Me speakee inglés

Carles Miró’s new blog links to the defunct fum i estalzí, which I also used to read, and which carried Johnson’s salutory tag: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” Money also drives translation projects, and only thieves and fools cost and conduct them in a way that lacks clear and defensible…

A fencer called Fencer

Check out fellow-moaner, Malaprensa. Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, will need it, and if John Baker is permissible, then why not the other way round more generally – Ayudaporelamordedios Rajoy, for example?

Steakholders

In comments, from the excellent Pueblo Girl, a not uncommon Spanglish eggcorn, and one previously much enjoyed in English too. For example: Stake versus Steak.On one occasion, Garrick dined in the beef-steak room at Covent Garden, ready dressed in character for the part of Ranger, which he was to perform the same night at the…

Long time no see, but…

Organ‘s almost there: And one’s mind is furtively wandering again through the world of cargo cycles. Recent sightings include a very impressive 4-wheeler from FietsXpress.nl in Den Haag: Apparently it’s Berlin-built, but by whom? Vrachtfiets.nl, a spin-off from the excellent technical university in Delft (I used to cycle there from Rijswijk every lunchtime for fried…

Best ever portrait of June Caprice?

This original drawing with its delicious absinthe blue is by one Emili Vilà Gorgoll (Llagostera 1887-1967, who he?) & is up for auction at Balclis on Wednesday. Here’s the competition. I go basically for the munchies and the odd curiosity. I sense an inverse relationship between price and personal preference – the expensive stuff seems…

Capital controls during the Euro collapse

This strikes me as pretty plausible, and I’m guessing the export cap here will be around €1000-equivalent. If the public perception is that nationalist dictatorship created the Spanish middle class and eurocracy destroyed it (basically only the extremely rich have accounts in safe havens), then the future could be interesting.

Fear escape

From a Barcelona tech company, with offices on c/ Blames (or whatever it’s called), an emergency sign that people will actually read and remember: If substituting “fire” with “fear” has interesting consequences, the reverse is also consequential. Thus treated “The Faerie Queene“, for example, may recall for some Quake on acid: Next him was Fire,…