Counting the corrupt

A numerate, corrupt mayor, some innumerate anti-corruption campaigners, and de Tocqueville.

100% of Spanish graduates interviewed (sample size: 1) said this <a href='http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rechentisch.png'>abacus</a> was in fact architect's plans for a bowling alley.

Fresh, Nasty and Well-Balanced in the Mouth

An advert for eating young live crab? Of course not: it’s a mistranslated wine label, discovered by the excellent Warren Edwardes. I’m guessing that this is the Casa de la Viña 2010 Chardonnay, whose translated web puff is better, though by no means faultless.

La Razón doubles body count in Florida deaf mistranslation stabbing

Carlos Ferrero Martín points me to this story about the terrible potential consequences of not matching what is meant and what is understood when drunk-signing with armed gang members. La Razón, never to be outdone, converts two victims into four. Fucked translation: deux points.

Spanish “forget the housing crash” roadshow

The Dutch economy looks pretty good from just about anywhere at the moment, but I’m pretty sure government departments there still all employ an English native speaker to draft and translate messages aimed at foreigners. The Spanish economy shows few signs of emerging from its hole, but even though central government seems equivocal about reducing…

Visit Pontevedra, you can’t miss it

From Colin Davies, who I suppose might be prepared to fix Turismo de Pontevedra‘s problems on an ongoing basis in return for free tapas and the occasional lift home in the mayoral limo. The Galician, on the other hand, looks fine – no tourist added-value there, but still plenty of votes, even in a recession.…

Ayuntamiento de Jerez bets on tourism … but can’t afford a translator

This is the The Great Guide of Jerez (La gran guía de Jerez), part of an on-going, multi-million-euro campaign that may or may not impact on Jerez’s image – in novels I’ve read – as the ancestral home of the extremely rich and extremely poor, united only in their drunken delinquency and periodic attempts to…

Run like a gypsy

With Imanol Arias as El Lute, retired generaliser George Borrow, and walking and running style as social differentiators.

The Turks' gypsy hangman on the point of giving the Greek hero a new walking style in a scene from a Greek shadow puppet play (<a href='http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=3291073&partid=1&fromADBC=ad&toADBC=ad&titleSubject=on&physicalAttribute=on&numpages=10&images=on&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx&currentPage=6'>British Museum</a>). An Ottoman custom? A Barcelona cop tells me that his Algerian colleagues stamp on the ankles of bagsnatchers, making them easier to identify and capture next time.

Chinese overseas aid for Spain?

Victor Mallet has a good piece on Spain’s damagingly mistaken claim that Zapatero had successfully begged $9 billion from China. Chinese state media seems now to be hinting that, while some bucks may be on offer, Spain needs to present some bang asap – usufruct of the Balearics as latter-day Deshimas, proposes a mischievous voice.…

Free English-language Iberian climate atlas

Authored by the Spanish and Portuguese state meteorology services, an 80-page PDF with a good range of temperature and precipitation data for the Iberian peninsular from 1971 to 2000 is downloadable here. This is a most welcome initiative at a time when national budgets are under severe pressure and Spain is additionally beset by regionalism…