Cosas of Spain/Galiza 

María has noted on FB that there were more than 10,000 young folk in Santiago last weekend. Not the place it used to be and, like her, I avoid it these days. Even in winter, when ‘pilgrim’ numbers are fewer/less. And I’m now longer awed/disgusted/angered by the money of poor folk that’s gone into the grotesquely gilded altars.

Talking of the Camino . . . I wasn’t  surprised to read that female walkers now well outnumber males. I sometimes wonder how safe the single – usually Teutonic-looking – women really are. More and more so, I guess, as numbers relentlessly increase and there’s no space between you and the folk in front of and behind you. The Portuguese Way could well become as well-trodden as the (conveyor-belt) French Way within a few years. These Ways used to be for solace and contemplation. Even a ’spiritual’ experience, whatever that means. Fat chance of that now. I wonder when the peak will occur.

Meanwhile, along with the PP mayor of Madrid, the PP mayor of nearby Vigo says he’ll defy the government and not enforce energy savings, especially as regards his ‘nationally famous’ Xmas lights. I understand that not all denizens of that city hold him in high regard.

The UK  

A columnist recently bemoaned the non-existence of wonderful TV ad campaigns from her youth. I recalled the article last night when concluding that all TV ads now seem to be created by teenagers and for teenagers. Perhaps it’s because all serious advertising is now done on the net, on the basis of the personal info we freely given to Google, FB, Instagram, Twitter, etc. So, it’s our fault.

This is a fascinating article about something in my birth-town, which I saw years ago in a derelict state. And here’s the site cited. Great videos. Hats off to Dean Paton and Big Heritage. A great example of the value of the internet.

The USA

After years of claiming that the shooting was a hoax, the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay more than $4 million in damages to the parents of a boy killed in the Sandy Hook school massacre. Couldn’t be happening to a nicer guy. Jones had waged a decade-long campaign claiming that no children were killed and the parents of the dead were actors hired in a government plot to impose tough gun controls. During his trial – as you might expect – he perjured himself. Astonishingly, this was revealed when his legal team accidentally handed over an entire digital copy of his phonecalls to the other lawyers, which proved he’d lied on the stand.

The Way of the World 

This ‘wickedly funny’ site tracks cryptocurrency frauds. Might save you a fortune.

I always put my posts on Twitter and into a (private) FB group. Yesterday, Twitter refused to accept my post. Possibly because of the real/spoof video inviting Westerners to go and live in Russia. I found a way round it, of course, but felt a tad persecuted for a few seconds . . . Lenox Napier has it a lot worse, having an unusual SOH. For which he is regularly ‘quarantined’ by FB. Where no one has a SOH.

Finally  . . .

To amuse . . .  I related:-

For new readers: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.