Languages, mankind, empires, the family – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

Time to behead Fèlix Millet?

On this day in 1466, one Juan Sort, aged 70, was beheaded for the misappropriation of public funds. Millet is said by the auditors to have stolen around 30 million and has fessed to around 10%, but has not been anywhere near a prison, and indeed seems to think that by looking old and grey…

Solving Africa’s woes with a simple parlour game

Desultory bar philosophising on the socio-economic function of Secret Santa.

Chiquito de la Calzada’s trademark ‘rl’ suffix for words ending in ‘a’ or ‘o’

Is it a personal hiperandalucismo, or is there somewhere in Málaga where everyone speaks like this?

Chiquito de la Calzada: CC fan photo by <a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/funyskywalker/'>funyskywalker</a>

Why they didn’t find Lorca

Bishop Gibson of Granada understands beatific bureaucracy but not tradition. Featuring a bad Vietnamese flamenco clip.

Relative corruption of PP, PSOE, etc revisited

Every 9th Canarian nationalist councillor has a problem, and the left looks to be in worse trouble than the right nationally.

What’s so hard about answering an email?

–Hello. –Hello, is that the Department of Tourism? Yes? Hello, a week ago I sent you an email asking if this Friday you could let me and a group in to see the crypt of blah blah blah, and I was wondering whether this would still be possible. –Oh yes, I read the email. –So?…

Why I’m called Trevor

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

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>.

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!)