2011 – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

Spain’s self-employed

Destined to save the nation? More numerous than thought? Someone explain, please.

Hacked again

Same thing happened here last Tuesday and was repeated yesterday, details here.

Sepia to the iron with ali smelt

Via Carlos Ferrero Martín and @ucedaman, another great menu, featuring ears to the iron, sepia to the iron with ali smelt, almejas to the sailor, tape of lomo… “Ali smelt” is original and perhaps a calculated insult to one or all Shias, but “a la” as “to the” has tested the imagination, though not always…

Wordsworth’s take on the French revolution cast in doubt by a French corpus n-gram

Wordsworth on the revolution “as it appeared to enthusiasts at its commencement”: Oh! pleasant exercise of hope and joy! For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood Upon our side, we who were strong in love! Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven! But, taking into…

Transport prices mail-order sale of Spanish cheese to UK etc private customers?

More delights from the lives of SME exporters in the EU.

Castells, for real

A mad, mad Japanese video, and a human ladder at the Muslim siege of Aleppo in 637.

Roman double testudo, from Potter <em>Archaeologia graeca</em>. I'm told that the optimal shagging angle for turtles is 30º, so this counts as deviant.

Spain, it’s the rooster’s bollocks

Ignorance helps the dart wander.

Counting the corrupt

A numerate, corrupt mayor, some innumerate anti-corruption campaigners, and de Tocqueville.

100% of Spanish graduates interviewed (sample size: 1) said this <a href='http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rechentisch.png'>abacus</a> was in fact architect's plans for a bowling alley.

The decline of psychoanalysis charted

English-speakers are leaving in droves, Spanish-speakers are more equivocal, and Francophones are proving hard to un-crack.

Fresh, Nasty and Well-Balanced in the Mouth

An advert for eating young live crab? Of course not: it’s a mistranslated wine label, discovered by the excellent Warren Edwardes. I’m guessing that this is the Casa de la Viña 2010 Chardonnay, whose translated web puff is better, though by no means faultless.