‘“They were good kids coming back from a football game. Their criminal record was almost completely clean,” said Kolan, a black 22-year-old who was part of a foursome, all of North African origin, scuffing their feet in the estate entrance.‘
There’s a bunch of mad old guys in the neighbourhood who come out and feed the pigeons, which then crap all over benches, bicycles and toddlers. One of the locals has discovered how to make them stop. He puts a handful of salt in his pocket, lies in wait till he sees them emptying their…
(Sad hippy post.) Everyone gets prizes here, and they’ve given sociolinguist Irene Lozano one for lamenting in Lenguas en guerra (Languages at war), as reported in ABC, that languages are used for political ends, when their purpose is to serve and human communication and knowledge. Languages don’t take notice of borders, because borders hinder and…
I only found out yesterday that people refer to €500 notes as “Bin Ladens”, not because they have his portrait on them, but because you never see them.
The right’s out on another freemasonry scare. The kind of paranoia popularised by Franco’s official historian (whose work is often quite as bad as anything produced by the left-wing historians who came to power in the 80s) and his mates may explain why at least three people try to run me down every time I…
A friend once impressively tried to play the trombone in a London cab, but the prize goes to the small lottery kiosk containing a middle-aged woman several sizes larger who was dreamily squeezing away at her accordeon this afternoon. Her dog was crammed in there as well.
I’ve been having problems with some vowels recently, so I wish this kind of stuff was available for more languages. The doggies and birdies are particularly welcome. (I once worked for an insufferably conservative company with a phenomenally rear-end approach to corporate comms. One day it was discovered that, rather than wait for the official…