High line

Official US Navy photo of me being highlined from USS Thorn to USS John King somewhere in the Med in the early 1980s. My boss, then Commodore Jeremy Boorda (DESRON 22) used to love to highline sailors, and in this instance I was delivering a FitRep to the CO of USS John King (as well as a box of donuts and some Intel reports) - if you zoom in you can see my bearded face and a cheap stogie between my lips... cough, cough...

Enigmas of Cuban Spanish

Anthony T. Rivas starts his entertaining "Enigmas of Cuban Spanish" by noting that "Non-Cuban Spanish speakers have occasional trouble understanding fast Cuban speech. While less educated Cuban speakers can be difficult to understand, as with speakers of other dialects of Spanish, better educated speakers of Cuban Spanish can also exhibit speech sounds typical of "careless" or relaxed speech." 

Ahhh... my own experience, especially around the DMV (where most "native" Spanish speakers are from Central America, and in my neighborhood from Argentina), is more like a perplexed look... this chart (from his research) exemplifies the nuances, even within Cuba, of Cuban Spanish.

Old Oriente Province	Rest of Cuba	English Meaning
cutara	chancletas	slippers
papaya	fruta bomba	papaya
balance*	sillón	rocking chair
balde	cubo	bucket
rallado, rasco-rasco (Matanzas)	granizado (Bayamo and Santiago)	ice cone
macho	lechón	suckling pig
pluma, llave**	faucet	tap
túnico*	vestido	dress
hallaca	tamal	tamale
guineo	plátano (fruta)	banana
fana	fanoso	good-for-nothing/cheapskate
tienda ***	bodega	grocery store

* Also used in Camagüey Province
** "Pluma" and "llave" coexist in Camagüey Province.
*** In Havana, "tienda" with no modifier denotes a clothing store.