Chronica majora – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

The essential problem isn’t SOPA but copyright law itself

Let’s bring the term of protection back to life + 20 years.

Why are the bulk of misspellings of Samuel Johnson (Jhonson) by South Asians and Spanish speakers?

Curious that someone values someone else’s wisdom enough to quote him, but not enough to spell his name correctly. Checking in Google Books, is it that the French, the Germans, etc don’t (pretend to) read Johnson, don’t care to confess it, prefer carefully constructed argument over appeals to authorities?

This one’s going to run and run

The lugs of François II of France and Speke, reasons to be cheerful?

Revealed, the identity of the horny apparition in the story of St Benedict, the blackbird, and the nettles

A 19th century Roman historian says she’s from the Roman Merula (blackbird) clan.

Detail of Nicolò di Pietro, The temptation of Saint Benedict.

Chino de los mandados = errand boy

Chinese because of his servility and/or size, or a genuine Indiana Jonesian Short Round? From Bogota, and perhaps relatively recent, but here (it reappeared) is Walter Silva from distant Casanare singing a sentimental but memorable ditty about how his mum etc looked after him when the store wouldn’t put the groceries on the tab. Can…

Interview with North Korea’s Spanish Lord Haw Haw

Alejandro Cao de Benós must have made a bit over the years from the travel agency monopoly for those whose belief in sadosocialism goes beyond fucking under-age Cubans, so maybe he’ll pay to gild the cord when the poor bloody Koreans finally catch him and string him up.

La lengua secreta de los cazadores

–¿Cómo se llama un cerdo silvestre que acaba de salir del bosque? –¡Jaballí! Not one of mine. If you prefer your animal tame and stuffed, Lenox has a bull’s head for you. I almost acquired one from a bar that was closing down, but there were parasites crawling out of its orifices.

Brilliant Christmas card from the Spanish central bank

They may not have the last laugh, but there are worse ways to go. (Via Barcepundit)

Interchangeability of nominative and genitive forms of Spanish patronymics?

I’m thinking of examples like Álvarez/Álvaro, Alves/ Alves, Benítez/Benito, Díaz/Diego, Domínguez/Domingo, Fernández/Fernando, Giménez/Ximeno, Gómez/Guillermo, González/Gonzalo, Gutiérrez/Gutierre, Henríquez/Henrique, Ibáñez/Juan, Juánez/Juan, López/Lope, Márquez/Marco, Martínez/Martín, Menéndez/Menendo, Muñoz/Muño, Núñez/Nuño, Ordóñez/Ordoño, Ortiz/Ortún, Peláez/Pelayo, Pérez/Pere, Ramírez/Ramiro, Rodríguez/Rodrigo, Ruiz/Ruy, Sánchez/Sancho, Suárez/Suero, Vázquez/Vasco, Velázquez/Velasco.

Is it the fault of the Greeks that the Germans are the way they supposedly are?

I sense potential for reparations claims citing Aesop.