American in Spain

Happy Cowboy

July 17, 2007

On Sunday, we had dinner in a restaurant with Marga's aunt and grandfather. The meal was good, but unremarkable. As we were leaving the restaurant, I spotted the most horrible porrón ever, sitting up on a shelf. It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing.

Warning, what you're about to see may cause nightmares. A porrón is a Spanish wine decanter, usually made of glass or clay pottery, designed to be drunk directly from. The idea is that you lift it above you head, tilt it towards you, and a stream of wine comes shooting out, hopefully into your mouth. Like so.

Imagine, for a moment, lifting one of these things up above your face and drinking from it. Got the image in your mind? Good, now cast your innocent eyes upon this object... (scroll down)

Happy Cowboy

I can't be certain, but I get the sense that there's something vaguely sexual, almost erotic about this object. It's almost as if there's just a hint of masculinity, as well.

I bet that right after ancient humans started carving things, the first things they carved were, in order: spears, bowls, and phalli.