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

The USA v Spain – the (allegedly) funniest internet memes

The USA might not be as hot as Trump claims but Spain’s property market certainly is. Per property expert Mark Stücklin, Spain had a remarkably strong 2025.

Galicia’s competitor to the Great Wall of China.

I showed some old-fashioned hair cutting tool on sale at last week’s flea market in Pv city – and very probably tomorrow’s too. Anyway, the Diario de Pontevedra was inspired by my post to start offering its readers this rather more modern equivalent.

A police car fell down a grass bank in Pv city this week, when involved in a street chase. I smiled at the picture because it reminded me of something that happened years ago, when a huge sink-hole opened up in a newly constructed via rápida. The first car to arrive fell into this and the driver called the police. These arrived too fast and drove their car over the edge of the hole, landing on top of the first one. I wish I’d kept the foto. As I recall, the cause was determined to be corrupt use of cheap piping for underwater drainage.

The USA

See my earlier post.

You might have seen that the White House has put out truly disgusting videos treating the (non)war as a video game. But not yet featuring the 150+ schoolgirls who died when their school was destroyed.

After being fired by Trump – and fearing impeachment for perjury – Kristi Noem attacks Trump – effectively accusing him of lying. And corruption.

So, how did Trump do with the 10 biggest campaign promises that were swallowed by enough voters to bring him back to power? Details here. It’s salutary to ask if he’d still have won with these obvious lies if the Democrats had put forward anyone other than the lame Biden-Harris duo.. . .

One of many possible encapsulations . . . And this was clearly written before his second term!

And the USA is welcome to him. Possibly even deserves him . . . The country will never again be the shining city on the hill. Assuming it ever really was, of course. Certainly never was for Native Americans and Blacks.

Quotes of the Day

• Trump is a career vulgarian who addresses his nation in a baseball cap and whose defence secretary talks like a third-string capo in an AI mafia gif and is tattooed like a prison school desk.
• Don’t try to make sense of the president’s endlessly spasming war aims – just let them wash over you like an extremely volatile liquid and hope no one brought a match.

The Way of the World

This columnist reminds us that our modern world is complex and interconnected, resiliently interwoven and yet vulnerable to disruption. Exactly as it was in the Late Bronze Age, just before it all came crashing down, as the dominoes fell one by one. Assisted by a climate disaster in the form of a megadrought.

Spanish

• Mordida: Bite. Bribe. [cf. shireen in Persian, ‘sweetener’,]
• Tejón: Badger
• Peliroja: Redhead, re-haired

Finally . . . You Have to Laugh

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.