A beleza mineira

Dinner last night here reminded me of my one loooong trip to rural Brazil.

Girlwatching in Latin America is one of life's finest things, and I highly recommend it.

Oddly enough, this evening while reading back issues of Reason over dinner, another experience of Brazil came whistling back at me from memory like a volleyball from the back row. A section head in the article used a lyric from the song Barbie Girl.

Years ago, I was being driven around the town of Uberlândia with the local cable techs, installing a trial phone service on their 450-MHz cable system. The song came over the radio. One tech turned around in the front seat so he could face me, with a perplexed look on his face, to asked me, "What this means, 'Bobbie gehl'?"

My Portuguese was about as good as my Polish. His English was better than my Portuguese. I shrugged my shoulders. "The girl likes to party."