Formica in Spain

… seems to have come in at the end of the 40s: Arturo heredó la taberna en 1939 y la transformó en bar dos años más tarde. En 1949 hizo una nueva reforma: puso un letrero luminoso, un armario frigorífico y seis mesas de formica: “La Montaña-Cafetería Bar”. Poco después la transformaba en banco. Es…

Sodom and Granada

Vaguely re this post, there’s a strong current of belief here that sees the Civil War as a rerun of the Reconquista, with (here we head into caricature mode) the left viewing both as the destruction of a new age of peace and love (the latter in all its many varieties) by intolerant savages, while…

Face-fart fines

Mediaeval local legal codes, fueros, all contain passages like the following, taken from the Fuero de Bejár (1290s):

Grapes

Proof , thanks to the excellent C.

Non-PC rhymes

I think you can still use the following Dutch rhyme: Allah is groot en Allah is machtig, Allah heeft een lul van één meter tachtig. … as long as it is accompanied by the following English translation, to be pronounced with the London glottalstoppery of the gentleman with whom I spent a year in a…