Struggling with weariness and reading bits of Ricardo Palma’s Tradiciones peruanas (1883). There was no sugar cane in Peru at the time of its conquest, he writes, and the first plantations were not established until 1570. The first Peruvian refiner suffered from the abundance and cheapness of Mexican sugar until he hit upon the smart…
I’m really fond of Eulàlia Petit’s Barcelonetes because, unlike the overwhelming majority of distinctly underwhelming blogs here, it provides useful stuff and not house, garden and kitchen chitchat. Take, for example, this drawing of a vendor using simple Roman scales (una romana) in a Montpellier market. Close-ups of others here and here, and here‘s a…
I’d like to see Guus Hiddink take over England asap, but then I was supporting Mark Oaten (go on, get me one for my birthday!) to run the Lib Dems until he started chasing the England job, leaving Boris Johnson as the LDs’ only potentially electable leader. (Apparently the Koreans gave Guus a villa on…
These (from Carlos Westendorp Plaza) are OK: Autodate – type of potatoes Queque – cake Quineguar/chineguar – King Edward potatoes (the d -> g swap is interesting; it reminds me of some Andalusian dialects in which you get b -> g (abuelo -> aguelo) etc And this is a killer: Cambuyonero – Someone who trades…
David E Vassberg (Land and Society in Golden Age Castile) writes: There exists also an old proverb (of unknown vintage): En tierra de señorío, almendro o guindo; en tierra real, noguera o moral (In seigneurial lands, almond or cherry; in royal lands, walnut or mulberry), which the editor of the collection of proverbs [Bergua, Refranero…
Thanks for the concerned mails. The cooperative gave us the day off, so I’m able to report that, far from being drunk or dead, I am in fact drownded, and that neither in the Jesus Sea, nor in the Odys-sea, but in the rippling Manchegan earthsea, where gypsies wear latex and smell of Eau de…
It may come as something of a surprise to Europeans that Geoff Pullum and Prentiss Riddle expect a bus company to provide clearly articulated, comprehensive information.