Sidewalks and La Yerba Buena

Carlos and I got in contact with the copyright office. The Director over there thinks that the law is sorta BS, which from his perspective it sure is...librarians are always asking people do to labor-intensive things for what seems like little value. Anyway, we are going to stay in contact with him this afternoon. I didn't want to be rude with my comments about Carlos the other day, and I realize that all of us get too caught up with things sometimes. At times he is so well balanced and jovial, at others not so much -- figuring out a balance is the key for everyone. I read just today a NYT article about a writer who exposed too much of her personal life on her personal blog and also an infamous one named Gawker. Perhaps I let shine too brightly my passing criticism.

I was at the museum the other day, as you know, and thought that this photo came out well. It looks like something from 2001, I thought, which I reckon is what the curators were going for. I also saw a good example of a Paraguayan sidewalk that day, and this one may not be the worst. Paraguayans -- especially the drivers -- don't have too much patience for pedestrians, and you have exercise serious caution when crossing the street.

Oh yeah, I haven't yet solved the coffee issue, but wanted to say something about mate and tereré, which are the national beverages here. Both are basically a tea of various herbs with

certain medicinal qualities -- that people drink all day long. Mate is the hot version and tereré is cold. People can be seen everywhere with their thermos and ceramic or metal cups. They drink it through a metal straw with a strainer at the end, so that the herbs don't enter. It is especially funny to see them driving with their termo and trying to manage the auto while pouring fresh water over the herbs. The red thermos is that of my coworker, Carolina. They also have in abundance the yerba buena that we're more familiar with in the States, and thank goodness for that.