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.

HAPPY XMAS TO ALLL

Cosas de España

Political comment . . . En estas fechas tan señaladas, se conmemora que, hace mas de 2,000 años, Barrabás salió absuelto y Jesús quedó preso. Lo que demuestra inequívocamente que el juez era español.

In case you want to know where all the El Gordo prizes went. €2.7bn this year. I confess I find the December 22 ball selection ceremony irritating, or rather the endless high pitch, sing-song voices of the kids who call out the numbers. It was cute the first time, 24 years ago. But on Saturday morning had to move to the café terrace to get away from. Even Spanish cafés don’t t have TVs on their terraces. Unless there’s a big football match, of course.

The most beautiful province in Spain​​?

The term ‘Latins’ . . . An interesting viewpoint . . . I know it’s too late to re-brand this term but why in the world do they use it for Spanish/ Portuguese speaking people living in the Americas – a term that literally translates to “of the Italian Peninsula” – and then exclude the 20m million or so Italian Americans from identifying as this term. And people from Quebec also. Wouldn’t it make more sense to call the people from South America and Mexico “Iberian Americans”, thus linking them to Spain and Portugal?

I have a rebate of €15 from my gas company but I have no idea why. As with all service suppliers in Spain, information for customers – eg re prices increases – is conspicuous by its absence. I think we’re all expected to go to the national or regional Boletín every day to check if something has happened we should know about – eg a change in mortgage interest rates. [I’ve just checked and the Galician equivalent of the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) is the Diario Oficial de Galicia (DOG), but it doesn’t look like either of these sinks to the depths of say, energy price increases. I guess we’re expected to consult relevant web pages regularly.]

Cousas de Galicia

There used to be a lot of book shops in Pv city but these have been whittled down over the years. Another one went this week, in the old quarter. I believe it had been in the family for almost 100 years. book shop gone. I’d bet y life that the place becomes another tapas bar.

The UK

The traditional Christmas is under dire threat from Gen Z, the cohort aged between 12 and 27. Just about every festive ritual you can think of is being subverted, vegetarianised or simply abandoned by the young folk. Sad but I’m with his kids on Xmas pudding.

Ukraine v Russia

At least one of these huge canines is said to be wandering around the battle-scarred countryside:-

I guess the North Koreans will eventually eat it. If it doesn’t get them first.

Transgenderism

To the Left-wing loons who haven’t got the puberty blockers memo: it’s over. We must trust in evidence-based medical research that advises against puberty blockers for children.

Quote of the Day

Apposite in the week of El Gordo . . . Probabilistic thinking is the art of navigating uncertainty. Successfully thinking in shades of probability means roughly identifying what matters, coming up with a sense of the odds, checking our assumptions, and then deciding. The challenge of probabilistic thinking is that it requires constant updating. As new information emerges, the probabilities change. What seemed likely yesterday may seem unlikely today. This explains why probabilistic thinkers always revise their beliefs with new data and why it’s uncomfortable for many people. It’s much easier to believe something false is true than to deal with the fact that it might not be true. Being a probabilistic thinker means being willing to say, “I don’t know for sure, but based on the evidence, I think there’s a 63% chance of X.” The rewards of probabilistic thinking are immense. By embracing uncertainty, we can make better decisions, avoid the pitfalls of overconfidence, and navigate complex situations with greater skill and flexibility. We can be more open-­ minded, more receptive to new ideas, and more resilient in the face of change.

Spanish

• Deparar: To bring (with it eg 2025), Provide, Afford
• Cicatero: Stingy, miserly, fastidious. A miser, skinflint

Did you Know?

The last bit on the bloody Franks . . . This is the latest in a podcast series on this German tribe, with particular emphasis on the greatest Frank of all, Charlemagne – ‘The Father of Europe’. Not content with the lands he inherited, he took on the Saxons in northern Germany and the Lombards in Italy – both also German peoples. He then went south to destroy the walls of Pamplona in Navarra, albeit losing his baggage train to a Muslim Pyrenean ambush on his return northwards. After this, it was the turn of some Slavs – the Avars – in Hungary – from whom he seized vast treasures that bolstered the wealth of his empire. Then it was the resurgent Saxons again, who proved as troublesome to Charlemagne as the German tribes had done to the Romans. Being a good Christian, Charlemagne has 4,500 of the nasty pagans beheaded in one day and then worried that he might not have done the Christian thing. But the Pope forgave him and, in 802, made him Holy Roman Emperor.

P.S. Initially at least, Charlemagne justified the massacre by describing the executions – at Verden in 782 – as a legitimate punishment for treason and oath-breaking. The Saxons had previously sworn allegiance to him, and their rebellion was seen as a betrayal punishable by death. But he does appear to have had 2nd thoughts. Not much consolation, of course, for the dead Saxons who’d earlier survived the battle.

Finally . . .

I have a booklet on famous performers from Merseyside in the UK. There are lots of these but, flicking through the booklet again, I saw one I didn’t recognise – a soprano called Rita Hunter, who came from the same town – Wallasey – as the one I grew up in. Per Wiki: She will be remembered as one of the major Wagnerian sopranos of the later 20th century, especially for her performances as all 3 of the Brünnhildes in the Ring cycle. The quality of her singing and interpretation enabled audiences to set aside her outsize stature (which conformed to all prejudices about Wagnerian sopranos), and few have matched her conviction as Brünnhilde. You can hear her sing on Youtube, of course. For example, here.

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.