Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, March 03, 2013

I'm told that the King's (non)Consort, Princess Corrina, and her antics are the main topic on the talk shows on every TV channel in Spain. That's an awful lot of words. Though – having seen one or two of these shows – I doubt they add up to anything of substance.

On this subject, there was an article in El País today about Corrina and the King. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available on line, so I can't cite it as evidence that I'm not the only person to have put “Corrina” and “the Pope” in the same sentence.

I heard the 'romanticised' model of medieval Spain cited during a religion-related discussion on the BBC this morning. Countering criticism that Christians are persecuted in Muslim countries, an Islamic leader said this simply wasn't true and that everything was as hunky-dory as it had been in medieval Spain when Muslims, Christians and Jews used to link hands and dance down the street together. OK, I added the last bit. By the way,is there anything more dispiriting than listening to religious zealots 'discuss' tolerance? Possibly watching one of Spain's many 'talk' shows, when a panel of 6 or 7 invitees scream at each other over insignificant matters such as Princess Corrina's single-handed destruction of the royal family.

Good news for those of you with an interest in Christopher Columbus. Or Crístobel Colón, as he's known in the Hispanic sphere. The Poio museum sited in the house of his (unlikely) birthplace has re-opened after a period of hibernation. As to whether one has to get together a minimum of 10 people before they will actually open the doors, there's no news as yet. Yesterday's local paper noted with pride the international interest in the museum, citing the visit of two people from China. Hmm. More likely they own one of the several Bazaars in town. Or the buffet restaurant down by the train station.

Spain has long been known for the degree of pirate downloading that goes on here. But it still comes as a shock to read that 82% of the world's illegal activity happens here. Can it really be true? If so,does anyone ever actually buy anything here?

I have arrived: I've been patronising the same bar in Vegetables Square for 12 years now. It took the patron about 10 to start greeting me with a smile. This week, however, he used my name for the first time. The waitresses had been doing this for a long while but he'd held out for quite some time. I've no idea what did the trick. Perhaps it was just tempus fugitting.

Finally . . . A cartoon from the Spanish press - A montage of fotos of 36 Spanish politicians reacting to the news that a British minister has resigned for lying about a traffic fine. It is, of course, a commentary on the state of Spanish, not British, politics.



Publisher's note: There was zilch response to my request for info. I'm not a wit wiser on readership statistics. Hey, ho. 

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