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/

From this article on early challenges for the new administration, it looks like ‘a headache’ in English is ‘a toothache’ in Spanish . . .

I’m not sorry to be far from the clutches of this. Hopefully.

Lenox takes a look at hackers here.

The UK

More optimism re the much-reduced manufacturing sector here. In contrast, the retail sector had a bad December.

Germany

So, Franz Beckenbauer – The Emperor – has passed away. Although highly thought of in the UK – where his death was a leading news item – this isn’t the case in Germany. My Hamburg friend tells me his last decades were dogged by accusations of corruption and tax evasion. The latter, her tells me, is particularly frowned upon in a country of law-abiders.

The EU

It’s pretty damn cold in some parts . . . En passant, a timely English nursery rhyme, sung here:-

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the robin do then, poor thing?

He’ll sit on a twig,
And we’ll feed him some bread,
And he’ll sing to say ‘Thank you, my friends’. Poor thing!

The USA

All power corrupts . . . The latest example. Wayne LaPierre is accused of running the National Rifle Association as “Wayne’s World”, diverting millions of dollars to finance to fund a lavish lifestyle, funnelling money for private jets, yacht trips and African safaris. I don’t suppose he’ll be executed by a firing squad. More here.

Quote of the Day

Democracy or mob rule? Or even tyranny of the majority – or the loud minority?. . . All the main progressive movements of the last few years have come about because of the deeper democratisation brought about by social media . . .#MeToo, #OscarsSoWhite, #StopFundingHate, #BlackLives Matter, #TakeAKnee – as demonstrated by the placement of the hashtag within their names – could not have happened without social media. All righting of wrongs happens online; no celebrity apologises, no political leader sacks an underling wrongdoer, no corporation comes clean about malfeasance unless they are under pressure to do so by the viral calls from Twitter[now X]

The Way of the World

On topic this week . . . Do humans ever learn from the past? When all the witnesses have died or dispersed, it can seem dreamlike, almost unreal. Even the last century’s greatest horror isn’t immune to this phenomenon. To that extent, it’s good that József Debreczeni’s ‘Cold Crematorium’, published in Hungarian in 1950, is only now published in English: in the timeliest possible way, it succeeds in restoring the Holocaust’s reality. More here.

English

Please feel free to reach outto us*: Awful Americanese for Please contact us.

*As a pathetic supplicant?

Did you Know

These are the traits associated with Neanderthal genes. As I have majority of them, I’m clearly more Neanderthal than most folk. Who’d have guessed? Must have one of those dubious DNA tests one of these days.

Seems I was right to be Neanderthally suspicious of this stuff . . . I never touch it.

Finally . . .

I’ve gone on a bit about dreadful TV ads. So this is pertinent: One of the most emetic television adverts of recent years is the one in which Virgin Atlantic tells you nothing whatsoever about the comfort, safety or reliability of the flight. Instead it assures you that you will be surrounded by a wonderfully diverse workforce and your pilot is likely to be a woman. So, a short corrective. Virgin has a lower proportion of female pilots than the world average and fewer than, for example, British Airways. Meanwhile a survey of 900 Virgin pilots last year revealed that 7% per cent of them had worked with colleagues who were “clearly not fit to do so due to fatigue or tiredness”.

The Usual Links . . .

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 – updated a bit in early July 2023.

For those thinking of moving to Spain:- This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers.