Walking Kennedy to Manhattan

I’m not a big fan of his writing, but this is cool. Once somewhere similar I used to walk to work to burn off beer and pizza reserves and ended up going cross-country, cross ditch and thru hedge, to avoid car-bound colleagues who would stop and ask if I was OK.

Tent

Thomas Wright’s 1857 Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English says it is an inferior alicant wine, and used as a general term for all Spanish reds (ie from tinto), which seems somewhat at odds with his quote from Ward’s diary (16×2): “I drank tent with Mr. Hartman. It is a very sweet and a luscious…

Bad losers

Amusing that Stanley Payne believes that “the Left has had a super-legitimacy complex, as if it had the right to govern… In this way the Spanish Left does not accept the fact that it might lose, it does not accept any adversaries.” I had understood that since the 2004 elections this belief was the property…

Gypsies providing protection services to police station in El Prat de Llobregat

An amusing and completely credible post from Avui. Meanwhile Tío Lele has confirmed via a spokesman that he is completely happy with this, the final version of his corporate website. Apparently its brutal emptiness is a metaphor for the intangible aspects of making do without the brand. It would have been nice to include at…

Nazón de Breogán

If the ruling Galician national socialists want to redefine the region in their statute of autonomy as the “nation of Breogan” (their leader says their identity is in their genes), does that mean that, like their mythical hero, they’re going to spend all their money building a great big tower and then take the whole…

Amazon in Spain

El Bibliómano covers Alibris’ arrival in the UK. Meanwhile we’re still waiting for Amazon to open a store in Spain. If they need encouragement, here‘s a photo posted by Alvy almost two years ago on Microsiervos, concluding that they could generate revenues of up to €30M here.

Definition of a nationalist

Check Ernesto Rodera’s cartoon over at Carlos’ Lenguas entrelazadas. Here’s some getting a free holiday in Rome.

Wrong Franco

Yesterday PRNoticias posted an item (scroll down) about the general lack of interest in the 31st anniversary of Francisco’s death. Unfortunately it’s accompanied by a photo of Antonio Franco, ex-director of El Periódico. (Via Malaprensa)

Crane spirit

When I went out this morning onto the Rambla del Raval, a man was standing up on the boom of the 40 metre crane overlooking Calle San Rafael. He gesticulated and shouted at the firemen in the crane cabin and then wandered out to smoke a cigarette at the 35 metre end. Under the shadow…