Sitting around the table eating dinner, talking about our experiences earlier in the day of taking a new friend from Switzerland around town, Amy told another friend about a squirrel we saw on the campus of Notre Dame. We had stopped to watch it and take pictures. Amy noted how it walked kind of funny, "like it had constipation". "What does constipation mean?", Haley asked. Conversation continued, the adults ignoring the question. "What does constipation mean?", Haley repeated. Our friend from Switzerland spoke up, saying that "it's when you can't do something you want to do". The rest of the adults found this clever answer to be quite funny, causing us to laugh, and continue laughing for some time. (Yeah, maybe you had to be there.) After laughter subsided, Amy felt compelled to explain to Haley more fully what she had meant by that word. Upon hearing her explaination, our Swiss friend began laughing with embarrasment as he realized that he had not fully comprehended the meaning of the word, himself, until that moment, and realized why his comment had been so funny to the rest of us. We all had another good laugh.
