We have a little population of silverfish in my kitchen. Is that their real name? I have no idea. Regardless, they are like silver worms with legs, a crossover between maggots (my favorite) and high-speed caterpillars.
Apparently, The Boy got up in the middle of the night for water, and was surprised to see lots and lots of them crawling and zipping around our trashcan. If he emphasized that there were TONS of them, I'm sure that in my version of the story, that would equal about 1,000; he is not so squeemish about the things but they really put me over the edge.
We discussed the details of what they look like, and I said, "Oh, are they a little bit argentin?" Argentin was my, admittedly, uneducated way of guessing how to say "silvery" in French. I of course, however, forgot that it is instead the word used to describe someone from Argentina.
One of the added incentives to dating a foreign person is that you can laugh at their expense. The Boy continued on as if nothing was wrong and we had the following conversation:
Him: Yeah, they are. I think all those Argentinians are actually living behind the refrigerator
Me: Man, I HATE Argentinians. They give me the willies. How do you think we got so many in our kitchen without seeing them before? Sometimes I find them under the dish drainer, though.
Him: I don't know, maybe there's a special Argentinian spray?
I still don't know how he got through the first few sentences with a straight face, but he eventually caved in after I said, "I wonder if there are Argentinians in the walls?"
After clarifying the error and having a good laugh, our problems with the people of Argentina has become a household joke. Meanwhile, however, The Boy still doesn't know what the creepy crawly creatures are really called. I have to go into a drug store and ask for a product that will get rid of them one of these days Good thing he told me about my faulty French before I went shopping. Could you imagine?
"Hello, sir. I have a serious Argentinian problem in my house, there are tons and tons of them living in my kitchen. I need a powerful anti-Argentinian spray. Do you have anything that is sure to get rid of them?"
Hee hee hee!
Sorry about your infestation!
BWAHAHAHAHAHA
I was immediately imagining wee little men in your sink, a la Oompa Loompas. Hee!
Then, of course, I had to start doing research because Ii'm a GEEK:
en englais:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thysanura
en francais (for helping with the names and so to not call them little Argentinians):
Looks like you can call them "poisson d'argent"
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_d%27argent
Oh my God! You are a geek. But that was totally fascinating. I read them both and that's exactly what I have in my kitchen. The English one (did you read up on commonsals?) made them actually seem sort of sweet... even though they're totally creepy.
what the heck... commonsals?
I misspelled. Commensals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commensalism
I was married to an Argentinian for five years and I can honestly say they are a DISGUSTING people, if u want to call them humans.