Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.

And, lo, has caught the sultan’s turret In a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable

– Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’ 

Covid

Headline: China’s Covid nightmare is the final proof: lockdowns were a total failure. Sweden’s refusal to impose compulsory shutdowns has now, by contrast, been completely vindicated. Article.

Cosas de España/Galiza

At least one person is not a fan of subsidies to retrain the inflation rate here in Spain

HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for this article, in Spanish, on the fastest growing residential bits of Spain. In España de las piscinas, in fact.

And here’s Lenox himself on changing street names. In Pv city, Rúa General Mola became Rúa Guttierez Mellado about 20 years ago but the old name is still widely used.

Nice to see Galicia’s Godello and Mencia wines mentioned here.

In case you’re desperate to know, here’s the lowdown/guff on the shop, NP, in Malasaña that had a long queue outside it the other day. Nude Project. By artists for artists: A ready-to-wear label founded in 2018 in a small dorm room by 2 friends eager to create something different. Our garments aim to inspire the new generation to pursue their passion, whether or not it is the traditional path, by empowering artists to create without fear of judgement. Its web page claims it’s the fastest growing clothing brand in Spain and that it sells a hoodie every 20 seconds. Which must be very impressive to quite a few ‘artists’. No great surprise to not read of naked shop assistants.

Russia

Headline: The death of Moscow’s ‘sausage king’ [from window-exiting] shows why Western companies will never return to Putin’s Russia. His despotic rule has turned Russia into an economic pariah. So far this year there’ve been 21 such odd deaths. Article here.

Quote of the Day

New Year’s Eve is the most overrated night of the year. Only Valentine’s Day comes close for sheer pointlessness. It’s a perfect storm of high expectations, inflated cost, no transport, a set menu of food you don’t like doused in truffle oil and bottomless prosecco. Every sane person knows that the best way to appreciate prosecco is to pour it down the sink and beg for chablis.

The Way of the World

1. Maths professors at top UK universities will warn ministers today that academics are too scared to challenge damaging attempts to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum. . . Many of them fear it is too “personally risky” to challenge the  decolonisation agenda.

2. Universities are dropping Chaucer and Shakespeare as ‘decolonisation’ takes root. Many British universities have sought to liberate their courses from ‘white, Western and Eurocentric’ knowledge

Is Cervantes also facing eradication here in Spain, I wonder. And is it happening in Portugal, which has a far worse slaving record than the UK or the USA? Ditto the Netherlands. Or is this primarily an ‘Anglo thing’, reflecting (manufactured?) shame over slave trading?

English

According to a UK columnist, these are the16 words you need to make sense of 2022 – assuming you want to look back on it. I confess to having had to check on one or two or them during the year. ‘Goblin mode’ was featured here not so long ago. The full (amusing) article – with definitions – is here:-

Air fryer

Beige flags

Bond yields

Ethical non-monogomy

Elf bars

Goblin mode

NFTs

NLAWs

Nepo Babies

Nucelar fusion

Permacrisis

Trussonomics

Turtling

UWOs

Virtual influencers

A woman

For new readers:-

1. 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.

2. Should you want to, the easiest way to to get my post routinely is to sign up for email subscription. As opposed to using a Bookmark or entering the URL in your browser.