Year: 2007

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?

Open-air CD and DVD library

Those tree-hung disks aren’t really for scaring off the deer, silly. Take one home with you and, when you’ve had all you can bear of Hits of Hits or Dirty Dancing II, or when you figure that installing BitWare for Windows wasn’t that smart anyway, take it back and hang it on the correct tree.
Those tree-hung disks aren't really for scaring off the deer, silly. Take one home with you and, when you've had all you can bear of Hits of Hits or Dirty Dancing II, or when you figure that installing BitWare for Windows wasn't that smart anyway, take it back and hang it on the correct tree.

Ilaridad

Hilaridad is increasingly ilaridad, while partner import hello is still universally jota-ised as jelo. Has this got anything to do with the availability of undubbed Ali G?

Ewerthon

I’m unreliably informed that Real Zaragoza star Ewerthon Henrique de Souza’s dad couldn’t spell Everton rather than Erewhon. Not that anyone gives a feck, but by all means keep the tips flowing.

Home-jacking

First encounter with this one was a few weeks ago when a Dutch-speaking client insisted I use it in some insurance copy. When I declined, he googled it and came up with the following supporting ghit: “And since the betas apparently go out to people who aren’t familiar with the fucking Tribes universe while I’m…