A realization

The bare minimum is probably a lot different than the bear minimum. Because, well... bears are greedy.

That realization reminded me of another that I had in ol' Mexico last month. 

On a return cab ride from Playa del Carmen (a fun little town), the driver and I were exchanging jokes. He spoke a little English... I, a little Spanish, so, our game was to translate the jokes we knew into the other's language. This game is difficult for less-than-fluent speakers, it turns out. And more than difficult, it is impossible to translate humor based on pun. 

In light of these facts, our game turned into a lesson, in which the cab driver schooled me in the Spanish vocabulary required to appreciate his jokes (at least, he hoped I might appreciate them--which, I did. But not as jokes, so much as linguistic artifacts). He also had to explain the mispronunciations common to some Spanish speakers, so that I could grasp the puns. 

An example: the punchline of one of his jokes was "agua, pato, mar". Literally: water, duck, sea. The joke resides in the fact that with a bit of lazy speach, another phrase, "water to drink", can be said in Spanish, "agua pa' tomar" (If you are having trouble imagining how this punchline could ever be the conclusion to anything funny, know this: I never said it was a good joke). 

All of this lead me to my realization: One should not, under any circumstance, attempt to smuggle puns across linguistic borders.