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

Stupidity + Social media + Gullibility -> Disinformation -> Deaths

An ongoing disaster . . Here’s the relevant government Minister on the country’s housing crisis.

News of an extraordinarily powerful documentary on what the woman of the national football team faced for many years before it won the World Cup last year.

Germany

While we were all looking at the USA, the German government collapsed, creating a crisis. The FT analyses the situation here.

The USA

Opinions will differ . . .

A Times columnist says that Trump’s victory is a wake-up call for the Democrats, who need to reconsider their cherished beliefs and assumptions.

And, more widely, a Telegraph columnist claims that Trump’s triumph is a disaster self-regarding, virtue-signalling elites and a total repudiation of the [Anglo?]Left’s brand of politics.

But a columnist from the left-of-centre Guardian rejects the claim that the result was down to [anti-Left] populism returning Trump to power. Trump, he says, offered a way out to millions who felt trapped. If so this must be because the Democrats didn’t and, so, we must all now watch Trump make the rich even richer – very much including himself, of course. Astonishing.

A perceptive Caitlin Moran wrote: At last we know the truth: Taylor Swift can’t swing an election. It turns out that celebrities are not the most powerful people on earth. So, we can all stop sucking up to them now. Or, at least, to all but one of them. For Trump is unquestionably a bigger celebrity than all the rest lumped together in some mad, Bosch-like A-list chimera, and its his star power that has eclipsed them all. And it is as the world’s most famous man — able to generate 6 or 7 different batshit headlines per day — that the rest of the world’s leaders will have to treat him.

Trump is 78 and allegedly of deteriorating mental health. So, will we eventually see attempts to remove him under Article 25 of the Constitution, which relates to “unfitness to discharge the powers and duties of the office’’? Rather doubtful, I guess – given the power of the Republicans in the Congress. Quote: ”The bar for invoking the relevant Section is very high, requiring agreement from the Vice President, Cabinet, and potentially a supermajority of Congress“.

Russia v. Ukraine

Putin is surely a happier camper today.

The Way of the World

Gladiator 2 will be in you local cinema soon, A historian at the University of Chicago says it is “total Hollywood bullshit’’, on the grounds that:-

• 1. Sharks were unknown Romans and didn’t ‘perform’ in the Coliseum.
• 2.  An even more blatant anachronism is the scene in which a Roman noble is depicted reading a morning newspaper, while sipping tea in a café. The printing press would not be invented for another 1,500 years. And there were no cafés in Rome. Pure Hollywood; she says

English

The legend under a photo of Liz 2 on the web: Queen Elizabeth kept a diary throughout her rain.

Spanish

Holgura: Looseness, (mechanics) play. Con holgura: Comfortably; Easily

You Have to Laugh

Please don’t let me look like here when I’m her age.

Finally . . . Travel News

There ain’t none, really. Other than to confirm that Google Maps is less than totally reliable in towns, especially those of twisting narrow streets such as Toledo. Sometimes, its instructions have been quite bizarre. Things aren’t helped by the fact that, as in many Spanish cities, street names can be non-existent.

The good news . . . This morning we came across a fine artist called Jules Worms, whose delightful portraits of Spanish life can be seen here.

And I now have recipes for the Manchego dishes of cordero manchego con mayonesa y azafrán and Toledan carcamusas (pork stew).

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts, either after reading on line or in my FB group Thoughts from Galicia.

The Usual Links . . .

• You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .
• 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.
• 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. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here. Finally, some advice on getting a mortgage. And this article ‘debunks claims re wealth and residency taxes’. Probably only relevant if you’re a HNWI. In which case, you’ll surely know what that stands for.