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

Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas writes on the temptation of tapas-guzzling here.

Is Spain safe to live in? See here for the answer.

We are to have 3 new 3-4 star hotels in Pv city. Some say we really need our first 5-star place. Which we surely will have one day.

Stealth price increases . . . My recollection is that, not so very long ago, a basket of bread was 50 centimos. Last night’s in a tapas restaurant was €2.50. A lot more revenue and pure profit when magnified by the number of tables served annually. Of course, every waiter and waitress in the city is instructed to ask every diner ‘Do you want bread?’, defying you to say no and look petty. Life gets more like the USA every day . . . It’s rather like the ‘dynamic currency conversion’ question in bank ATMs. Except you do actually get something for your money in the case of the bread rip-off.

We had fireworks last night, in honour of Galicia Day – 24th July, the feast day of patron saint James the Elder. Or maybe the Younger. During the 3 weeks, we’ll have 2 more. Maybe 3. All taking place at midnight. I might be the only resident in the city to wonder if this is a good use of taxpayers’ money. But having fun – as I regularly say – is of paramount importance in Spain. We didn’t tell my 4 young grandchildren they were on, so were able to get them to bed by 11 and, so, ensured they were ‘manageable’ this morning. Everything is relative.

Yes, the worst guitarist-cum-singer in the world is still doing his rounds of the terrazas of Pv city, with the same one song and his 3 chords. Did I mention he’s been joined by the Rumanian accordionist, the other summer plague?

The Middle East War

Still no ground invasion, despite the sending of military personnel to ‘the theatre’.

The United States of Trump America

How Trump could undermine the midterms. The president really has no power over elections – but that hasn’t stopped Trump from laying the groundwork to challenge results in November [Can this really not be stopped?]

If there’s one thing worse than listening to Karoline Leavitt spin her lies, it’s hearing her claim that she’s really a nice amiable person. And a practising Christian, of course. But one very ignorant, it seems, of the Fifth Commandment.

Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles dive into a week that reveals Donald Trump’s deepest fixations and growing political vulnerabilities, from his unwavering obsession with tariffs to the mounting risks surrounding RFK Jr., soaring measles cases, and a White House increasingly consumed by its own crises. 

I’m quite some way into Kurt Andersen’s Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History. It’s a fascinating insight into how and when the USA became the place of which the rest of us regularly say/sigh ‘Only in America!’. But, in fact, we only know the half of it! There’s at least one quotable sentence or paragraph on each page but I’ve decided to cite only this section, and to encourage you to read the book: A main argument of this book concerns how so many parts of American life have morphed into forms of entertainment. From 1980 to the end of the century, that tendency reached a tipping point in politics and the political discourse. First a Hollywood celebrity became a beloved president by epitomizing and encouraging the blur between fiction and reality. Then talk radio and TV news turned into forms of politicized show business. And finally the Internet came along, making false beliefs both more real-seeming and more contagious, creating a kind of fantasy cascade in which millions of bedoozled Americans surfed and swam. Why did Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan begin remarking frequently during the 1980s and ’90s that people were entitled to their own opinions but not to their own facts? Because until then, it hadn’t seemed like a serious problem in America. With the Internet, our marketplace of ideas became exponentially bigger and freer than ever, it’s true. Thomas Jefferson said he’d “rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it”—and it would all be okay because in the new United States “reason is left free to combat” every sort of “error of opinion.” However, I’m inclined to think if he and our other democratic forefathers returned, they would see the present state of affairs as too much of a good thing. Reason remains free to combat unreason, but the Internet entitles and equips all the proponents of unreason and error to a previously unimaginable degree. Particularly for a people with our history and propensities, the downside—this proliferation and reinforcement of nutty ideas and false beliefs, this assembling of communities of the utterly deluded, this construction of parallel universes that look and feel perfectly real, the viral appeal of the untrue—seems at least as profound as the upside.

The end result so far? Trump. Twice. An appalling man whose popularity actually rose after the Grab ’em by the pussy episode.

Which reminds me . . . In wondering why the Republicans can’t/won’t do anything to stop Trump destroying their party’s election chances, it struck me that they are the Argentinian party in the USA. They will try to retain power by whatever means possible. Even to the extent of ruining their reputation at home and abroad. Not to mention destroying individual Republican political reputations and careers. No doubt someone will come along and explain it to us. More likely many people, with very divergent views.

AI

As an example of how AI distorts reality in the direction of the wrong or the crazy – which tend to attract the most hits and re-posts – Andersen tells us that every AI engine, when asked to give a random number between 0 and 10 – will answer with a 7. This is simply because 7 is the most frequently cited number.

Spanish

• Ajena: Others, alien, outside foreign, external, someone else, strange, unrelated.
• Sentir verguenza ajena: To feel embarrassed for. To cringe
• Capacho: Bait, lure, decoy

English

Nothing ages faster than slang. For all you Boomers, here’s some from the 1970s, most if not all from the USA. Very probably not much missed:-

• Groovy
• Far out
• Jive turkey
• Boogie
• Can you dig it
• Foxy
• Bread (money)
• Solid
• Outta sight
• Rap – Having a serious or casual conversation
• Catch you on the flip side
• Hang loose
• Truckin’
• Burn rubber
• Lay it on me
• Funky
• What’s your bag?

Tomorrow – How exactly many (US) Americans and all Australians pronounce ‘can’t’ very differently from both of the British short and long A versions.

Did you know?

The fish that can kill you, if you eat it. As I did once in Tokyo. But only when/because our host didn’t tell us we were doing so.

The Way of the World

Something I rail against when walking around Pv city. Especially when I see someone pushing one in a ‘pet stroller’ . . . They’re not dogs. Extreme breeding aimed at satisfying a mania for cute little dogs is leading to ever more unhealthy breeds. Why anyone would want an ugly, unhealthy pug or a bulldog is way beyond me. But maybe that’s just me.

You Have to Laugh

This is the cartoon that should have appeared in yesterday’s post . . .

Finally . . .

Nice headline: At least Odysseus avoided Ryanair.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

The Usual Links .

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I can also be read on X at Thoughts from Galicia. And on Substack here. I no longer post 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. And this, on the annual costs of owning property here.