Take It Easy, Wall Street
Life in America in looking more like the early 1970’s every day.
This week has pretty much put an exclamation point on the state of the country. Some you will have a strong drink in a few hours, other will turn to other forms of recreation.
Like music....
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
Song lyrics are often subject to varied interpretations, but the mystery of the Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air has finally been revealed:
Personally I had the idea colitas was a type of desert flower. Apparently not.
Type “colitas” into a Web search engine and you get about 50 song-lyric hits plus, curiously, a bunch of citations from Mexican and Spanish restaurant menus. Hmm, one thinks, were the Eagles rhapsodizing about the smell of some good carryout?
We asked some native Spanish speakers and learned that colitas is the diminutive feminine plural of the Spanish cola, tail. Little tail. Looking for a little . . . we suddenly recalled a (male) friend’s guess that colitas referred to a certain feature of the female anatomy. We paused. Naah. Back to those menus. “Colitas de langosta enchiladas” was baby lobster tails simmered in hot sauce with Spanish rice. One thinks: you know, I could write a love song around a phrase like that.
Enough of these distractions. By and by a denizen of soc.culture.spain wrote: “Colitas is little tails, but here the author is referring to ‘colas,’ the tip of a marijuana branch, where it is more potent and with more sap (said to be the best part of the leaves).”
We knew with an instant shock of certainty that this was the correct interpretation. The Eagles, with the prescience given only to true artists, were touting the virtues of high-quality industrial hemp! And to think some people thought this song was about drugs.
OUR SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED
This E-mail just in from Eagles management honcho Irving Azoff: “In response to your [recent] memo, in 1976, during the writing of the song ‘Hotel California’ by Messrs. Henley and Frey, the word `colitas’ was translated for them by their Mexican-American road manager as ‘little buds.’ You have obviously already done the necessary extrapolation. Thank you for your inquiry.”
There you have it. Smoke ‘em if you got em. And, try to take it easy, Wall Street.
After all, this year is already up in smoke.
Lighten up, if you still can.
__________________________________________________________
Don Felder wrote Hotel California, a fact apparently lost on the Eagles manager.
____________________________________________________________
My favorite:
___________________________________________________________
The Straight Dope
Website
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of 1440 Wall Street. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author
Comments:
Next entry: Charity Auction Raises $2.1 Million for Lunch With Warren Buffett
Previous entry: John Daly and Kid Rock: The New Face of PGA
