Balls & eggs

Balls. Kids enjoy them, but adults like to have fun with them, too! Oh, yes. Many big people, both men and women, love to play with balls, no?

The use of the word balls as a figure of speech is interesting. If a man doesn't have the guts to do something, we say he doesn't have the balls for it. Interestingly, the term is being applied to women as well. What I find a bit puzzling is the use of the word balls to denote strength, derring-do, bravery, guts -- when we all know that they're probably the frailest part of the male anatomy. I mean, give a man's family jewels a hard, swift kick and watch him fall like a tree. Doesn't matter how how big his biceps or rock-hard his abs are. A well-placed karate chop will be more than enough to make him crumple and crumble.

In my language (Tagalog) one of the most effective ways to insult or ridicule a man is to tell him "Wala kang bayag" ("You don't have testicles," if we're translating literally). In Spanish, the term cojones is used (which is a vulgar term, they say). I don't know how balls is used as a figure of speech in other languages. In Argentina, however, where Spanish is also spoken, they call it huevos, which means "eggs" (I got this bit of trivia from somewhere in Robert's blog, Line of Sight).

Eggs have been called the perfect food. Think of all the possibilities: huevos rancheros, huevos fritos, even huevos verdes con jamón! :-D I'm starting to get hungry now. Personally, I like 'em either hard or soft-boiled. They're delicious; nice to nibble on sometimes. And they're an excellent source of protein, too. Perfecto? Oh, sí indeed.