I just read Beth Marie Kosir’s interesting paper on the British codpiece and thought I’d have a quick look through some Spanish stuff. The Hispanic bragueta (I guess it comes from the French braguette, which is actually not a combination of baguette and bragas, “knickers”) seems to have been used first (in the late 15th…
Last night I had the privilege of singing at Ferrari driver Marc Gené‘s wedding reception, held in a neo-Renaissance palace (built 1940-50) called Bell Recó (something like “Beautiful spot”–it’s tucked away behind some absolutely splendid trees on a hillside up near Argentona). Apart from the kitchen, I found the building of interest principally because of…
I only found out yesterday that people refer to €500 notes as “Bin Ladens”, not because they have his portrait on them, but because you never see them.
… suggests Nando Caballero here. A certain Bakunin comments below that the same thing happened to us (coral de la guasa = “humorous choir”, kind of) during a July concert in Barcelona. However, the highlight was not the hassle we did indeed get off the liberhairians, but a drunk who climbed on stage and started…
The right’s out on another freemasonry scare. The kind of paranoia popularised by Franco’s official historian (whose work is often quite as bad as anything produced by the left-wing historians who came to power in the 80s) and his mates may explain why at least three people try to run me down every time I…
A friend once impressively tried to play the trombone in a London cab, but the prize goes to the small lottery kiosk containing a middle-aged woman several sizes larger who was dreamily squeezing away at her accordeon this afternoon. Her dog was crammed in there as well.
I’ve been having problems with some vowels recently, so I wish this kind of stuff was available for more languages. The doggies and birdies are particularly welcome. (I once worked for an insufferably conservative company with a phenomenally rear-end approach to corporate comms. One day it was discovered that, rather than wait for the official…
Shop deliveries free on foot in Leeds LS1-8 & LS13. Dismiss