Gas Lines, Cold Snaps, and the Sound of João

Here in the Southeast (U.S., that is), the talk of the town has recently revolved around the most mundane of topics: the unseasonably cold weather and inflated gas prices caused by an apparent cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline. On Blackwell Street in Durham, there were so many cars in the parking lot of a gas station that it appeared impossible for all but the outermost cars to drive out—a canonically tangled jam.

I have been reflecting on the cool sound of that one consonant that seems only to occur in Portuguese, the one that appears in the name João.