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

Madrid says Spain won’t recognise US intervention in Venezuela. Logical, but I fear it won’t have the slightest impact on Trump’s next moves.

Tonight will see a Three Kings procession in Pv city. I haven’t been to one since my early days, when I was almost knocked to the ground by parents trying to catch sweets from the floats. Maybe for their kids.

Nice to know that tomorrow’s Three Kings holiday will be the coldest in Pv city for 40 years. Enough to do serious damage to a brass monkey, at -2 first thing, I fear. Not to mention the horses in the cabalgata.

I’m told that all the birds – like Brits – have flown south towards the Algarve. Probably having been fooled by a warmish early winter. But not the pigeons in the city.

The USA

So, it really does look like Greenland is next for Jack D. Ripper. Or maybe Mexico. And/0r Colombia. Because of, you know, ‘drugs’. All under the fabulous Donroe Doctrine of Might is Right, Especially in My Back Garden. Is there absolutely nothing that this inadequate imbecile won’t put his name on? One wonder if someone paints his stools before they leave the White House to join the public sewer.

One thing we do know for sure, of course, is that there’s absolutely no lie he won´t tell.

Projection, projection, projection . . . Trump says one of the justifications for removing Maduro is that he refused to honour the results of a democratic election. Another is that he was corrupt, etc. , etc.

And Marco Rubio – standing next to Trump – said that Cuba is run by ‘incompetent senile men’. Trump, of course, is so stupid he can’t see the dots, never mind join them.. .

John Stewart explains a thing or two here . . .

And María here draws parallels with the USA of 1998 and that of Trump.

An even bigger question than WTF is happening now is WTF will the deranged megalomaniac do next to damage both the USA and the entire world. Not to mention WhyTF the Republican- controlled Congress can’t – or simply won’t – stop him?

The real Hegseth, by a man called Colin. But in a funny American way . . .

Can there be any doubt now that a staggeringly divided people is watching its violence-riddled nation gather pace in its decline phase? With, as yet, unknown consequences for the rest of us.

The Way of the World/Social Media

Am I the only person in the world who recoils at the publication of fotos of victims of recent disasters in social media and on the front pages of newspapers? Have there been complaints/protests I haven’t seen?

Spanish

• En boga: In fashion. From ‘vogue’.
• Petar: To conk out.
• Mesetario: Upland

Did you know?

In 1401, the Turkic warlord Tamerlane – ‘Conqueror of the World’ – stormed Baghdad and ordered every soldier to bring him a resident’s head – or two. And they did: 90,000 severed heads were piled into 120 towers, which were Tamerlane’s terrifying battlefield signature. In time, the location of these towers came to be called Kala Chiya, Turkish for ‘The Place of Heads’. I guess they rejected ‘Headroom’. And even ‘Headspace’.

You Have to at least Smile

The area’s dubious reputation lingered on into the 1920s and 1930s, when – in Rashid Street – it was home to the public brothel – a facility carefully monitored by the British authorities, who, with their mania for order and decency, introduced medical check-ups, issued licences and surrounded the building with a wall accessible through a single gate that was clearly marked ‘Public Brothel’. Baghdadis grew to identify regular visitors and street-prowlers along Rashid Street, together with the prostitutes, who were shrouded in black abayas and identified by the blue socks the government required them to wear.

When flood waters threatened Baghdad one night in the 1930s and as many hands as possible were needed to help fortify the sand barrage, the head of police ordered his officers to seize every man in the brothel and press him into the rescue team. The next morning there were noticeably fewer government officials than usual reporting for work.

Finally . . .

BTW . . . There’s no need to erect a Brothel sign in modern Spain. Everyone knows what a place called Club in pink neon lights is dedicated to. Especially if there’s a wall around the car park. That said, there are fewer and fewer of these on the outskirts of every town in Spain, as the business has moved into pisos de relax. But at least one vast one remains on the border between Cataluña and France. It has a web page, of course. Its clientele is said to be mainly French but it features from time to time in the Spanish media.

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The Usual Links . . .

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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.