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
The Train Crash
- A basic failure, not human error. These are the technical reasons for the critical safety failure. The root cause was inadequate maintenance and inspection. Very worrying.
- Following the second major crash in under a year, unions are blasting working conditions at the epicentre of Adif’s network management.
Local News
We’ve had the driest October on record and, after a cold snap in the middle of it, the month ended with temperatures in the 20-25 range. November has begun with a forecast for today of a max of 23, after a low last night of 11. Ahead of the winter rains, water levels are way below normal.
The celebration of [the Celtic tradition] Samaín last night saw the Procesión das Ánimas (Procession of Souls) through Pv city’s old quarter, featuring white sheets, ghostly faces, chilling costumes, a coffin and all manner of otherworldly creatures. Dimmed lighting and eerie, otherworldly sounds helped recreate the atmosphere of the ancient Santa Compaña – ‘a Galician folk legend: a nocturnal procession of souls in torment wanders country roads and villages, traditionally seen as an omen of death’.
The city’s kids naturally preferred to dress up and to indulge in the thoroughly (US)Americanised/commercialised celebration of Halloween. As did many of its youth and some of its adults. Most commonly in Harry Potter costumes, in the former case. Of remarkable brevity as regards teenage girls. BTW . . . I wrote that before I’d heard a US female podcaster say this morning she’d been astonished to see how ‘slutty’ woman had been last night in New York, in what she called ‘fallopian tube skirts’. Seems to be a universal fashion for women 14 years and upwards. I was left wondering what I’d have said or done if my 2 daughters had wanted to go out dressed so skimpily. But came to no conclusion. Probably would have left it to their mother . .
Today was for visiting the graves of loved ones, to clean them up and to lay flowers on them. As elsewhere in Spain, Pv city’s main square yesterday was given over to florists’ stalls. A sight you might have seen today was that of cars being driven with a ladder sticking out of a window. These are used to reach the higher niches in Spanish cemeteries. But, if you don’t have a ladder, the priest will kindly rent you one.
Portugal
The United States of Trump America
70% of (US) American identify with a religion and 47% view religion as very important and pray every day. Doesn’t seem to be doing the country much good. But it’s certainly benefitted Trump and his family and hangers-on. Time to use your ‘God-given’ free will to re-think?
The NY Times finally came out of the long grass . . Trump Has Failed. Hold Him to Account. (RV) Voters should keep in mind Trump’s failure to keep his campaign promises, his attempts to undermine [US]American democracy and his flagrant corruption. They should be thinking of the Republican Party’s acquiescence to this abuse of power and thold Republicans accountable.
Relevant Books
- Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest
- Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy. 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.
Spanish
- Querella: Complaint. Lawsuit.
- Calvicie: Baldness
- Rematar: To finish off, top off, round off
English
More from Vanity Fair of 1850:-
- Repeater: A mechanical clock or watch that struck the hour, quarter-hour, or minutes when a button was pressed.
- Worldling: Has/had two main senses: 1. [More usual] A worldly person. Someone absorbed in material concerns, social status, money, or present-day pleasures rather than spiritual or higher matters. In Spanish, mundano. 2. An inhabitant of the world. An “earthling”; a person who lives on Earth. In Spanish, habitante del mundo.
- Frock coat: Emerged around 1815–1820 as a fitted, long-sleeved day coat with skirts reaching to the knee or ankle and front buttoning. It began as informal wear but became the standard formal daytime coat for men in the 19th century.
- Frogged: Fitted with ‘frogs’—decorative cord-and-loop fastenings, often in contrasting braid or metallic thread. Especially associated with military/hussar uniforms.
- Frogged frock coat: A long, tailored men’s coat. Early frock coats had a military look, with braid, frogged buttons, and a high “Prussian” collar. The martial trim eventually disappeared, with the coats using conventional buttons, lapels, and a more civilian silhouette.
You Have to Laugh
The crutch below his knees and his underpants on display. . . . I’d love to be able to show this guy his pants in 20 years’ time and see his reaction . . .
Finally . . .
Japan’s ‘Jimi Halloween‘ celebration of all things mundane.
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.
As it’s the start of the month . . . Some readers, I hope, will know that the verse I cite at the top of my posts is the opening quatrain of Fitzgerald’s wonderful – but very ‘free’ – translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which you can read about here. Some verses are well known, of course, eg:-
The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.
My favourite:-
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
doctor and saint, and heard great argument
about it and about: but evermore
came out by the same door as in I went
