics like this in your daily life, an angel somewhere has to be shedding a tear.

Not only that, I have a theory that the nickname for Capital, "Baires", comes from those days and the abbreviation at the bottom of license plates like the big one at the top of this post.

One entertaining thing about the current standard is that no combination of three letters is prohibited (unlike countries like Germany where any random combination that smacks of the Nazi era are taken out of the mix.)  That leaves you with plates like ANY 427, BUG 014, CIA 911, FAG 567, FBI 256 and a bunch more.

If, however, you're looking for JEW 711 or even USA 001... we're only up to about INZ 000. 

And there you have the trouble brewing with today's national standard used since 1995.  We've already burned through about half of the available combinations ...and we're pickin' up speed.

Although it's possible to get 17,576,000 variations with three letters and three numbers, plates beginning with RAA to ZZZ were reserved from the start as replacements for older cars with the cool old plates.  New cars started out with AAA 000 on 1/1/1995.

It took 15 years to get to this point and, unless they start re-issuing old numbers, we're gonna need a new system.  The quickest fix would be to add a letter; that would give Argentina an extra half a billion new chapas patentes the same day.

More yanquis for Buenos Aires?

I guess it could be true.

Two more stories came in over the transom today regarding the phenomenon and its accompanying reportage: this one from Reuters ...and this one from Bill Bonner who has developed a lot of expertise regarding Argentina (he owns a ranch in Salta and his son, Will Bonner, is the head blogger what's in charge at Discovering Buenos Aires.)

The graphic to the left links to Taos Turner's examination of the recent Clarín article and video on the same meme. My post about a possible "second wave" of expats to Argentina mentions two international blog posts that seemed to have lit the fuse as to the Argentine media's renewed fascination with the subject. But like Taos wrote, "Every six months or so local newspapers like Clarín and La Nación write stories about foreigners living in Argentina."

The Reuters and the Bill Bonner articles came in about the same time as I was speaking today with Fred of Fourpoint Report. Fred was in a television studio today recording a program with María Laura Santillán of "Argentina Para Armar" on TN.

Fred was part of a panel discussion with an Argentine expert on immigration and four other yanquis (prominently including Martin Frankel of Expat Connection.) I'll let you know about airing times when I find out.

I've been suspicious, however, about this latest trend toward exploring the foreigners (not all yanquis) that are supposedly flocking to Buenos Aires and Argentina in general in order to escape the recent economic crisis.

On March 4, two big blogposts hit the ether: from gawker.com and from blackbookmag.com ...those posts, to my mind, generated the current stir.

The current interest in the press is probably just more of the same-old, same-old ...except this time with even less good reporting and, probably, just a tie-in to the widely reported economic crises in the US (something that impresses the average Argentine as much as yanquis moving to Argentina.)

But I can't seem to shake the notion that this time it's different.

This recent interest shown in the Buenos Aires media strikes me as a sea change in the attitudes of people in Buenos Aires (and, to a slightly lesser degree, Argentines in general) toward the foreigners that almost crowd certain corners of Capital Federal.

First, the fact that the US could be suffering economically surprises the average citizen here. Secondly, the very idea that yanquis might be fleeing the US because of the current straits is almost unimaginable. Third, for US citizens to choose Argentina as an economic refuge just plain boggles the mind of any South American considering that the Colossus of the North has been the ambition of the ambitious for a very long time.

The story of Americans fleeing, if true at all, is not picking up too much traction beyond the usual story of foriegners in Buenos Aires that have become commonplace since the un-pegging of the peso to the dollar in 2001. The potential of it morphing into something new, however, looms on the horizon. A new variant is available to any enterprising journalist seeking both to push circulation and catch the wave: "there are now two kinds of foreigners."

Most Argentines believe that all foreigners here are rich. That may seem ridiculous to the foreigners themselves ...but perfectly in line with the empirical evidence experienced by local residents. People here have met many foreigners and they have all been wealthy enough to warrant that label at least somewhat.

Since the devaluation of the Argentine Peso, however, many foreigners of lesser means have taken up residence here. Those new arrivals were bundled into the prevailing attitude regarding the economic status regarding foreigners in general. Their assumed high economic status was never in question.

The idea now that not all foreigners here are rich ...is taking some time to sink in. I think that it will, however.

The traditional attitude in this most cosmopolitan of South American cities is based on good, overwhelming, personal observation of facts collected during the 100 years or so in which tourism to Argentina never existed ...not based on something uninformed nor ignorant.

When the idea finally does sink in, however, a certain immunity enjoyed by rich foreigners and poor ones alike will disappear ...and it will be felt by both groups. We should all expect to have to describe ourselves, on occasion, as to which category we personally belong: the "usual" rich...

...or the refugees from the kind of crisis with which Argentina is well acquainted ...but something virtually unknown to ourselves.

Yanqui takes lead in Today's Dakar

18:49 - Bike
2 - Marc Coma loses a quarter of an hour

Timed at 6h56’51", the leader in the general standings, Spanish biker Marc Coma (KTM) a lost 15’45" on today’s winner, Jonah Street (KTM). As for Cyril Despres (KTM), he also lost 14’46" on the young American rider.

18:47 - Bike
26 - First stage victory for Street

As the first 5 cars have now reached the end of this 5th special stage, American rider Jonah Street (KTM) has been so far timed in the lead of the stage rankings, 7’34" ahead of Chile’s Francisco Lopez (KTM) and 11’12 ahead of Frenchman David Frétigné and his 450cc Yamaha.

This just in: Dakar claims life of French motorcycle rider
( Reuters)
BUENOS AIRES, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The Dakar Rally retained its deadly reputation despite a change of continent when the body of a 49-year-old French motorcycle rider was found early on Wednesday morning.
"We are saddened to learn that Pascal Terry was found dead in the night from Jan 6 to 7 at 0210 am," organisers said in a statement. "He was in a place very hard to access in the middle of heavy bushes, some 15 metres from his bike. He had his helmet off and had found some shadow."

Marc Coma still leads Dakar

Spain's Marc Coma has finished first again in today's Stage 3 from Puerto Madryn to Jacobacci, Rio Negro.

"Pending validation, Spanish rider Marc Coma (KTM) easily won this 3rd staget, 17’49" ahead of his team mate and countryman Jordi Viladoms (KTM) and Norway’s Pal-Anders Ullevalseter (KTM), both tieing in 2nd place. The third fastest time of the stage goes to France’s David Casteu (KTM) checking 18’16" behind the winner. By a way of consequence, in the overall rankings, Coma now has a 39’11" lead over Frenchman David Frétigné (Yamaha), also leader in the 450cc category and a 41’14" lead over Dutchman Frans Verhoeven (KTM), who is the leader in the marathn category."

Dakar - una gauchada

Dakar motorcycle driver, Marc Coma of Spain, was leading the pack yesterday and got off to a very good start today until...

"I had a serious problem because at kilometre 100 my oil radiator sprang a leak. I do not know why, as I did not notice anything out of the ordinary, but actually there was a loss of oil pressure and that is an important problem. At kilometre 108 I stopped to try and solve the problem with a paste we carry. In the end I half-solved the problem, but it began to leak again."

Km108, somewhere between Santa Rosa de la Pampa and Puerto Madryn, doesn't have too many spectators. Coma told the press today that this kind of problem can put you completely out of the rally.

About 10k back up the road, Coma had tried to buy some oil but was told that none was available. He was ready to write-off his 2009 attempt ...when he noticed a child had appeared next to his racing machine. "¿Te faltas algo?" The competitor told the kid that he needed a liter of oil.

"In 5 minutes, I was presented with oil."

After finishing in top place yesterday, Coma finished today 12 minutes behind the number one position. He still leads overall by 13 minutes.

Dakar Fever in Buenos Aires

The teams all over Buenos Aires are champin' at the bit this new year's day in Argentina! We talked to one lodged in the hotel across the street from our apartment today. They're thinking about last minute items that they should have procured ...on a day when everything is closed!

I'm catchin' the fever a bit this year because not only do I have a support crew living across the street from me ...but the route of this year's race goes right by our cattle ranch!

The Dutch team we spoke to badly needed camping equipment ...originally they were under the impression that there would be hotels all along the 10,000km route from Buenos Aires ...and back again to Buenos Aires ala The Motorcycle Diaries.

Not even the teams know where the starting line will be Saturday ...that will be announced only hours in advance.

Dig the site: www.dakar.com ...and some photos I took of the team across the street.

R.I.P. Bobby Fischer

(New York Times) Through July and most of August 1972, the attention of the world was riveted on the Spassky-Fischer match. Americans who didn’t know a Ruy Lopez from a Poisoned Pawn watched a hitherto unknown commentator named Shelby Lyman explain each game on public television. All this was Mr. Fischer’s doing. Bobby Fischer the rebel, the enfant-terrible, the tantrum-thrower, the uncompromising savage of the chess board, had captured the imagination of the world. Because of him, for the first time in the United States, the game, with all its arcana and intimations of nerdiness, was cool. And when it was over, he walked away with a winner’s purse of $250,000, a sum that staggered anyone ever associated with chess. When Mr. Spassky won the world championship, his prize was $1,400.

“That’s really how chess teaching began,” recalled Bruce Pandolfini, whose career as a teacher and writer was launched after he appeared with Mr. Lyman on public television. “Chess teachers didn’t really exist before 1972, not in any real numbers, but people started calling in to PBS, and they gave me a list of names, about 300 people. I charged $15 an hour and I encouraged others to do the same. I went from shelving books at the Strand bookstore to being a well-paid chess teacher.”

(wiki) Unsuccessful World Championship bid (1960-62) In 1960, Fischer tied for first with the young Soviet star Boris Spassky at the strong Mar del Plata tournament in Argentina, with the two well ahead of the rest of the field, scoring 13.5/15. Fischer lost only to Spassky, and this was the start of their relationship, which began on a friendly basis and stayed that way, in spite of Fischer's troubles on the board against Spassky.

Fischer struggled in the subsequent Buenos Aires tournament, finishing with 8.5/19. The tournament was won by Soviet Viktor Korchnoi and Samuel Reshevsky, the many-time U.S. Champion and one of the world's strongest players, each scoring 13/19.

This was the only real failure of Fischer's competitive career.

Class Hardens for Argentina's Poor

"For years, it was a common Argentine assumption that a taxi driver's son could become a lawyer, the plumber's daughter a psychoanalyst.

But not any more.

On a recent day, Ms. Tedin looks at the woman caring for her four small children in their rambling home in a gated community outside Buenos Aires and shakes her head sadly. Today, she says, maids' children will be maids."

Christ! It's 95° again!

It's hot right now in Buenos Aires. That's nothin' crazy: its summer. What kinda gets me, though, is that it was 95F/35C last night at 3 in the morning!

I'm feeling it because our new digs never had A/C... and we've been trying to find time to decide on what unit we want and how much we want to pay for it. My Missus is also predicting power outages this summer which would leave us feeling like we had a brand-new Lexus in the driveway... and no gas to be had.

For you out-of-towners (at least Midwesterners), 95/35 is not too hard to bear here because the humidity is only about 37%. Back in continental Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, Memphis the humidity on a hot day like this would probably be 95%. Add to the equation that my neighborhood is very breezy and we have great cross-ventilation and you've got some very livable thermic sensation.

For you that live here, you've no doubt either fielded a few questions about the weather here and/or weathered the pitying gazes from people that can't imagine why you would want to live in the jungles of South America. Like my Father, it's hard to dissuade them of the notion that Buenos Aires is the Capital of Brazil.

But overnight temps like last night are what global warming is all about. The last couple of decades have shown increases in daytime temps... but the real jump has been in how nighttime just doesn't cool off on Planet Earth the way it used to.

Personally, I think that Baires has better weather than Hawaii.

Update: a new record, 101.1F at 4pm today.

However, for those scatterings of days each summer when the mercury rises, I recommend to you a favorite cure of mine: The Michelada.

Calling the Michelada the "Bloody Mary of Mexico" is a pretty good description... if only for the reason that so many versions exist.

My personal fix is of the truly minimalist style: beer, ice, lime, and salt. I remember the first time I ever heard that recipe... and I thought it was about the most disgusting concoction anyone had ever described to me. Then I tasted it on a hot day in Jalisco. Yum. A true heat-beater.

It's also compared to the Bloody Mary in that it often contains tomato juice and/or hot sauce and/or salsa inglesa.

Another reason for comparing it to the Bloody is that is widely regarded as a hangover cure... something that I found out one day in Mexico City's Colonia Tabacalera as I sidled up to the bar of a fine establishment awaiting the sun's crossing of the yardarm. My selection of the Michelada was strangely received with respectful nods from the barman... no doubt in honor of my imagined excess the night before.

Wiki Michelada

Hey! I just read the wiki article and there apparently is an Argentine connection to the Michelada now! "Recently, San Antonio Spurs Champion Manu Ginobili has a variation of the recipe named for him as the "Manuchelada"

Summer's Here and the Time is Right...

I truly ADORE Spring in both the city and the province of Buenos Aires Argentina!

However, being in the cattle bidness (and now, in the planter game)... I'm glad to see primavera over and done with. There's much less work in Summer.

If you include a little post-solstice flurry, this year has been, how shall we say?, HELLACIOUS for my Missus and I.

In no particular order:

We built a bridge (yes, Virginia), we planted crops (corn, soy, linen) for the first time since dinosaurios trod our fair turf, got rid of all our 150 sheep, we retired on full pension a gaucho after 40 sterling years of service to the S.A., we hired his son, we fired his son under very contentious circumstances who took all his horses, ended up with no horses, we bought a beautiful horse that we later discovered was pregnant... so we couldn't work her but she was so beautiful that we couldn't bring ourselves to go get our refund, we busted the budget by buying another horse, we had a baby horse, we hired the fired gaucho's brother, we went separate ways with the fired gaucho's brother under friendly circumstances, we hired a third young gaucho and his pregnant wife who had worked at another estancia under rather brutal circumstances and welcomed them with open arms to our little section of paradise, a big portion of our herd of sweet young heifers contracted venereal disease from a dirty neighbor's bull (we had to turn them into bifes), we bought a load of beautiful pregnant young cows, we selected a fine bunch of young heifers to artificially inseminate with some champion spooie, a particularly "driven" young bull of ours for whom electric fences meant nothing as barrier to true love impregnated about half of the young lovelies we were saving for artificial insemination, we turned a particularly "driven" young bull into Big Macs, we inseminated the remaining 22 heifers with Lo de FELIPE!, we built/replaced so many fences that we now have a full-time fence builder on the payroll, we planted our own acreage of sorghum and corn as feed for our cattle in case of drought in the pastures, we moved from our cave-like apartment into a big sunny place... much to the distress of our pet monkey-rat which was originally represented to us by the animal shelter as a cat, I was elected Chairman of the US Democratic Party in Argentina, we finally convinced our aging mater-familias to accept a wonderful young woman as her live-in companion, I took my first university level class completely in Spanish... and passed! and learned something!, we joined a terrific group of revolutionaries devoted to implementing the most modern methods of agriculture in the grand pastures of our area, I sprouted seeds of okra, collard greens, epazote, and mint for mojitos on our new sunny balcony, I committed myself to growing acres of a "secret crop" heretofore unknown in Argentina next spring.

God knows that there was more... I just can't think of it right now.

It's been a good year... but I'm glad it's over.

Afternoon in Almagro

My favorite barrio, Almagro. "Almagro de mi vida... barrio de me sueños", goes the old tango.

Most expats don't know it. Tango people know it pretty well. If you've been on the bares and cafés safari you may have made your way up out of the subte to visit Las Violetas which is growing a soul again after being closed and gutted for many years (ya know, once they lose their chairs and tables...) The neighborhood at least used to be the center for boxing in Buenos Aires. (Maybe the words of The Poet are whispering to me, "It used to be a writer's town, it's always been a fighter's town."

I can't explain why I always feel so good, so full of peace... so much at home when I'm strolling through those callecitos between Rivadavia y Belgrano. Ordinary people doing ordinary things. Living in ordinary homes going to ordinary jobs under the trees that line the ordinary sidewalks... it seems unchanging to me. I'm comforted and I don't know how to put it other than I feel a love for every person on the sidewalks, at the bus stops, poking their heads into little kioscos.

I had to put the old coche in the shop for a check-up. That meant stopping into my mecánico's storefront taller in the middle of the residential street of Quito. Always a pleasure (Imagine that! Always a pleasure to visit your mechanic! Such is the magic of Almagro.)

My mechanic being a problem-solver by nature, likes to hear me speak castellano. Listening to me speak his native tongue is probably like finding the source of a leak, the origin of a strange tapping, the mysterious location of a short. It's fun for him and he always finds it. My being an amateur motor-head makes it even more fun for him (after I told him that I once owned a '73 Coupe de Ville with a 501 cu. in. engine... the largest production engine ever made... I was permanently promoted to honored guest.)

He welcomed me into his little office at the back of what could be a large suburban US residential garage, except that its about twice as deep and we shared mate with another friend/customer. We chatted and chewed the fat about Buenos Aires, cows in the province, comparative crime-rates in other countries, food, all in the most relaxed and friendly and... dare I say it... civilized manner. Three people, sucking a bombilla and smoking cigarettes and taking a moment. A moment to live, a moment to be human, a moment not to be happy about what the world gives you... but, rather, to be happy about the things that the world does not take from you.

Leaving the ol' boat with him overnight required me to hoof it back toward the nearest mass-transit. What perfect weather was today! "Un día peronista!", they say because it smiles down upon rich and poor alike. I looked around a bit for a familiar bus line but decided in the end to make my way to one of the old wooden subway cars and transfer at Lima.

Almagro, being almost dead-center in the city, can be hot as summer approaches. Today the air was magic. I felt I was swaddled in silk or in some sort of perfect liquid as I made my way in the late afternoon along the veredas with everyone else. On Castro Barros, I decided to avail myself of the fine facilities at Tuñin and fortify by sitting outside for an ice cold beer and a slice of napolitana. It was out of this world with it's perfectly crunchy crust, great cheese, a big green olive, tomato slices... and a bunch of freshly minced garlic and other spices. (Whadda pizza town this is!) Just a few minutes, to read the house Clarín, munch, slurp and smoke... in a kind of peacefulness, on a sidewalk, in the midst of a burgeoning rush-hour. Maybe my memory is fading me but I can't remember a similar experience in the old country.

I hope you had a wonderful day too,
Mike

Man down in Recoleta...

A Texan in Argentina has the story...

Reuters: Prices up 9% Over Last Year

By Cesar Illiano and Lucas Bergman

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Rising commodities prices are stoking inflation in Latin America, a trend that will force monetary officials to further raise interest rates to stop their booming economies from overheating.

Analysts say rising global demand for raw materials such as oil, grains and biofuels, coupled with high public spending by Latin American governments is creating a potentially dangerous inflation cocktail in the region, though for now the situation remains under control.

"Governments will be obliged to tighten monetary policies because the phenomenon of inflation will continue to grow due to domestic consumption, " said Enrique Alvarez, Latin America debt strategist with IDEAglobal.

Interest rate rises, increasing reserve requirements for banks, or reduced public spending are among restrictive policies that could be coming as Latin American governments seek to tame price rises.

Earlier this year inflation concerns were concentrated in Venezuela, which has double-digit inflation, and Argentina, where consumer prices are up almost 9.0 percent over the last 12 months.

Things Argentines can't believe about the US #352

One evening I mentioned to the owner of the Buenos Aires Expatriates Group that I feel that a poor Argentine has a much better chance of getting medical care than a poor Yanqui. He literally sputtered in red, white & blue indignation and said that I had become an "America hater."

El Eternauta

The Spanish language news agency EFE has an article today commemorating the 50th anniversary of the appearance of the SF comics series El Eternauta ...and the 30th anniversary of the author, Héctor Germán Oesterheld, getting disappeared by the military dictatorship that subjugated Argentina from 1975 to 1983.

The series holds a special place in the hearts of Argentines not only because it is considered one of the most important of the 20th century but for its political activism in its second incarnation.

Oesterheld was the writer of the series and worked with the artist Francisco Solano López (who himself was forced to flee Argentina twice and eventually settled in Brazil.) describing a time traveler and a struggle against an alien invasion. The series and his other writings became increasingly political during the 1960's until he resurrected the series in 1975 as an open critique of the dictadura.

He was disappeared along with his four politically active daughters and their husbands. His grandchild was born during the process of their being murdered and was later united with Oesterheld's widow, Elsa Sánchez, who became a spokesperson for the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.

A compendium of both Parts 1 and 2 of the series was published in paperback book form by El Clarín in 2004 in the Biblioteca Clarín de la Historieta series and was widely available in kioscos. It reads well all these years later and is worth picking up if you can run across it.

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Jack Chang files a story on K's biggest battle yet. I love K in the city... but I hate him in the campo.

who likes the li'l li'l trolies in da pond?

They're not easy to catch... and they're not like leprechauns that come with a pot of gold at the end of their embarrassing li'l rainbows... but IT SURE IS FUN when you catch one... or two... or three!

Now, it's true, that IP addresses change and banning them doesn't work. However.

When you get a string of them all from the same IP... with all the different nicknames and aliases... you at least know that it's just ONE LITTLE TROLL and not an army of concerned citizens speaking with the same voice.

El rincón del desquiciado won't stop them... nothing stops trolls.

But it might force the cute little babies out of the comfort of their frilly li'l cribs and into those nasty locutorios where they'll have to have a little of the "mutual understanding between races" that they crave so much. Hee hee! Big fun.

"SLATS" JOHNSON SPEAKS!

THE YM INTERVIEW
...with Bob Johnson

Last week I ran into Bob Johnson in the callecitas of Retiro while he was wandering down Esmeralda perusing the window displays of the hardware stores, mercerías, and tack shops.

He seemed genuinely pleased to see me and we made arrangements to meet a few days later for an afternoon beer in a local strip joint...that being the only kind of place left in town where you can smoke at the bar.

I've always liked Bob. Like me, he's originally from Chicago, he has a great old Chicago nickname: "Slats", and now makes Buenos Aires his home with his Argentine wife, Chiche. But other than that we're not much alike.

Bob moved here right after the crash and soon had put together a string of successful locutorios. About 3 years ago, he sold them all and bought two big blueberry farms somewhere way out in the province.

We met just as scheduled on that crispy autumn afternoon and ducked inside the friendly confines of the bar. We had the place all to ourselves except for a couple of very bored looking girls in fishnet stockings and bowties who brightened up considerably until we passed them on our way to the big hardwood slab with the stools and big ceramic ashtrays.

It was dark inside compared to the bright fall skies and we felt warm and cozy ensconced in the smoke and dim light. Forty pesos brought forth two ice cold cans of Isenbeck and we drank to each other's very good health.

....."So how's the blog thing coming along?", he asked me. I was sort of startled that he remembered my mentioning my blog to him about a year ago.

I told him it was doing just fine and couldn't help but remark that I didn't think he'd ever really look at it. He just didn't seem to be the blog reading type...whatever type that is.

..... "Well, you know, the blueberry thing doesn't actually run itself but it doesn't take up my time like the old days. Not to even mention the 10-hour days on top of a 2-hour commute back in the old country!" We both laughed, clinked our aluminum cans together and knocked back the last swigs. I called for two more.

My curiosity having been piqued, I asked him what he thought about the redesigned yanquimike punto com punto ar.

..... "Disturbing."

That wasn't the sort of reaction I was expecting...and he could tell by the look on my face.

..... "No, no! Not your redesign! That's fine. A little wacky at first but I got the hang of it after a while.

"What really got to me was a couple of the blogs I found. Both of them written by American guys."

I'm aware, of course, that there are a few blogs run by yanquis that are pretty offensive when they're not being flat-out arrogant and rude to Argentines. I made a few guesses as to what blogs he was refering to.

..... "Nah, none of those guys. You kinda know what to expect from that bunch so I avoid them. What I'm talkin' about is two guys that I've actually met and they're really nice fellas! Friendly, interesting company, intelligent guys. And some of the nicest things I ever read about BA, I read on their blogs. They're nothing like some of them that you find at baexpats.com"

Our third round of beers had just arrived and I was starting to wonder if the suds was already affecting our higher processes.

What could be disturbing about two yanqs, good guys, saying great things about our new hometown?

..... "One of the posts was about residential real estate by a young guy and the other was a nostalgic look at a bunch of little things about Buenos Aires."

I took another slurp out of my can and realized I'd seen both of those blogs. I asked him if those were the posts he was talking about.

..... "Yeah! Those ones! One time I just had to shut my browser down. Me hacía sentir tanto vergüenza ajena", he said in his hilariously accented Castellano.

I was pretty sure that I remembered the posts but I certainly didn't recall anything out of the ordinary and I told him so.

..... "You gotta be kiddin' me. Are you sure you read them? Here. Lemme refresh your memory a little bit.

"The young guy starts off talkin' about how apartments here are different from the States then ends up writin' about how Argentineans discriminate against people because of class and race. The other guy is tryin' to tell people about how a lot of things here remind him of when he was a kid in the 1960's but comes off like he thinks that Buenos Aires is 50 years behind the times!"

Maybe Bob had a point but I reminded him that everybody that lives here knows for a fact that rich porteños don't hang out with poor porteños and if you have dark skin here people are going to occasionally mistake you for the busboy or the portero even if you have a PhD.

....."A course! Any modern industrial society has got class distinctions and whiter, European types always have the best seats at the top. Everybody knows that!"

Now he had me even more confused. So I decided to ask him about the post about old-fashioned stuff about Baires.

....."Hey, I know what the guy was gettin' at. Any American who loves this place has got a couple two tree favorite things that he misses from his childhood that everybody still does here.

"But you gotta be careful! I'm talkin' about being careful not to make it sound like this is Havana or somethin'.

"And another thing! You gotta keep your facts straight if you're gonna do that.

"Garbage disposals were illegal in New York until 10 years ago, the 60's were the gaddam heyday of the automatic transmission and YOU, Mikey, sure as shit, gotta remember back in 1995 when 600 people dropped dead from the heat in Chicago that summer!

"Why'd they drop dead? 'Cause nobody within half a mile from the lake ever had AC as standard equipment!

"They were pulling rich old blue-haired ladies out of their fancy apartments for months."

I like Bob but this was getting out of hand.

He had, however, already ordered another round. The bartender looked at us like he had never seen two guys drink 4 beers each.

I thought I'd try agreeing with him on a couple of points...just to calm him down if nothing else. I conceded that some of the facts were wrong.

..... "Si, Juan. What's the real estate kid's excuse? Like it or not, you and I both know we come from one of the most divided countries on earth and the most famous one when it comes to racism. What'd the kid think: nobody here knows that?

"Anyway, Mike, that isn't the point and you know it. What were these guys tryin' to say, for chrissakes? And why were they havin' such a hard time sayin' it?"

I had no answer. Bob knew these guys, not me. I pointed out that not everybody can write.

..... "Not these guys", he said. "the real estate kid is the son of of a famous Philadelphia author and the old guy is a tenured professor from some Ivy League university. If anybody can write it oughta be these two."

I didn't know what to say.

..... "Ya see, these are some of our best. The United States has its share of assholes like every other country you've ever been in.

"But these guys are buen tipos. Bot' of 'em prolly voted Democrat!

"It almost feels like people don't feel any responsibility. My dear ol' uncle, not Mom's side of the family, the other one, god rest his soul, used to talk about going overseas back in the old days. He always said that his family and friends would tell him to represent his country well. He always said it felt like being an ambassador or something. Right now, 21% of Americans have a passport. And that's a record!

"Maybe moving to a foreign country doesn't feel like such a big deal anymore with the internet and satelite communcation and whatnot. But Christ! Who are these guys writing for? Both of 'em gotta know that when you put something out on the internet, EVERYBODY can see it. Don't they think Argies ever speak English, don't they think that one of their friends might translate it for 'em even if they don't?

"When you talk about somebody's hometown you have to be sensible, I like that word. Sensible. It doesn't mean exactly the same thing in Spanish, maybe it's even better.

"It's like talkin' about somebody's mother or their sister. If somebody started talkin' about how your mother drinks a little too much or how many guys your sister has slept with, well, Mikey, you know, he'd better be pretty careful in his choice of words! If da guy's an idiot, you might cut him some slack. But if the guy doesn't have any psychological excuses and raises his voice a little, he's gotta expect a swing at his nose. Doesn't he, Mike? Doesn't he?

"Aaaah, ¿que se yo?. ¿Que te parece? ¿Querés una más para el camino?"

I consented to the beer, since Bob was buying, and because it looked like we would talk about something more pleasant. I asked him how his blueberry farms were doing.

....."Byooootiful. I've made a pile o' dough and I think it's time to get out while the gettin' is good."

A third business for Bob since 2000? I asked what his plans were.

..... "It's time to move south, Mikeyboy! Did you know that in Patagonia you can buy a hectare of land for the same price as a cup of coffee in Madrid?!? Watch me! I'm gonna make another killin'!

It was good to hear that Bob was doing well. Bob paid the bartender and we headed for the door.

The sun outside was blinding and the air was chilly. I fumbled for my wayfarers® and my scarf as we said goodbye.

..... "Hey, Mike," he called back to me as we walked away from each other. "Did you take my advice on those soybeans?"

I nodded and waived.

..... "Good move!"

The Buck Doesn't Stop in Argentina

If you moved to Argentina to protect the strength of your USD, you made a good move. Currency traders have come to the conclusion that the Kirchner administration will not allow the dollar to buy much less than 3.10 pesos, according to today's Ambito Financiero.

They go on to mention how this helps Argentine competitiveness in the world markets in that the world would rather buy exports from here considering the going rate and that allows La República to pick-off customers from other countries. At the same time this keeps we locals from buying many imports... thus stimulating local producers to create Argentine "replacements" for the foreign stuff we would otherwise shell-out for.

Of course, this means lots of good hard foreign currencies flowing into the country and not as many pesos going out into the world. That combination makes for the inflation you may have been feeling... and also gives K some serious dough to experiment with price controls aimed at keeping inflation down and stimulate certain parts of the economy that he would like to see grow. Let's wish him better luck than Dick Nixon had.

That inflation (relatively minor, truth be told) means that your dollar doesn't actually feel as good in your pocket as the papers all say it does but there's no denying that we are living in an island of protection for the greenback.

Take a look at Brazil: it wasn't too very long ago that the dollar bought 3.00 Brazilian Reals... today $1 will get you 1.98 reals and nobody thinks that is going to reverse itself.

The Euro today came within 1¢ of its all time high against the US currency. If you and your bucks were living in that zone right now... well... let's not even think about it.

Life in England and Japan, with their pounds and yen, haven't been a good deal for we Yanqs for a while but right now I can't imagine how fast your wallet would empty trying to keep house there.

But that's not all. The Canadian Dollar is closing in on a 29 year high. That old yanqui quip, "How much is that in REAL money?" isn't as funny for americanos around Toronto as it used to be.

So enjoy it while it lasts... and it looks like it's gonna last for a while... in Argentina, at least.