Ears in the gutter

Curtis asked Norman if he was going to go visit his family in Arizona for Thanksgiving. Norman said no; he didn't know exactly what his family had planned for Thanksgiving day since most of his male relatives were going to spend at least part of the holiday weekend elk hunting.

Curtis started to laugh. I looked at him and said, "Did you hear what I heard?" He nodded. I turned to Norman and said, "It sounded like you said el cunting."

"I thought maybe it was some bizarre rite of machismo," said Curtis.

Norman looked offended and said that, if what we heard was what he'd intended to say, he would of course have referred to it as la cunting.