Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Wizard

Well, from what I saw of Mexico City I was quite impressed. If you think Mexico City is bad, then what do you think of Tijuana?

I'm not sure if Nareed has been to the frontiers of Mexico. I don't know the official count. For instance I am not sure if the Airport bridge is an official crossing. I have seen elsewhere 6 in California, 6 in Arizona, 2 in New Mexico, and 11 in Texas.

1. Cross-border Terminal, Tijuana International Airport Otay Pacific Drive Pedestrian only, ticketed passengers only
2. San Ysidro I‑5 San Ysidro, San Diego, California El Chaparral Fed. 1 Tijuana, Baja California No Trucks
3. Otay Mesa SR 905 Otay Mesa, San Diego, California Mesa de Otay Boulevard Garita de Otay Tijuana, Baja California
4. Tecate SR 188 Tecate, California Tecate Avenida Presidente Lázaro Cárdenas Tecate, Baja California
5. Calexico West SR 111 Calexico, California Mexicali Fed. 5 Calzada Adolfo López Mateos) Mexicali, Baja California No Trucks
6. Calexico East SR 7 Calexico, California Mexicali Boulevard Abelardo L. Rodríguez Mexicali, Baja California
7. Andrade SR 186 Andrade, California Los Algodones Ave. Mariano Lee y calle 2a. Los Algodones, Baja California
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8. San Luis US 95 San Luis, Arizona San Luis Río Colorado Calle 1 San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora
9. San Luis II SR 195 San Luis, Arizona San Luis Río Colorado 2 Fed. 2 San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora
10. Lukeville SR 85 Lukeville, Arizona Sonoyta Fed. 8 Benemérito de las Americas) Sonoyta, Sonora
11. Sasabe SR 286 Sasabe, Arizona Sasabe Calle Sásabe El Sásabe, Sonora
12. Nogales–Mariposa SR 189 Nogales, Arizona Mariposa Fed. 15 Nogales, Sonora
13. Nogales-Grand Avenue I-19 Nogales, Arizona Nogales Boulevard Adolfo López Mateos Nogales, Sonora No Trucks
14. Nogales-Morley Gate Morley Avenue Nogales, Arizona Nogales Plutarco Elias Calles Nogales, Sonora Pedestrians only
15. Naco D Street Naco, Arizona Naco Avenida Francisco I Madera Naco, Sonora
16. Douglas US 191 Douglas, Arizona Agua Prieta Calzada Panamericana Agua Prieta, Sonora
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17. Antelope Wells NM 81 Antelope Wells, New Mexico El Berrendo Carretera El Berrendo-Janos El Berrendo, Chihuahua
18. Columbus NM 11 Columbus, New Mexico Palomas Calzada 5 de Mayo Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua
19. Santa Teresa NM 136 Pete Domenici Boulevard) Santa Teresa, New Mexico San Jeronimo Carretera Samalayuca el Oasis San Jerónimo, Chihuahua
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20. Brownsville
21. Del Rio
22. Eagle Pass
23. El Paso
24. Fabens
25. Hidalgo
26. Laredo
27. Presidio
28. Progreso
29. Rio Grande City
30. Roma

Quote: Wizard

I knew and like that one. The way I tell it is:

Do you know the sequel? the hotel manager gets annoyed at how loud the chess players are getting, so he calls a security guard to remove them from the lobby. The guard decides they're not doing anything to warrant this, so he tells the manager, "Sorry, sir. I won't pull your chess nuts out of the foyer."

Quote:

On a related note, why is the bishop called an alfil in Spanish? Shouldn't it be an obispo? Also, why isn't the queen the reina?

No idea. I thought the queen was reina.

Oh, "Alfil" sounds of Arabic origin. Probably a corruption of whatever the name of the piece was in Arabic.

Quote: Wizard

On a related note, why is the bishop called an alfil in Spanish? Shouldn't it be an obispo? Also, why isn't the queen the reina?

In medieval chess the piece was not a bishop, but an elephant which is retained in the Spanish name for the piece.
Rook is of unknown origin. In spanish I don't know if "roque" or "torre" is more common.
For the Queen piece they use either "reina" or "dama" in Spanish.

rook chess piece, c. 1300, from Old French roc, from Arabic rukhkh, from Persian rukh, of unknown meaning,

Quote: Nareed

Oh, "Alfil" sounds of Arabic origin. Probably a corruption of whatever the name of the piece was in Arabic.

It was just "fīl" in Arabic.
اَلـ is transliterated as ‎(al-) and is the article "the"

Here are some pictures from the castillo in el Bosque de Chapultapec. Inside was a miscellaneous history of Mexico. I felt like a dunce because it made me realize that I know very little about it. It is my understanding the castle used to be a private home and the museum was full of fancy items of the type that might have been in it.

Quote: Wizard

It is my understanding the castle used to be a private home and the museum was full of fancy items of the type that might have been in it.

It was built as private home for the man who was the namesake of Galveston, Texas. It was a military academy when the Americans invaded the city. Extensive work was done when it was briefly the royal palace of Mexican Emperor Maximilian I, and his consort Empress Carlota. It was the official presidential reference of up to 8 presidents up through 1934. Finally in 1939 a law was passed to make it a museum.

So it was probably a private home ( for a head of state - viceroy, emperor, president) for less than a quarter of it's 240 year existence.

It's not in what I'd call a convenient location for a home.

According to the 2015 Master Card survey of international visitors, visitors now spend as much in Mexico City as they do in Buenos Aires. Only 1 of the 10 cities listed is not a capital city, Punta Cana has a population of less than 50K.

Rank	City	Country	Millions of Int visitors	Per visit	Million $
1	Lima	Peru	4.22	$355	$1,500
2	Mexico City	Mexico	2.82	$816	$2,300
3	São Paulo	Brazil	2.44	$902	$2,200
4	Punta Cana	Dominican Republic	2.43	$1,111	$2,700
5	Buenos Aires	Argentina	2.18	$1,055	$2,300
6	San Jose Costa	Rica	1.51	$464	$700
7	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	1.27	$709	$900
8	Bogota	Colombia	1.1	$909	$1,000
9	Montevideo	Uruguay	0.86	$581	$500
10	Quito	Ecuador	0.7	$571	$400

Rank	Feeder City to Mexico City	Thousands of Int visitors	Per visit	Million $
1	Miami	272	$643	$175
2	New York	229	$646	$148
3	Bogota	204	$838	$171
4	Los Angeles	202	$644	$130
5	Houston	189	$646	$122
61%	other	1,724	$901	$1,554

Note how high the per visit spent is from Bogota

Rank	Feeder City to Lima	Thousands of Int visitors	Per visit	Million $
1	Santiago	727	$245	$178
2	Buenos Aires	439	$547	$240
3	Miami	378	$344	$130
4	Bogota	317	$334	$106
5	Mexico City	256	$344	$88
50%	other	2,103	$360	$758

Rank	Feeder City to London	Thousands of Int visitors	Per visit	Million $
1	New York	988	$1,201	$1,187
2	Amsterdam	658	$588	$387
3	Dublin	559	$433	$242
4	Frankfurt	514	$589	$303
5	Stockholm	488	$588	$287
83%	other	15,613	$1,140	$17,794

London is ranked #1 with 18.82 million visitors spending $20.2 billion or $1,073 per visit. What is a little surprising is that visitors to London from European cities spend less per visit than Americans spend in Mexico city. Of course, since statistics are given per visit instead of per day it is difficult to compare.

Of course , London draws from all over the world, and the top 5 feeder cities only account for 17% of the international visitors.
It's also a little surprising that Paris didn't make the top 5 feeder cities to London

Sorry to change the topic, but I just got the following comment about Nareed's Gambling in Mexico article at WoV

Quote: comment

Hi I enjoyed your article about gambling in Mexico but you missed the most important point: In all (almost all?) casinos in Mexico if you win you're charged a 10% commission. That's why you must keep your receipt for your chips. Your charged the commission only on your winnings. Without the receipt they don't know how much you started with. In essence, this makes casino gambling in Mexico utterly useless. I've argued with them (in Spanish) many times and of course they don't make the rules, the boss does. This is an extremely important fact to note when gambling Mexico.

I was going to talk about this, but nobody charged me a commission on my 200 peso win at the Kings Casino in the Zona Rosa in Mexico City. Nareed, your response to this?

Quote: Wizard

I was going to talk about this, but nobody charged me a commission on my 200 peso win at the Kings Casino in the Zona Rosa in Mexico City. Nareed, your response to this?

I did win the last time I played craps at the Royal Yak, and I got paid the exact amount in chips I presented.