There's a small boutique hotel in Houston called Hotel Zaza. It has its charm, I suppose, and its restaurant is really good. But there's one thing about it that I've never understood: when you're leaving the hotel grounds, there's a sign in its driveway exit that says "drive safely and stay Zaza." I have no idea what this means -- is it telling me to stay cool? Stay awesome? Something tells me that if I have to ask what "zaza" means, then I probably am not It; nonetheless, it hasn't stopped my friend Laura and I from making clicking noises with our tongues, pointing at each other with both index fingers and with one eye closed, and murmuring "stay Zaza, babe" whenever we're saying goodbye to each other.

You know, because we're zaza like that.

Anyway, given this as a backdrop, whenever I'm visiting one of my favourite restaurants in Houston, Pondicheri,* I look askance at its indoor banner inviting people to "Live Spicy." Granted, "spicy" is actually a word in the English language, so that's something; and, of course I understand that the subtext is really "enjoy more Indian food -- preferably ours." But still, I felt like perhaps the restaurant was stretching the reference just a bit.

But, you know, I hate when I'm jaded, so finally yesterday, while I was there for breakfast (having their insanely awesome Railway omelet, sweet Mary Margaret, it's good), I decided to look up synonyms for "spicy." Apparently, "Live Spicy" can also mean: