Franco and inflation

‘It is said that on inaugurating the great ENSIDESA steel concern, Franco exclaimed, “And to think that this cost nothing more than two kilos of paper…”‘ (Manuel Ortínez, Una vida entre burgesos. Memòries (1993)) How can people still get so worked up about a vulgar thief?

Electrician

— I haven’t brought the component I need. I’ll come back tomorrow, but I’ll bill you now for today. — But you haven’t done anything. — Sorry, company policy. — OK, give me the bad news. — Right, that’s 20€ travel and one hour’s labour @ 35€, 55€ plus VAT. — But you’ve only been…

Cádiz y sus cantes

It’s been done before, but here’s soundman, producer, director Luis Jimenez (if he really was any of these, and not a mere video-ripper) in footage of Maria La Sabina:

The Basque race and the horse

“The Basque type is, amongst all the human races, that which is most different from quadrupeds. The posture of the head and the form of the jaw is in the Basque the least animal of all in existence.” Telesforo de Aranzadi, ¿Existe una raza euskara? Sus caracteres antropológicos. San Sebastián, Imprenta de la Provincia, 1905…

Dog’s life aka Sandy

“The main reason you like my boyfriend is because he feeds you large quantities of grilled lamb, and the main reason my dog likes you is because you give her the bones.” Can’t see what’s wrong with that. I hope my eyes don’t go as dazed and watery as the dog’s.

“Among the first thing one notices, when looking at the contract price arrays, is that the distant months seem to trade at the same price as the nearby, at least in the same crop year”

One of the things that shocked me about the primitive exchange I came across in Binéfar four years ago was that, 300 years after the Japanese started using forward contracts for rice and 150 years after the spread of rail communications through the American West laid the basis for futures trading on the Chicago exchange,…

Spanish Pavarotti anecdote

Tutto Pavarotti was the title of the great man’s best-selling album, but even this proved a linguistic step too far for Spanish audiences. At concerts on the tour he was alarmed to see them rise en masse and chant “Tutto! Tutto!” in the belief that this was his first name.

Baroque bore

An innocent bystander might imagine Mr de Miguel was writing about Mr Espada.