Month: May 2007

Serbs barter cows for penises

I recently had lunch with a Huescan entrepreneur who sold his dad’s cows in the 50s to buy a car, but this is ridiculous. [ Update: D confirms that Srecko Djordjevic is not an anagram of for example “jive jerks cod cord” and points out that he has form: A man chopped his own penis…

Moroccan censorship

The King has unblocked YouTube, but Moroccan bloggers could do with a hand in encouraging him to restore must-haves like GoogleEarth and LiveJournal. Bono is recording in Fez, and I’m sure he needs this kind of stuff too.

Wolves/pigs

Bit of fratricidal jollity from Ángel Ganivet, Idearium español (1897): “Confronted with the spiritual ruin of Spain we must put a stone where our heart is and throw a million Spaniards to the wolves if we all do not wish to be thrown to the swine.” No national stereotypes, please. Just trying to think of…

Public libraries

AMA once told me they were A Good Thing because in the 1930s they gave unemployed men in Britain somewhere dry to stand. It seems that Tomás Salvador spent the Civil War hiding in them, reading.

Champions League Final menu

In another bar in the village-over-the-hill aforementioned: Lettuce in fearsome red wine vinegar Little bony bits of baby goat wrapped in stomach in a mushroom sauce Intestines of baby goat stuffed with rice and lungs, kidneys, liver etc Roasted baby goat head Pudding made of milk from the mothers of new-born calves Red wine, coffee,…

Oh, please…

Asturias is not Spain, or at least not in Bray, Co Wicklow, and bottom right are the toys thrown out of his pram by the author in order to underline his point. For those who doubt that I took the photo in Ireland, here are two more of a microwave designed by Korean anthropologists for…
Asturias is not Spain, or at least not in Bray, Co Wicklow.

James Joyce: the Spanish years

Sorry. [ Alberto Lázaro has researched the effects of Francoist censorship on a number English-speaking authors, and there’s a good piece by him on Joyce here. He recounts Joyce’s trials elsewhere and then quotes testimony from the novelist Gonzalo Torrente Ballester and the translator Joaquím Mallafré as to the impediments placed in the way of…

Bird

I’m still not very good at birds, so, until I can do a vulture like this, here on the edge of some scree is a species unique to Iberia: it looks like a sparrow, has a call like a chaffinch, and the English name is spaffinch. Behind me to the right, under a small group…
I'm still not very good at birds, so, until I can do a vulture like this, here on the edge of some scree is a species unique to Iberia: it looks like a sparrow, has a call like a chaffinch, and the English name is spaffinch. Behind me to the right, under a small group of natural chimneys, you may not be able to see a trio of dopey goats.

Lola Flores takes English lessons

Anecdotal, from some film or other: Teacher: Agua, guoter. Lola: Agua, guoter. Y esto de guoter, ¿cómo se escribe? Teacher: W-A-T-E-R, váter. Lola: ¡Qué guarrada!, ¿cómo pueden bebérsela?