Ether Bunny

I was enjoying a nice, quiet breakfast on Saturday when the soothing drone of power lawn equipment was pierced by cries of, "Hey, it's the Ether Bunny!"

Or that's what I thought they were saying. Being a rabbit whose internet connection goes over the ether, which is, incidentally, the original medium for the ethernet, I assumed that the children were describing me in terms of the technology I use.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, I saw the kids bopping each other over the head and yelling, "conejo!" At first I thought this must be some odd variant of "Duck, Duck, Goose" (though I have no idea why they'd yell "rabbit!" in Spanish as they hit each other), but then I noticed little bits of colored paper falling from the tops of their heads. Later I saw the remnants of what looked like egg shells, but they were many colors, not just brown and white.

Finally, late Sunday, I saw Gene's comment about this religious festival called "Easter". After a little more research I learned about this rabbit, the Easter Bunny (not the ether bunny), who does, as Gene suggests, leave brightly colored eggs all over the place. But I didn't see anything suggesting that the rabbit actually lays the eggs -- the internet is silent on the issue of where the eggs come from or who decorates them.

I also did a little more research and found out that eggs filled with confetti (bits of colored paper) are called "cascarones" in Spanish. That's close to the Spanish word "conejo", especially when screamed by gringo children. And if I had known about this Easter Bunny business when I'd heard the yells, I probably would have been even more inclined to think they were yelling "conejo!".

There are so many things to learn! I'm already in middle age and I feel like I don't know half of what I should.