10. That brrd is a sexually transmitted immunodeficieny disease.

9. The private parts of ye sefer wefefE.

8. That at the heart of every Ethiopian athlete is a soft spot for "12"-year-old Little Danny Almonte of Little League Baseball fame.

7. That despite the national pomp, the motherland isn't a glorious fairy land where the dwarfs are 6-ft-6, Einsetein is the village idiot, and Hercules is the skinny boy down the street.

6. That when you take a year off to work for an NGO back home, you're probably having trouble at school.

5. That old photos that definitively resolve recent speculations about who is older than whom always show up at the least convenient moments.

5(a). That reversing brain-drain isn't a problem, but the size of Amanuel Hospital is a limitation.

4. When life gives an abesha man a lemon, an abesha man would consider ulterior motives, and possible evil spells, before making lemonade.

3. That your emails to Addis are private.

3(a). That no question in an abesha exchange is considered non-probing, other than dehna ne(s)h, which is really not a question unless repeated five times.

2. That your parents do it.

1. That that wasn't the sound of the chair scraping across the floor.