The Calvinist and Cabooses

So Amy, the Calvinist, and yours truly were sitting at lunch a few days ago, and the talk came round to women’s fashion in Russia, particularly the skin-tight jeans. The Calvinist wanted to communicate how much they revealed about a woman’s legs and butt. But, being a bit of a high-brow Presbyterian, he did not want to say the word, “butt”. So he instead he substituted the word, “caboose”. Amy and I, of course, cracked up at this, and teased him the rest of the day.

At the dacha that night, the three of us were in a room talking with Masha, a university student who is a good friend of Amy. Here is her picture with the Calvinist. I think she enjoys him in a great, great, great, grandfatherly sort of way.
Anyway, we were teasing the Calvinist about looking at women’s cabooses, and Masha, despite having excellent English, of course did not know the word. We explained it was the last car of the train, and the Calvinist, eager to facilitate intercultural relations, added that a woman’s caboose was, “the south end of a cow facing north”. Masha looked a little confused about what to do with this new piece of knowledge.

I, for one, was simply gratified that Princeton Seminary still imparts to its graduates a proper appreciation of bovine anatomy.