Europe vs. South America; a new phone for Karin; mischief

I just realized: of all the World Cup winners, Argentina has the second-fewest people; only Uruguay is smaller. Spain boasts more souls than Argentina, and so did the old West Germany – even the West Germany of the 1950s.

Contrary to popular belief, Europe vs. South America isn’t mainly a contest of old vs. new, rich vs. poor, sophisticated vs. naïve, scientific vs. intuitive, central vs. peripheral, networked vs. disconnected, etc. (and not all of those dichotomies correctly describe the two regions, anyway). No, it’s mainly just bigger countries vs. littler ones.

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Daniel has been throwing things into the toilet. He clogged it up for a couple of weeks. We had to hire a plumber.

Last week, he threw Karin’s phone into the toilet. Karin bought a new phone.

Tonight, Karin and the children have been taking selfies and filtering them through TikTok. I’ve never heard Samuel laugh so hard for so long.

One more. No, it isn’t Daniel’s face on Samuel’s t-shirt; the filter gave a new face to Thomas the Tank Engine.

I had no idea a phone could do this sort of thing.

Quito is #1

For the first time since I was born (or maybe since the nineteenth century? the colonial era? the beginning of history?), Quito is Ecuador’s most populous city. At the end of last year, it had more than 2.7 million inhabitants.

Guayaquil, previously the largest city, also cleared the 2.7 million-person threshold, but with some 18,000 fewer inhabitants than Quito.

Read about it here.

I was born in Quito in 1981. Back then, its population was about one million, give or take a couple hundred thousand. During my short life – and I haven’t even been in Ecuador since 2010 – Quito has come to seem much huger than it used to, and more modern and sophisticated.

It always seemed polluted and blindingly bright, but now it has days when there are public warnings about the ultraviolet radiation.

It is also beautiful.