Thursday, July 12, 2007

Allow me to introduce...


Basho.

Basho is the Japanese word for "competition" but it turns out there was a poet named Basho as well.

Say the name slowly, three times: Basho. Basho. Basho. Kinda grows on you, doesn't it?

I acquired Basho in February. I was flying to Hawaii for vacation (brag brag) and read through the Skymall catalog the airline provides. When I saw Basho's picture, my first thought was "Why don't I already own that?" I promised myself that if I had any money left over when I got home I would buy a Basho.

And so I did. He sits by my front door, standing guard over my condo. So far, no ninja attacks.

Poor Basho was also at the center of a controversy. Shortly after I put him out one of my neighbors asked me to remove him. "We don't have that kind of thing here" she said. I said that I do and I like him so he's staying. A few days later she asked me again to remove Basho as he was "ugly". I replied that if he offends one, one is cordially invited to avert one's eyes. This went on for a bit, neither of us willing to back down. I should explain that I love my neighbor, so everything was said quite nicely.

A week or so later, said neighbor returned asking me once more to remove Basho. Again, I said no. Neighbor said a petition was going around the building asking for Basho's removal and that the petition would be sent to The Board. I said fine, everyone's entitled to an opinion, that's why they make chocolate and vanilla, etc., etc.

This was in March. After hearing the story, Keith bought a teeny-tiny little leprechaun hat and put it on Basho.

Well. People were stopping me all over the place to tell me how funny it was.

At that point we decided that Basho should be accessorized for each holiday and so far he has had bunny ears, a hardhat (lots of construction going on in the building), a sombrero (for Benito Juarez's birthday), a Mother's Day bonnet, Keith's father's cowboy hat and heaven only knows whatall else--I forget a lot of stuff.

Haven't heard a word about the petition since.

Interestingly, the people who seem to like him most are the guys who come to the building to do construction and repairs. Who knew?

1 comment:

Sue said...

I'm not crazy about Basho, but I must tell you I think your blog is one of the most interesting and funny ones I've read so far! I too sometimes wonder what is the point of some of the Blogger tools we are learning about. I am especially disappointed with RSS feeds. Or maybe just annoyed by them. Actually I just don't get it.
Thanks for your entertaining Blog:))