I thought the EU might last till 2030

But if Juncker doesn’t resign this week I reckon 2020 will be pushing it. Luxembourg Syndrome also used to amuse in the Channel Islands: population wakes up, discovers that every cousinfucking potatodigger / goatherd is a financial genius! I am covered, come what may: the Xmas beer is bubbling away.

Speech elevator

The Instituto Cervantes runs courses explaining to Spanish speakers how to recycle themselves as teachers in the Anglosphere: “Lo más importante es no lanzarse a la aventura de la docencia sin más, porque no basta con ser nativo”, apunta Gemma Belmonte, profesora de español en el Cervantes londinense. Además de aprender a planificar una clase,…

Music over the wire

I got a tremendous kick out of singing duets over CU-SeeMe with some mad Icelandic woman in 1994, but it had all been done before, at the beginning of the telephone age: ten musicians performing, in 1892, in four different towns (Dudley, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Hanley) In other words the telephone not only allowed you…