THE EMPHASIS (January 17, 2003)
This morning I got quite a bit of mail. One of the postcards in the pile attracted my attention because of the unfamiliar handwriting. “Found this little fellow in Lima,” I slowly deciphered the first line. Indeed, the stamp was Peruvian. I continued reading word by word: “Don’t know why we instantly thought of you, but we did.” I looked at the signatures and realized the card was from John Guyon and Jennie Winter. The handwriting was his. The card took a while to reach me, as it was sent just before Christmas. When I turned it around to check the “little fellow,” I saw a Precolumbian ceramic statue. “Of course,” I thought, “they know about my fascination with the Maya, Aztec, and Inca.” According to the card, the piece comes from the Mochica valley. Still, why did they underline the word “instantly”? I looked at the picture a bit more carefully. It shows a standing fellow sporting a gigantic erect penis. In fact, it is a pitcher with a clever spout. The emphasis is well deserved, indeed.