Cappuccino

Amando de Miguel says it owes its name to the colour of Capuchin friars’ habits, both concrete and abstract–apparently they were notorious sybarites. I find the colour hypothesis slightly unconvincing, but it’s confirmed here. Evidence of their bizarre taste in this serendipitous find, a description by Nathaniel Parker Willis, Summer cruise in the Mediterranean on…

Statues

Would those who say that we should hang on to a few Francos because it was how things were, weren’t it, say the same of images of Marx? I’m something a fan of the Roman custom of leaving statue torsos intact and swapping heads as each dictator came and went.

Horny shepherds’ song within a song

Transhumance is in the air, so here’s a smutty song from a commie from Zaragoza: Los pastores se van, se van, Los pastores lloran, lloran: ¡ay de mí, pobre pastora! ¿con quién follarás tú ahora? Rejigged: The shepherds are going, they’re going again, The shepherds are weeping, they’re wailing this strain: “Alas, alack, oh Phyllis…

Spanish online second hand book prices: Uniliber vs Abe Books/IberLibro

A post by Mr Millán reminds me that a couple of weeks ago I received flyers for the new combine, Uniliber, from a bookseller in Bilbao. Here’s a head-to-head with its competitor, Abe Books/IberLibro, for a few second-hand books I want. I’ve gone for the cheapest each time and have excluded postal costs because, unlike…

The Orotava Valley agricultural workers strike

Of no interest, except to Christian socialists, who may wonder if Mr Jesus was behind the distribution of supplies to strikers: OROTAVA, September 17 1934. (By telegraph.)- The Orotava Valley agricultural organisation continues the general strike begun August 31 past without an accord having been feasible thus far. The civil governor has kept the organisation’s…