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/Galiza

Mark Stücklin writes here about: Cheap money, not cheap housing: Spain’s mortgage paradox. This highlights a deeper structural issue: Spain doesn’t have a borrowing cost problem — it has an income problem. Down at the bottom end of the economy at least. Thanks to culpable politicians.

At the macro level, Spain’s economy is forecast to continue outpacing most of those in the developed world.

The Galician parents of a 9 year old boy have been fined €2,160 for home-schooling him. An AI engine advises that: It’s a grey area. Homeschooling is not clearly illegal but is not legally supported or regulated, which places families in a precarious legal situation if they choose to homeschool. Perhaps more in Galicia than in other regions. The Catholic Church used to provide all education in Spain and I wonder if this is a hangover from its determination to ensure all kids were suitably religiously indoctrinated.

I’ve mentioned that the street in Lérez which forms the Camino exit out of Pv city has recently been remodelled to be semi-pedestrian and to have a speed limit of 10kph. As it happens, the exit of the supermarket I use brings you out onto this street. As I drove out this morning, I noted a police car approaching. So, knowing how officious these guys can be, I tried very hard not to exceed 11kph, this being the +10% speed after which you’ll be fined. I can’t tell you how hard this is. I suspect they were amused by it. Or bored/frustrated, crawling after me for 100 metres.

The UK

A follow-up to yesterday’s bit on Guy Fawkes Night . . . Apart from nearly having my hand blown off by ‘bangers’ we used to throw at each other every November, I have one abiding memory of this time of year. . . It is – or used to be – the custom for kids to make a dummy Guy Fawkes, sit it in some sort of chair on the street, and then demand of every passer-by ‘A Penny for the guy!’. Probably a pound now. Anyway, one year – looking our my flat window – I was impressed to see a remarkably well-made, full-size, truly realistic Guy in the street below. Until it got up and exchanged clothes with one of the 2 kids guarding it. Very enterprising, I thought. And now wonder if one of them wasn’t Richard Branson. Or Michael O’Leary of Ryanair. . .

This, by the way, is the charming anti-Catholic ditty traditionally sung by kids about the Gunpowder Plot, though I doubt anyone knows more than the first 6 lines:-

Remember, remember!

The fifth of November

The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot
Guy Fawkes and his companions
Did the scheme contrive,
To blow the King and Parliament
All up alive.
Threescore barrels, laid below,
To prove old England’s overthrow.
But, by God’s providence, him they catch With a dark lantern, lighting a match!
A stick and a stake
For King James’s sake!
If you won’t give me one,
I’ll take two,
The better for me,
And the worse for you.
A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,
A penn’orth of cheese to choke him,
A pint of beer to wash it down,
And a jolly good fire to burn him.
Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!
Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!
Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

The mad, bad world of MAGA

Trumpisms.

The Democrats have become lunatic radicals but, when they stop being this, I will do a deal with them on the shutdown.

As ever, Seth Myers is good value on this week’s election results and Trump’s reaction to them. If you prefer the restored Stephen Colbert . . .

Queries arising:-

• Is Trump powerfully insane or insanely powerful? Or both? Or just insane?
• Is there now light at the end of the tunnel?
• What illegal steps will Republicans now take to avoid defeat in the mid-terms?
• How will the Democrats stop them?

A Trump supporter on Fox last night broke the national irony meter by being disgusted by a mayoral candidate who treated politics as a performance. Unlike, say, the US president.

Quote of the Day

I find much the best way of getting on in society is never to be able to understand why anybody is to be disapproved of: Augustus J. C. Hare. Surely a very useful approach in Trump’s USA.

Spanish

• Remesa: Shipment, consignment, remittance.
• Manosear: Handle, grope, fondle.
• Alocado: Crazy, wild, mad

English

To be carded: New to me. In the USA, it means being asked to show a form of identification, such as a driver’s license, to verify your age when attempting to enter a bar or purchase alcohol. Does this ever happen in Spain?

A Teutonic connection . . . I discovered yesterday that, in Old German, ‘thing’ (or þing) meant ‘a judicial and social gathering held in outdoor settings’. It struck me that it must have meant the same in Old Norse – because there’s a place on the Wirral Peninsula in England called Thingwall, named after such a gathering – by the Norsemen who invaded and settled there, as well as across the sea in Ireland, where they founded Dublin. Sure enough, Wiki tells us that ‘thingwall’ comes from the Old Norse ‘þing vollr’, meaning ‘assembly field’. Similar place names in the UK include Tynwald, Dingwall and Tingwall; see also Thingvellir in Iceland and Tingvoll in Norway.

Did you know?

Those desperate but dastardly Brits . . .

You Have to Laugh

• Acting strange . . . In a 1920 letter, George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The stock joke of the London stage is a fabulous stage direction ‘Sir Henry turns his back to the audience and conveys that he has a son at Harrow.’” This is perhaps beaten by J.M. Barrie, who allegedly told a young actor in one of his plays, “I should like you to convey when you are acting it that the man you portray has a brother in Shropshire who drinks port.”
• The Private Eye satirical magazine now refers to the ex Duke of York as The Duke of Yuck.

Finally . . .

Since 2002, The Guardian has only published 18 zero-star reviews. Here they all are. I’m relieved that I’ve only ever bits of one of them – X Factor.

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 . . .

I can also be read on Facebook.

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.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.