potato: Browse The Strips
Wednesday, June 25, 1986
Friday, January 23, 1998
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Lynn's Comments: My brother and my husband never did go on a canoe trip together, but this series of strips was based on a true and nearly fatal story.
Potato is "papa" in Spanish and the word for plug is "tapa". So, I said, "Look! You have a papa for a tapa!" She laughed and I promised her that I would bring her a plug the next day. My friends and I went to every hardware store in Havana and could not find a simple rubber stopper for a sink! There were a number of things we couldn't find: a large garbage pail with a lid, a good pair of scissors, and masking tape--these things are found everywhere back home. I couldn't believe that these small, useful items that we all take for granted were so hard to find.
The following year, I went back to Cuba. I took our friend a plug for her sink and a number of other things. She was more than pleased--she was grateful. Circumstances there are different now. Cuba has opened up and stores are able to carry more products. I still visit my friends and we always recall the time I used a papa for a tapa... a little trick I brought from home.