Cosas de España/Galiza 

I do my utmost to avoid hiring a car, going to the length of driving to and from Spanish and UK ports and taking out a mortgage to cover the coast of the ferry trip itself. On the face of it, this might sound extreme but perhaps not after reading this

This fine article on the Palmerál of Elche took me back several decades to my first visit to Spain when I spent a night there with my fiancée and her student colleagues, being terrified by gangs of youths hurling firecrackers at us. I imagine fiestas there are less explosive these days. But I could be wrong. Oh, yes, I was also told off for kissing said fiancée in a corner of the cathedral, while some boring medieval pageant was being performed in the nave.

HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for the news that all the statues of the tyrant Franco are lying around – literally in some cases – in 9 secret places around the country. LN tells us that this lady has written about their whereabouts. An esoteric subject, I imagine.

Can I say ‘lady’ these days without being cancelled? Or at least excoriated.

Poor María has gone down with the plague. I’m sure we all wish her a speedy recovery. I’m still patiently waiting my turn and, in truth, wonder why I haven’t been hit by it to date, despite travelling in several countries and being exposed, as it were, to many many folk. Good genes? Or just good luck? Speaking too soon, very probably . . .

The Way of the World  

Two rather different takes on Whoopi Goldberg’s Holocaust comments, here and here:-

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/01/whoopi-goldbergs-holocaust-revisionism/

A 3rd commentator has noted that – somewhat ironically – Ms Goldberg appropriated her surname because she wanted to sound Jewish. She even claimed Jewish heritage — but research and DNA tests suggesed that nearly all her lineage is West African.

Spanish

Pucherazo: Ballot rigging. The insult Spain’s political parties were hurling at each other on Thursday. And very probably still are. 

English 

‘Bandwidth throttling’. What internet providers do by way of progressively weakening your signal so you’re forced to upgrade your package. Allegedly, they’re all at it.

‘Hindsight bias’: (Mis)recalling that you were against something – e.g. the Iraq war or lockdowns – when you were actually in favour of it at the time.

Finally . . .

Someone has admitted to not being enchanted by the thought of reading this book:-

For new reader(s): If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here.