Kalebeul hopes to avoid the widescale unrest we believe will result from police action against nocturnal street drinks parties by implementing two preventative strategies: 30 years ago three gentlemen in Bar Manolo were given a monthly allowance on condition they drink all the alcohol in Spain. Project delivery date: 20:00 17/3/2006. All streeting from the…
–Why don’t we do the deal Monday so we can do the transfer-of-ownership bureaucracy at the same time? –I’d really like to have it this weekend. Look, I’ve got the cash with me. –But you haven’t seen the car yet! –No, no, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Let’s go and get it, I’ll pay you,…
Michael Quinion says it’s a weird word, so I guess I read weird books. Some early models had the benches raked so that everyone could see forward without standing up; accidents must have been spectacular. Spaniards travelled in char-á-bancs, as well as char-á-banes and charabáns (see porlan), and Cuba may have had the odd chalabán.…
I think this is a shame. Even if you take away the memorials, the bits of plastic and glass and mangled tree left by the towtruck can still be seen, and having a thicket of crosses on sharp bends serves to warn drivers and cheer cyclists (except of course when they were done wrong).
OK, Jordanian Starbucks customers (via Taccuino di Traduzione). More on Arabizi and language death from Jordanian blogger Lina. I know an Itsi-Bitsi-Teeny-Weeny-Honolulu-Strandbikini bit about East African Arabic creoles, but this is new to me. I guess that there must have also existed Romance-Arabic creoles at some stage (Mozarabic was, of course, not one), but I’m…
The other day I serendipited upon a review in Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië (1853) of Abraham Benjamin Cohen Stuart‘s translation of what sounds like an absolutely brilliant Javanese epic poem dealing with the life and loves of one Baron Sakendher, Geschiedenis van Baron Sakendher. Een Javaansch verhaal van vertaling, aanteekeningen…
I don’t think author and diplomat Juan Valera (“Good should always be in fashion”) will mind me revealing his smoking fetish, now he’s been dead 100 years. Here‘s a quick tranny of an 1850 letter from Russia: On May 8th, Russian style, I left Saint Petersburg for Moscow on the noon train, accompanied by a…
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…