Heaneyland!

Why I am not a news correspondent

Chile elects a female president, and the main thing I notice when I read the article is this:

Ms. Bachelet was pictured laughing as she received a gift of a charango guitar from Mr Morales on the eve of the inauguration, and the two exchanged compliments.

My thoughts on reading this: "A charango? I want one of those!"

A charango, you see, is an Andean instrument -- similar to a ukulele, but double-stringed like a 12-string guitar -- which is traditionally made out of an armadillo shell. I took a music class in college where we got to play with Andean instruments, and I got to borrow the charango for about a week. Fun.

Unlike the one pictured above, however, the charango I used was a little...furry. Did you know armadillos had hair? I had not previously given the matter any thought. But they do! They grow out between the plates of the shell. (You can sort of see what I mean in this picture, or perhaps the side view here is better.)

Anyway, I suppose I don't need a charango, but it did have a unique sound, and having a hairy little guitar around was sort of like having an alternate version of this.