This scissors

What is acceptable in boxers and (Don) kings is not necessarily so in lesser mortals. Here‘s some English-German translator explaining for the umpteenth time on his blog why he is the best: My old school used to be a hands-on kind of school, but now, after they adopted new curricula last fall, it’s just downhill…

Paying the pipers

Sci-fi author Neal Stephenson (Enowning > a Slashdot interview): [A] while back, I went to a writers’ conference. I was making chitchat with another writer, a critically acclaimed literary novelist who taught at a university. She had never heard of me. After we’d exchanged a bit of of small talk, she asked me “And where…

Wild thing

Picked up the two-month-old Beast of Bages this afternoon from a farm where she was in imminent danger of being eaten by hunting dogs. She’s still too shy for photos, but has already assaulted one of the neighbours and climbed all over the bookcases, so here (MP3, 4.93MB), by way of welcome, is a snipped…

Peel

So it’s just going to be the once on Peel. That was a strange summer, when the customary laziness was suddenly interrupted by unfamiliar terms like “airplay” and “contract”. Then the singer got eight years for stammering during an armed robbery and the guy in the suit ran off with the money. Or something –…

Importance of language (potty?) training

A fascist left site stole an excerpt from a translation of Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men and posted it approvingly next to what they think is the authentic cover. Check it out. (Tim Blair > Barcepundit, neither of whom seems to be the agent provocateur webmaster of Nodo50.)

Raven blast

The raven didn’t hear me coming, so it broke away from the cliff at the last moment, struggled to remain airborne, and then climbed with a clumsy whooshing of wings out of the shadows and above the ridge, where it found the thermal, flexed its wing-fingers, and hung motionless for an age, the sun glinting…

The secrets of Catalan cuisine: shave the sailor

An elderly waiter is teaching his younger colleague English in the weights room of a noisy downtown Barcelona gym, accompanied by an interesting selection of 90s house hits: – ¡FEESH AN CHEEPS!– ¡FEESH AN CHEEPS!– MUY BIEN. ¡EK!– ¿EK?– HOMBRE, ¡EK, HUEVO!– ¡AY, CLARO!– ¡FREET EKS SOONY SITE OOP!– ¿¿¿???– MIRA EL SOL, SOLEADO. ¿ENTIENDES?–…

Rijmen op z’n Hollandsch

Ik had me wel ‘s afgevraagd waarom Sinterklaas gedichtjes niet hoefden te rijmen, tenminste niet op de ons bekende wijze. Antwoord heb ik gevonden in een heel geinig rijmpje van Andries Pels (1631-1681): Men bindt ons échter niet aan zulke naauwe wétten,Dat juist in `t rijm op élk een’ létter sta te létten;O neen; wanneer…

Deep-fried chocolate sparrow

At bar Miramelindo in Barcelona They do not serve dinner … but they do offer a chocolate mus or a sample of sorbet to enjoy. I must say I’d go for the chocolate mus–mus being Dutch for “sparrow”, Dutch being “the new ethnic”, as they say1 –which I guess is made by stuffing the boidie…