You cannot expect Americans to roll "r"s. Most of their tongues just don't do that. Poor tongues.

Nope. Which is why I very firmly used C. when signing my name and really, it never came up until the publisher decided that Barbara Ferrer wasn't "Latina-sounding enough." (You should've heard the blue streak I cursed when I heard that.) I figured I'd better give them something I had a fighting chance of answering to rather than letting them stick me with something like Carmen Margarita Guadalupe Esperanza de los Santos.

If you think I'm exaggerating, keep in mind they wanted to name Adiós to My Old Life "Light My Fuego."

Publishing marketing types don't get out much, I've discovered.

Caridad -- I also hear the final 'd' as shading slightly towards a t sound, or being more cut off instead of drawn out.

You know, of all the languages I've tried to learn (and mostly failed at) I really do love Spanish the best. The core vocabulary is compact yet flexible, the grammar makes sense, the spelling is dead easy, and it's so lilting and fun to say.

Caridad -- I also hear the final 'd' as shading slightly towards a t sound, or being more cut off instead of drawn out.

It's actually a very soft, almost non-existent sound, like you're about to say the "d" but you don't, not quite, your tongue stopping the sound where the roof of your mouth/backs of your teeth meet, but not in a clipped way.

say the "d" but you don't, not quite, your tongue stopping the sound where the roof of your mouth/backs of your teeth meet, but not in a clipped way

If you lived in the area of Spain where I was stationed, the first "d" was similar in that it sounds more like a cross between a "d" and "th." It's a very soft sound. They dropped final "s"s and rolled double "r"s so long you thought they'd never end.

But you have to really stretch to find names odder than Sylvester.

Heh. Which is what some of my siblings tried to talk my parents into naming me when I was born.

Man, randomly the teeth on the left side of my mouth are hurting. Not. Good.

I am too tired to go get lunch.

Weird-ass hat: [link]

Looks like a bunch of tribbles with bows in their fur, all glued together in a mound and stuck on the model's head.

From the awesome blog Fabulon (some of their stuff is NSFW).

"Light My Fuego."

Hahahahahahaha.

My sister had a friend in college named Maria Adelaida de something or other at least three more names in here what I'm from Colombia and all the women in my family are named Maria. Nicknamed Lali. I kind of like excessive names like that (and understand that they are normal in some cultures; see also: members of the British Royal Family). (Again, not that I did it to my own children.)

I am too tired to go get lunch.

I would teleport you a burrito, but I don't teleport burritos food since the incident.