affame_le_geant_the_4_questions fyn gula when puppertwinkle was a puppy back in mexico city, his mother fostered a love for books and poetry within him by reading aloud to him and his sisters, and then as he grew older, she taught him literacy through phonetics. (y locuciones, construcciones gramaticas, abreviaturas, nombres propios) she provided such childhood classics as the cat in the hat, clifford the big red dog, grimm brothers fairy tales, l.frank baum, eric carle, tomie di paola, shel silverstein, and robert louis stevenson for his solitary enjoyment. later years found him fascinated by herman hesse, thomas hardy, richard adams, willa cather, thomas merton, victor hugo, and george eliot. most recently, before the destruction of the wooden cart, he was enjoying the japanese author haruki marakami and the web-published nicole bloam. and so, when saumboo asked him to read the contents of the box'x lid, even though it was in french, he had no trouble doing so, just in case you were questioning a dog's general aquaintance with literature. here is the writing, as it appeared on the lid of this very cool box: ou allons-nous d'ci? (where do we go from here?) qu' avons-nous laisse? (what have we left behind?) qu' avons-nous apporte avec nous? what have we brought with us?) que trouvons-nous attendre? what do we find waiting for us? with his fluency in spanish, puppertwinkle recognized some of the words for the romance languages have much in common, but still he had to ask saumboo to translate after he was requested to re-read the questions. the gist of the queries are as they appear above, although some of the passion is lost through interpretation, as it always is. needless to say, both of them were puzzled and had many questions of their own. "que significa?" puppertwinkle asked. like a dissonant symbol at the beginning of a musical score, an ominous shadow began to cloud his pleasant existence. a mounful howl escaped from his trembling body. he was glad saumboo could not see how pitiful he appeared. "aclamaciones," saumboo said, encouraging the little dog to cheer up. he recognized the sound of his malaise. "esto no es una mala cosa," with a smile he told him that it was not a bad thing. puppertwinkle wagged his tail and tried to mirror the clemency. he climbed up saumboo's stone body until he was near his face and licked him in an effort to convey an appreciation for his undying optimism. "hay cuatro preguntas," saumboo said, telling him there were four questions. "si abrimos la topa, podemos encontrar las respuestas." if they opened the lid, perhaps they would discover the answers. 020906 what's it to you? who go blather from