I was just laying on the bed next to Caterina — Flickr co-founder, who I’m also lucky enough to be married to, for readers who are just tuning in now — when, in reference to someone we know who works really hard to the exclusion of other pursuits, she said "No talk, we learn. Word for horse."

Though I immediately recognized the words, I couldn’t remember the context at all. "Where’s that from??", I asked her. "It’s one of themexican’s photos – go and search for that phrase."

And so I did, and there it was. Aha! And amazing how the description on a photo in Flickr can be part of our personal idiolect.

But also amazing is the fact that it was posted 23 months ago now. I’ve been following Raul’s stories for a long time. In this case, he writes:

Rashit in his yurt. He spoke several languages and was always trying to
learn more. When he found I spoke Spanish he spent hours learning new
phrases from me and steering clear of smalltalk. "No talk, we learn.
Word for horse."

His dream was to visit Mecca. 

(In case you’re interested, the word for horse is caballo.)