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

Need I record that the new system for registering hugely increased tourist data collapsed at midday on its debut yesterday, just before the law came into effect? One report of many on a Class One cock-up.

The PSOE party is said to be planning to drop Q from the LGBTQ+ acronym and to ban trans women from female sports competitions. It will amend the ‘Ley Trans’ in an attempt to placate ‘traditional feminists’.  Trans activists are, naturally, vociferously outraged, and are hurling the usual accusation of transphobia. And possibly ‘fascist’, which serves all purposes in Spain.

One of those headlines . . . Una mujer de 93 años amenaza a una vecina en el cementerio de Palmeira [Galicia] con “Vouche abrir la cabeza” [I’ll open your head]

​A question occurred to me as I approached a roundabout this morning . . . If I was involved in a crash because of a wrong signal by another driver, would I still be found negligent, on the grounds that trusting a signal in Spain would be, as every driver knows, a foolish thing to do?

Cousas de Galicia

Someone is less than impressed with the Avril S106 train service from Madrid to Galicia.

Galicians are extremely proud of their primary produce. Maybe they should be.

The UK

More on defiance towards the encroachment of US tipping norms.

The EU

• Claims AEP . . . The EU has blown it: even Labour now prefers a trade deal with America. The bloc must tear up its post-Brexit script or risk letting the US swoop in and carry Britain away.
• The results of Romania’s parliamentary elections are in. Despite a dazzling and unexpected breakthrough by the far-right in the first round, the majority in parliament will be social-democratic. As for the Presidential election, the second round will take place on December 8, when it’s possible the ‘far-right’, pro Russia candidate will gain the victory denied to him in the first round.

The USA

Pardons are in the air . . .

The issues surrounding Trump’s nomination for Secretary of Defense are:

• Sexual assault allegations: Which resulted in a financial settlement and an NDA
• non-disclosure: The Trump team was reportedly caught off guard by these allegations.
• Previous leadership issues: He was forced out of previous leadership positions due to financial mismanagement, inappropriate behavior towards women, and frequent intoxication while on duty
• Inadequate qualifications: A lack of high-level national security experience
• Sobriety: There are reports about an “alarming and disqualifying” level of drinking.

It’s said that Trump erred in announcing his candidates far earlier than he needed to, allowing for such scrutiny. But who’d bet against his Defense Secretary candidate getting the job? [BTW . . . He once said on Fox News that he hadn’t washed his hands in 10 years, because “germs are not a real thing” and, as he couldn’t see them, they weren’t real.]

Another chance to read the excellent article I cited yesterday: A Requiem for an Empire.

Social Media

An overly optimistic claim . . . Our dubious on-line experiment is coming to an end.

Quote of the Day

Being late: it’s selfish, but it’s not all that bad. I imagine such a statement would go down well here in Spain.

AI

A negative [Spanish] view: Pandora’s box was opened on November 30 2022. Have we undertaken the processes of reflection and action that this evolution of AI required? To the contrary; we have given ourselves over to robotic oracles. I still think it’s a major advance but is not yet fully trustworthy as a source of opinion(s).

Net Zero

Rather than contorting facts to fit with his ideological prejudices, the [UK]energy secretary should be honest about the costs. . . . Like him, I think we need to decarbonise and that renewables are a great way to do that. But when we are making multibillion-pound decisions about our energy future we need to use the best available facts, rather than contorting the facts to fit with our ideological prejudices. Especially when Britain already has the world’s highest industrial energy costs and bills for households aren’t much better.

English

This time of year produces a crop of Words of the Year, such as:-

• Brain rot
• Demure
• Dynamic pricing
• Lore
• Romantasy:  A genre of fiction combining romance and fantasy
• Enshittification: Also known as crapification and platform decay, is a pattern in which online products and services decline in quality. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders.

Spanish

Enmerdar: Enshittification

Did you know?

Gwyneth Paltrow’s ludicrous Goop business might well be in decline, as some folk with too much money come to their senses.

You Have to Laugh

A UK couple wrote to an agony aunt, saying they hadn’t been able to conceive over many years. She replied that they should try sex without a condom. One wit suggested it perhaps would have been better for society if she’d hadn’t given this advice . . .

Finally . . .

A Spanish proverb: If you want to marry wisely, marry your equal.

Finally, Finally . . .

It must be hard to be a happy vegan. They’re now being told to avoid trendy alternatives such as soya or almond milk, veggie bacon and lab-grown meat, as these are more harmful to the environment than, say, beans and their derivatives, such as tempeh.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

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.