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

Good news?? “Spain plans to focus on ‘quality over quantity’ as tourist numbers hit a record high”. Actually, not good news for me, as it’s the richer Camino ‘pilgrims’ who occupy all the terrace tables in Pv city centre from May to October from 6pm. The locals don’t come out until 8 earliest.

The regional election in Aragón was a blow to the ruling PSOE party. And not too good for the main opposition PP party. The big beneficiary was the far-right Vox party, which doubled its seats at the expense of the bigger two parties. All of which very possibly reflects adverse reaction to the government’s recent decision to legitimise undocumented migrants.

There’s an old English saying that runs:-

St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain,

For forty days it will remain.

St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair,

For forty days, ’twill rain no more.

My cleaner has just said she thinks we’ve had rain every day for 4 weeks now. So, I naturally asked Perplexity if there is an equivalent Spanish saying . . . There is no single Spanish day‑and‑weather rhyme The closest equivalent in spirit is “El día de la Candelaria, el invierno fuera; pero si llueve y hace viento, invierno dentro” (On Candlemas, winter is over; but if it rains and is windy, winter is staying)

Noémi is on a Barça roll . . A Barcelona Festival Guide. The Best Events & When to Go. You might need an umbrella.

Portugal

The new president is centre-left, winning the run-off against a far-right candidate.

The USA

See my earlier Trumplandia post.

The Way of the World/Social Media

This is an extract from a longer comment here . . . In 2015, when social media began to dominate public life, Umberto Eco opined that social media gave legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community. He called it the invasion of the idiots. Eco was not arguing against free speech. He was warning about what happens when expertise is stripped of value, when years of study and evidence are treated as equal to a stranger’s instinct or opinion. Giving everyone a voice is a beautiful ideal. But treating every voice as equally authoritative is dangerous. Eco identified the central danger – When every opinion is treated as equally valid, truth becomes just another opinion. Attention flows to whoever shouts the loudest.

Spanish

• Fustigar: To whip, lash.
• Cielo aborregado*, suelo mojado: English equivalent – Mackerel sky, wet ground
• Arco iris por la tarde, buen tiempo para el viaje. – Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight,

*Lamb’s coat

English

In contrast with Spanish, in which there is only one A sound, there are four A sounds in English. Well, in British English; there might only be 3 in American English:-

Here are the usual IPA symbols for those four A sounds:-

1. “a ship”: This is /ə/ – the schwa. The most common vowel sound in English. Between A and E.
2. “We saw A ship”; When you stress it, A is pronounced as /eɪ/ – the same sound as in ‘day’.
3. Cat: The vowel is /æ/: Called ‘ash’. Or the ‘short A’.
4. In Southern English – for example “path” – the sound is /ɑː/ – a long open back vowel. This is standard in RP, ‘BBC English’, and ‘Oxford English’ – more generally all called ‘Standard Southern British’, or SSB. [But not always. ‘Garage’, for example can have the 1st A short and the 2nd long. Further north, they are both short]

Number 3 – the ‘flat/short’ A (/æ/) is characteristic of much of the North and Midlands, not of traditional RP/SSB. [And of all ex-British colonists, because the long A didn’t exist in 16th century England, when the colonisers left it for foreign parts. It’s an 18th century affectation which began in London].

Number 3 is also the only A sound in Spanish. Thrice in mañana. Though you wouldn’t think so the way most Brits say this word.

Personal note: The mother of my daughters was from London. In her early years, our first daughter used the long A – e.g. in in ‘bath’ – when talking to her but the short A when talking to me. My mother once told her off for doing this, saying it was snobbish . . . My mother never could say my wife’s name – Sandra – the way my wife did. I begged her to stop trying, as her over-extending the first A sounded very funny. The second in Sandra A is a schwa and none of us has any difficulty with that.

Did you know?

In the latest edition of his Business Over Tapas, Lenox Napier posts this blues song. I liked it and played it to a friend, who told me it was an AI-generated ‘influencer’. Which rather shocked me in its implications for composers and artists. Will these creatures of invention appear in ‘live’ shows as holograms?

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . .

I got my 9th mouse yesterday evening but no 10th this morning. Perhaps I’ve now trapped the entire colony.

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 there.

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