John Chappell’s latest commandment over at Libertad Digital comes in a piece that makes instructive comparisons between US and Spanish regional and national government finance systems. No prizes for guessing who gets rubbished.
Well, kind of, notes Technologies du Langage: you’ve got to call them “blocs” or “bloc-notes”. Jean goes on to note that “bloc” is already used in heaps of other meanings… If one had wanted to create “French” French at all costs, it seems to to me that carnet (“notebook”) would have been a better reflection…
I haven’t the faintest idea whether “nitty gritty” originated in the slaveships (“no te grites”, stop moaning? Nope) and thus should be avoided by good folks or whether it’s an American Indian training service, but I did like the following gangster talk: “Noo, man! Mi an di man fos taak boo dat, man, aa sins…
The right is perturbed because men are getting married on Los Lunnis. Their objections are historical rather than theological–no one’s suggesting we respect Genesis 24:3 and 38:6 and allow fathers to select girlies for their sons–and their problem is that the world has moved on. I’d regard myself as a natural PP voter (although that…
I haven’t seen cockfighting in Spain, but to judge by this report there’s still a fair amount of it about. Here, however, the authorities are trying to stamp it out, while in Cuba they’re running the show: Police operation in the farming district of Las Mercedes SANTIAGO DE CUBA, February 12 (Antonio Alonso, in collaboration…
The French are going to reject the Euroconstitution, and for some reason this is worrying some Brits. There’s some interesting anthropology in this post by Jon Henley, and here‘s a contrasting piece from a couple of years ago. (There’s a much more exciting effort from Boris Johnston here (free reg), which includes the following: The…
Oh dear, more kerfuffle about official European languages. It seems clear to me that until the Common Agricultural Policy is abolished we should be condemned to Pig Latin.