Word Play, Part II

From time to time this trabalengua (Spanish tongue-twister) that I learned in 8th grade pops into my head, but until today I couldn't remember it past the name Federico:

"Paco Peco, chico rico,
insultaba como un loco
a su tío Federico;
y éste dijo: Poco a poco,
Paco Peco, poco pico."

This may have been my first exposure to the nickname Paco (short for Francisco), which is significant because it became my own nickname a few years later. After watching the movie Don Juan DeMarco (1994), my friends and I decided that we would need Spanish names if we were ever to become "the world's greatest lovers." The girl that I was obsessed with at the time was obsessed with an upperclassman named Paco, so that's why that name was chosen. Plus it just sounds cool. When I worked at a pizza delivery joint the summer before college, there was another guy with the same first name as me, so they were going to use our last names but I told them to call me Paco instead. Then when I went to college I introduced myself to everyone as Paco and for four years it stuck, much to the dismay of my friend who originally gave me the name.