Colin Davies

7 June 2023

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’

Cosas de España

Politics 1: The PSOE PM is said to planning to pitch for the top Nato job in the event that, as universally expected, he loses the July general election.

Politics 2: One leading politician who definitely is leaving the field is the – rather lovely – Inés Arrimadas, the first woman in Spain to head up a main political party. She led the Ciudadanos ‘centre’ party, which rose rapidly and fell fast, after another leader took it right-wards. Making it irrelevant, as we already have the PP and Vox on that ground. Anyway, Sra Arrimadas accuses the PSOE PM of destroying Spain’s political centre. “Sánchez has divided Spain and is obliging Spaniards to choose between being a rojo (communist) or a facha (fascist). It’s a very clear strategy to break Spain in two”. Possibly a tad strong. I’m not sure who would gain from that.

Said Sánchez has been forced by his election gamble to shelve plans to evict Benedictine monks from Franco’s appalling Valley of the Fallen memorial. As it is, the PP party has said that, once back in power, it would reverse this. So, why do it?

It was the first day of ‘Selectividad’ (uni entrance) exams y’day. Four in one day. The VdG tells us that the first, History, was deemed easy but the 2nd – Galician Literature – was very hard, reducing some students to tears . . . All the fault of bloody Nationalists, I guess . . .

Spanish names can be long and confusing to Anglos, especailly if there are more than 10 syllables involved. El Pais’s London correspondent, Diego Arizpeleta de la Calle, has 13 in his. I wondered if, unusually, he had only one surname but quickly established that de al Calle is his second and that it’s not uncommon. Sometimes it’s reduced to just Calle. Or Street. This led me to:

  • Harry Street – a British ‘spree killer.’
  • Harry Street – a well-known British jurist and legal scholar. I think that’s the one I recalled.

Esperanza Cortinas of Ourense is 106. Despite her advanced age she still enjoys dancing several times a week and also plays card games with her friends. She attributes her longevity to a nightly glass of Galician liqueur de café.

The UK

What do you think? Oxfam would have us believe that any resemblance to JK Rowling in a video cartoon about TERFs they put on their site was pure coincidence . . .

Europe

I mentioned yesterday the rise in night-train travel. If tempted, here’s a top tip: Take earplugs. The train can rattle and then clunk when it reaches a station. Especially if it’s decoupled and re-coupled there. Oh, and other sleepers can be heavy snorers, of course.

The Way of the World

Taking the money is the oldest tale in sport – an apposite comment on the ending of golf’s ‘civil war’ with the victory of Saudi-Arabia-financed LIV, over the established PGA. Then there’s all-conquering Manchester City FC, of course. Who might or might not have mis-used the vast sums sent from Jeddah. Under investigation.

Quote of the Day

That sordid golf deal is a depressing illustration that money can disrupt and distort everything in sport.

Spanish

There’s a restaurant in this barrio of La Peseta (don’t ask me) called La Maluca. This means

either:-

  • A woman from the Indonesian Molucan Islands, or
  • Someone/something disagreeable

I guess/hope the former applies in this case.

English

Cloutrage: This is the power you have on social media to aggravate people. A mark of respect among kids, it’s said. In this challenge, you’re assisted by an amoral, algorithmic universe that rewards anything that garners attention. And you can earn serious money by developing a cult following and core audience. What wonderful times.

Did you know?

More evidence has emerged that the place I was born in – Birkenhead, on The Wirral – was settled by Norsemen in 902. I’ve always felt part Viking, albeit not a very tall one. Must check if my genes include hg R1a1 . . .

My daughter’s HP printer won’t respond if my VPN is on, whereas mine back home does. Might be something to check if your printer goes on strike..

Finally . . .

This café couldn’t be more Spanish . . . A barista who’s not Spanish and 2 TVs – one of which is belting out relentless techno-music and the other is showing the News with the sound off. None of the 7 folk in it is watching either of them. They have no choice but to listen to the (very) loud one. I won’t be returning.

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.

8 comments

  1. I understand that the name of your birth town has no “D” half way through it. That was certainly the case when I lived in Freshfield (the northern part of Formby) back in the sixties.

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  2. Maluco/Maluca.
    In Brazil it means crazy.
    Here’s a lovely little ditty, that I am sure you will have in the back of your mind for the rest of the year Colin. I think 30 seconds will be enough.

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  3. Your Viking heritage may vary! https://www.23andme.com/en-gb/
    This is me:
    Northwestern European 99.7%
    North African 0.03%
    Paternal haplogroup is R-U152. I descend from a long line of male ancestors that can be traced back to eastern Africa over 275,000 years ago.

    Haplogroup A 275,000 Years Ago
    The stories of all of our paternal lines can be traced back over 275,000 years to just one man: the common ancestor of haplogroup A. Current evidence suggests he was one of thousands of men who lived in eastern Africa at the time. However, while his male-line descendants passed down their Y chromosomes generation after generation, the lineages from the other men died out. Over time his lineage alone gave rise to all other haplogroups that exist today.

    Origin and Migrations of Haplogroup R-M269
    My paternal line stems from a branch of R-M343 called R-M269, one of the most prolific paternal lineages across western Eurasia. R-M269 arose roughly 10,000 years ago, as the people of the Fertile Crescent domesticated plants and animals for the first time. Around 8,000 years ago, the first farmers and herders began to push east into Central Asia and north into the Caucasus Mountains. Some of them eventually reached the steppes above the Black and Caspian Seas. There, they lived as pastoral nomads, herding cattle and sheep across the grasslands, while their neighbors to the south developed yet another crucial technology in human history: bronze smelting. As bronze tools and weaponry spread north, a new steppe culture called the Yamnaya was born.

    Around 5,000 years ago, perhaps triggered by a cold spell that made it difficult to feed their herds, Yamnaya men spilled east across Siberia and down into Central Asia. To the west, they pushed down into the Balkans and to central Europe, where they sought new pastures for their herds and metal deposits to support burgeoning Bronze Age commerce. Over time, their descendants spread from central Europe to the Atlantic coast, establishing new trade routes and an unprecedented level of cultural contact and exchange in western Europe.

    The men from the steppes also outcompeted the local men as they went; their success is demonstrated in the overwhelming dominance of the R-M269 lineage in Europe. Over 80% of men in Ireland and Wales carry the haplogroup, as do over 60% of men along the Atlantic Coast from Spain to France. The frequency of R-M269 gradually decreases to the east, falling to about 30% in Germany, 20% in Poland, and 10-15% in Greece and Turkey. The haplogroup connects all these men to still others in the Iranian Plateau and Central Asia, where between 5 and 10% of men also bear the lineage.

    R-U152
    My paternal haplogroup, R-U152, traces back to a man who lived approximately 8,000 years ago.
    That’s nearly 320 generations ago! What happened between then and now? As researchers and citizen scientists discover more about my haplogroup, new details may be added to the story of my paternal line.

    R-U152
    Today, R-U152 is relatively common among 23andMe customers & I share my haplogroup with all the men who are paternal-line descendants of the common ancestor of R-U152, including other 23andMe customers.

    1 in 39 23andMe customers share my haplogroup assignment.

    Maternal haplogroup is J1c1. I descend from a long line of female ancestors that can be traced back to eastern Africa over 150,000 years ago.

    Haplogroup L 180,000 Years Ago
    If every person living today could trace his or her maternal line back over thousands of generations, all of our lines would meet at a single woman who lived in eastern Africa between 150,000 and 200,000 years ago. Though she was one of perhaps thousands of women alive at the time, only the diverse branches of her haplogroup have survived to today. The story of my maternal line begins with her.

    Origin and Migrations of Haplogroup J1c1
    My maternal line stems from a branch of haplogroup J called J1c1. Haplogroup J1c1 traces back to a woman who lived in Europe nearly 10,000 years ago. Her ancestors migrated into Europe from the Middle East as the Ice Age receded between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago. While J1c1 already existed in the west before the spread of agriculture, it likely expanded along with the farming populations as they moved west across the continent. Today, J1c1 is most common in central Europe, the Balkans, and the Ukraine. It can also be found at low levels across the rest of Europe and rarely in the Middle East, including in Turkey and Iran.

    J1c1 is frequent among 23andMe customers. I share your haplogroup with all the maternal-line descendants of the common ancestor of J1c1, including other 23andMe customers.

    1 in 180 23andMe customers share my haplogroup assignment.

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