2009 – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

Spanish Christmas Lottery rips off Google logo

Google translates the “I’m feeling lucky” button into Spanish as “Voy a tener suerte”, which is closer to “It’s my lucky day.” So, easy meat for ventura24.es, which wants to associate a brand for losers with one where you really do win (almost) every time you play. Google may be an addiction, but it isn’t…

Spanish/French shibboleth commemorates the brief reign of Joseph Bonaparte

Fill in the gaps in this pasquinade on the voiceless velar fricative, which I found last night in Mesonero Romanos’ El antiguo Madrid: En la plaza hay un cartel Que nos dice en castellano Que José, rey italiano, Roba a España su dosel; Y al leer este cartel, Dijo una maja a su majo: —Manolo,…

Why I’m called Trevor

Or, rather, how my grandfather seems to have been named after a minor railway station.

Carmen de España

A not particularly serious assault on Prosper Mérimée.

Extremadura government to pay for wanking workshops

We’re in for a long recession: if the Extremadura PSOE says that pleasure is in your hands (via PD), then presumably they know that Spaniards aren’t going to be able to afford prostitutes for the foreseeable future. There’s been the predictable outcry from Catalan nationalists who believe they are subsidising Extremaduran tosspots and other spendthrift…

An unusual case of risus sardonicus

Is Mr Barbecue Bunny’s sardonic grin pre- or post-mortem?

Drawing by <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Laguna'>Andrés (de) Laguna de Segovia</a> of a candidate for the Sardinian laughing plant in <a href='http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA250&id=l8I9qBq-PNYC'>a 1651 Valencian edition of Dioscorides</a>.

Why Spain needs text books

Its teachers are raging butterflies, says a 16th century music publishing entrepreneur.

Jingoistic poem celebrating the Battle of Vigo Bay (1702)

Half roasted Frenchmen, some o’er Gratings Broil’d/Do mix with Spaniards in the Sea parboil’d;

<a href='http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Vigo_bay_october_23_1702.jpg'>Zeeslag in de baai van Vigo</a>

Ghit goes generic

The Danish-based trends site Ghits.dk is now using my most popular neologism (Google hit -> ghit) for both Google and Yahoo searches. (Dear Mr Larsen, any chance of a link back to the source of your inspiration? Kalebeul or FollowTheBaldie.com would do nicely!)

Discovered: Cataloonia’s true fet diferencial

It’s not what you steal, it’s the way that you steal it.