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’

NB: If there’s a RV in brackets after a (paywalled) link, you might be able to read it via a Reader View extension to your browser, avoiding the paywall. If there is no RV, it will mean that the article is free to view or listen to. If there’s RV2, it means a second click on RV might let you see the article though the first RV click didn’t work.

Cosas de España/Galiza

Today is the Día de Hispanidad throughout the Spanish-speaking world. It used to be called Columbus (Colón) Day before the great navigator (and lousy administrator) became non grata. Pv city was unusually busy for a public holiday, as all the cafés and restaurants were continuing to hacer su agosto under sunny skies

Politics: As far as I understand things, most of the (inevitably) several small left-wing parties have joined together, to fight the imminent election under the banner of Frente Amplio (Wide Front) but excluding Podemos. Possibly, they will sink their (minor but heartfelt) differences for a few weeks. And Podemos might come in from the cold.

Regional News

• Galicia plans to take advantage of global warming to cultivate several kinds of nuts here – including hazel nuts, walnuts and almonds. Possibly even peanuts.
• The authorities are advertising an auction of cars appropriated from our narcos and other criminals. I once read that it was rather unwise to bid against anyone who seems determined to get – or possibly re-acquire – a car. Or, indeed, against anyone at all.

Local News

• The tent-in (acampada) in front of the town hall is reported to be receiving both compliments and brickbats from the passing public. Which was to be expected, I guess.
• Pv city’s only Indian (really Bangladeshi) restaurant closed down last week, reducing the already low degree of variety in the city. It wasn’t very good – and its sauces were over-colourful – but at least it was different.
• The good news is that I’ve learned of a 2nd Moroccan place, on the outskirts of Pv city – on the Camino as it enters it. With parking!

Europe

Rubio urges Europe to embrace civilisation struggle – and sacrifice itself. 

The United States of Trump America

• Trump’s greed is destroying America’s global prestige(RV). [I suspect that sentence should be in the past tense].
• Trump just provided (US)Americans with a bizarre new qualification you can use to be added to his enemies list. All you have to do is continue to use a turn of phrase already deeply embedded in our modern discourse, instead of the words that Trump insists that you should use – AI instead of SI.

The very estimable Kurt Andersen was a founder, more than 40 years ago, of Spy Magazine. This was the first journal to bring to the public’s attention the then preposterous and comedic figure of Donald Trump. The first 40 issues are now being made available on Substack, for us to read and understand how he was the same flawed and inadequate person back then as he is now. The difference being that most of us aren’t laughing at him now. You can read them, free, here. Scroll down for issue no.1, where it’s stated: From 1986 to 1993, we kept very close tabs on a certain short-fingered vulgarian. For Spy’s 40th anniversary in October, we’ll be revisiting and sampling some of those greatest hits every day. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

And you can listen here to Andersen’s thoughts on how Trump might react after a blue wave in November.

Andersen points up another reason why US citizens might be grateful to Trump – he’s given the country 2 years in which to establish the legal apparatus that will go against him in due course.

Relevant Books

• Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest
• To be published in October. Can be pre-ordered now: Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy. On Amazon or here. This is not simply a book about Trump. He is the vessel, not the disease – the product of a system decades in the making, fueled by powerful interests, weakened democratic institutions, and a media ecosystem that too often chose access and complicity over accountability. The book confronts the defining questions of our time: How did we get here? Why did so many institutions fail when they were needed most? And what must we do now to defend democracy before it is too late?
• The final pages of Kurt Andersen’s fascinating run through the USA’s history – Fantasyland: How America went haywire. A 500 year history.
• Profiles in Cowardice, by Jacob Weisberg. Cited in this podcast.

Russia v. Ukraine

Neither party seems to be taking seriously the ceasefire announced by Trump yesterday, ahead of the stock market opening today after the weekend break. Who knows? Investors might stop believing him soon.

Spanish

• Irrrumpir: To break into(burglarise). To barge into.
• En su día: Originally
• En su momento: Previously.

Did you know?

The Phoenicians (2000 BC to 64 BC) were wonderful mariners. They navigated using Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Bear or the Little Dipper, when others were using a less accurate star.

Ancient Greek writers even called it the “Phoenician star” or “Phoenician constellation” because Phoenician sailors used it to navigate far more accurately than other mariners of their time.  

Finally . . . You Have to Laugh

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

The Usual Links

This – from veteran blogger Lenox Napier – is an excellent weekly newsletter (Business Over Tapas) on all matters Spanish. Indispensable for those who needs insights on how and why things happen here.

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 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.