April 2009 – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

Catalan Easter Jew-killing ceremony update

I wondered here whether pew-beating as a means of reliving medieval pogroms was a nineteenth century invented tradition. It was a rather naive question, and confirmation that the practice was already popular in Barcelona in 1848 is to be found in this Libro Verde entry for today, Holy Wednesday.

Libro Verde update

Better functionality, objectives still vague.

Drunk and disorderly

A British soldier’s hazy recollections of civil war in Portugal.

The fundamental difference between Mussolini and Berlusconi

Is Silvio a cyborg?

Go forth and multiply

Witness accounts from the records of the Spanish Inquisition in Córdoba.

A Caja Castilla la Mancha anecdote

Broadly illustrative of how we got where we are, with a joke at the end.