Here‘s why I had a bugger of a time trying to imitate with compass, ruler and pencil the more complex designs I dug up after my first trip into parts Islamic. And it’s got a name that’s new to me and a whole host of experts, it has. (Via Stefan Geens, and do read the…
Margaret of Fürth comments on the online edition of Ronald McIntosh and David Fawthrop’s A discussion of the changing principles of word division, now implemented by computers, in British English and American English, with notes on hyphenation of 39 other languages, which is even longer than its title. The notes on hyphenation in Spanish observe…
Whoever runs Fabirol‘s website tells us on a page re a museum near Zaragoza called La casa del gaitero, Bagpiper House in corporate speak, that in Aragon gaitero can be used to describe any popular musician. What would an equivalent lowest-common-denominator term be in the English-speaking world? “Artiste” misses the instrument component and, frequently, the…
Here, via Carlos Ferrero, thanks to MM. (Is paint-bombing and slogan-daubing terrorism? Yes, when it’s part of the systematic campaign of violence and intimidation being conducted by regional nationalists in Spain with the goal of disenfranchising other shades of opinion.)
Someone asked me the other day whether agricultural subsidies had gone the same way as in the UK, and I gave a lousy answer. Charles Butler over at IBEX Salad has a partial account, in the course of which he uses the words “very simple”. Right…
Does the principle that “If it’s too important to you, then you’ll mess it up” mean that enthusiastic believers should be advised to refrain from Bible translation? If not, would it be cool to have them translate your wife’s diary? Since when have Irishmen taken beatings from mullet?