World Cup: Mexico and mice, small and big
The Mexican national side is derisively called the Ratoncitos Verdes (the small green mice) because of our known capacity to play surprisingly badly with all comers. For example, last year we nearly lost our World Cup ticket by, among other disappointing results, losing to Trinidad and Tobago in Port au Prince. I'd never heard a "foreign national" use the term, but in the spirit of WAIS I'll suppose David was just teasing.
In any case, if yesterday's match was played by rodents, they were big and fierce (if you'll forgive a little stereotypical Latin bravado); Croatia was practically erased from the pitch except for a few corner shots. This was disappointing since in 1998 they beat Holland for a third place World Cup standing.
I wish the US good luck in their opener against Portugal Wednesday morning. That will be a tough game!"
My answers: Emotions are WAIS, provided they are politely expressed. If your team is defeated, respect that rule. I recently posted a rude, unWAIS message really to show how unWAIS it was, Secondly, the intricacies of soccer are exceeded by those of the Spanish language. I suppose the Mexican team is called green because of the color of its shirts. But ratoncitos creates a problem. The suffix ón is supposed to be an augmentative. e.g. caja, cajón. But in ratón, mouse, it is a diminutive. David slyly called them ratonzotes, big ugly mice. I think the Mexican team now deserves to be treated with more respect. Incidentally, David Crow is an honorary Mexican.
Ronald Hilton - 6/4/02
From Mexico, Raúl Escalante writes: "I'm hard pressed to stop chuckling. I sincerely thank David Crow for his congratulations but am vaguely suspicious of his intent :¬) (by the way, are emotions WAIS? They certainly make email communication more effective).
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