Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández fondly refer to themselves as “pingüinos.” The reason, of course, is simple: They hail from the southern part of the country where penguins are pervasive. Before Cristina was elected or even

began her campaign for the presidency, Néstor effectively announced her candidacy by saying, “the next president will be a he-penguin or a she-penguin.”

When I saw this penguin gadget on Darío Gallo's blog, Bloc de Periodista, I couldn't resist the temptation to post it here. It's just too fun. So if you've ever wanted to lead the Kirchners around, and get them to follow you in every direction, just move your mouse around and they'll follow in the cutest possible way. I like to think of the two adults as Néstor and Cristina while the three kids are government officials who follow them around in total lockstep loyalty – wherever he or she goes, they follow, ineluctably. Enjoy.

President Cristina Fernandez: Jorge, here’s your Christmas present. It’s a brand new comb – made in Argentina – designed for bald people like yourself. Former Buenos Aires Mayor Jorge Tellerman: Thanks, I’ll never part with it.

CFK: Nestor, what did the big Christmas candle say to the little Christmas candle? Former President Nestor Kirchner: I dunno, Christie, you tell me. CFK: I’m going out tonight.

CFK: Oh, Nestor, this has been such a hard year. And next year looks to be even worse, what with the global economic crisis and all. Nestor: Don’t worry, my love, yule be happy.

Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno: Christina, I’ve got an idea. To pressure Santa Claus into giving everybody extra big gifts this year, we can stuff letters to him into chimneys across the country, demanding that his gifts be bigger and better than last year. CFK: Stuffing letters into dirty chimneys? I dunno, Guille, but to me that sounds like blackmail.

Moreno: Hey, Christie, do you know why Santa goes down those chimneys every year? CFK: Dale, Guille, why? Moreno: Because it soots him.

CFK: Alright, Guillermo, enough playing around. Get out there and make those toy stores lower their prices. Those Playstation 3′s are way too expensive. Moreno: OK, fine, but just one more: What does Santa suffer from when he gets stuck in the chimney? CFK: Alright, Guille, you’re really starting to break my balls. Tell me. Moreno: Santa Claustrophobia.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

from The Argentine Post

May your holiday season be filled with peace and joy.

The Argentine Post is grateful for you! Hundreds of you have recently signed up to receive email updates of this blog and more have signed up to follow the site through your feed readers. Thank you! I very much appreciate your feedback, your comments (even your critiques), your emails, and your continued readership. May your Thanksgiving be a joyful one.

“Just when I was in a middle of a meeting with the president of Tunisia, Ben Ali, we received a call from President Obama, who wanted to talk with me. So, obviously, I had to get up from the meeting and go to a separate room where I could talk with him. He wanted to greet me, he wanted to talk to me, really. He said he was very interested in getting to know me. He said he knew that Argentina was a great country and that he was very eager to visit Buenos Aires because when he was in college he had read authors like Cortázar y Borges. And so then, obviously, I took advantage of the moment and invited him to Argentina. I told him that I was in Tunisia and he asked me to formally pass on his greetings to President Ben Ali and the Tunisian people. He seemed very warm and very desirous of meeting me personally so we could talk. He said he knew that I had bravely confronted challenges. Really, I found him to be very warm and we decided that we would meet up soon after he takes office, because he is very interested in meeting me personally.” — a clearly smitten Cristina Fernández, Tuesday from Tunisia, after speaking with President Elect Barack Obama

If you’re not familiar with Dr. Lecter’s work, you should be. He’s a master at taking the reality of local politics and infusing it with his creative sense of humor. You can see his work here. In the above photo he gives us a glimpse of what a Perón-Obama meeting might have looked like. The photo, which was posted earlier this week by Darío Gallo over at Bloc de Periodista, was done for an article in the magazine Noticias, written by Pacho O’Donnell.

Your fearless scoopster here was at the Retiro train station early in the morning, filming an upcoming video for The Argentine Post, when, suddenly, out of the blue, a dirty, freaky-lookin’ homeless man started yelling.

I hadn’t seen the guy and wasn’t sure what was happening. By the time I realized what was going down, it was already too late. The result, which I just happened to record, was not cool. 

The man came at me in full force, with a cup full of God-knows-what, which he threw at me. Adrenaline pumping, I fled, not wanting to do battle with a street kook just before going to the office.

I got away, but not before being completely doused with some kind of noxious mixture of coffee and, I’m afraid to say, chunks of vomit. It was pungent, sticky, and all over me.

I’m putting this post in the “humor” category, assuming that, at some point in the future, I will look back on this moment and find it funny.

Opponents of President Cristina Fernández de

Kirchner have long criticized her seemingly extravagant use of public funds, her expensive trips to New York and Paris, her shopping habits, and her flashy use of luxurious designer handbags, among other things. But if anyone in the country is guilty of ostentatious displays of affluence, surely it is farm leader Alfredo De Angeli, whose limousine is pictured above. Damned oligarchs!

*Via multiple emails; also picked up by 100volando.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner late Thursday fired 17-year-old Economy Minister Martín Lousteau and moved to replace him with world-renowned economist Carlos Fernandez, according to C5N, or Cristina Cinco Nestor, the almost-official television network. Cristina decided there were not enough government officials named Fernandez, so she moved decisively to raise the number of high-ranking officials named Fernandez, including herself, to four.

Analysts expect the move to immediately boost the president’s approval ratings, avert another farm strike, tame inflation, spur economic growth, reduce unemployment, eliminate traffic accidents, improve relations with the U.S. and lead to the freeing of FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

At least one analyst said the move may even lead Argentines to stop using the word caramelo, or “candy,” to describe Halls cough drops.

As far as I can tell, this video was not made in Argentina. Nevertheless, it is very funny. It is also very relevant to the experiences of countless expats who have moved to Argentina and hired nannies or other kinds of domestic help.

Over the years, I have known many, many people who have had excellent experiences with their live-in maids and/or nannies. But I have also known many, many people who have been robbed by their hired help. This clip does a great job of summing up the often-awkward relationship between comparatively well-to-do home owners or renters and their hired help. Enjoy.

*Bonus: The teacher in this video makes at least one little mistake when speaking in Spanish about cleaning supplies. See if you can figure out what it is.