I
say 'term of endearment' but it seems to South Americans un
coño is 'a Spaniard' and I doubt
this is out of affection. But, anyway, by coincidence I saw these
topical garments advertised in Private
Eye this week.
I
wonder how many Spaniards know that the shock and shame of having to cede the
Philippines to the USA in 1898 would have been avoided if King
Leopold of Belgium had succeeded in his plan to buy the islands in
the late 1860s. But he didn't and went on to procure and then
devastate the (Belgian) Congo in consolation.
Which
reminds me . . . Here's another of those belief-begging coincidences
. . . The book I was looking for in town yesterday was Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"(El Corazón
de las Tinieblas). Then last night,
as I was finishing Bertrand Russell's autobiography, I read that "An
event of importance to me in 1913 was the beginning of my friendship
with Joseph Conrad." What are the odds?
Incidentally,
humour doesn't loom large in Russell's book. Or, if it does, it's
lost on me. Except for this passage about a woman he'd set his eyes
on: Her husband was a psychoanalyst,
and apparently professional etiquette required that he should not get
on with his wife. Consequently, she was divorced. But, as soon as
honour was satisfied, they re-married and lived happily ever after. Russell, though, was able to take advantage of her temporary status. Proving that, for the British, sex wasn't invented in the 60s.
Local
rules:
The Galician police have announced that they caught a fair number of
drivers committing the usual offences on the region's secondary roads
last week. I fancy they'd have caught a lot more if they hadn't
announced the week before - as is the local custom - that they'd be
carrying out this campaign. I guess it makes sense to someone.
Local
customs:
In
their search for ever more fiestas, the good folk of Pontevedra a few
years ago hit upon the Octubrofest.
But I must have missed the publicity this year and only realised it
had taken place when I came upon the debris in Plaza
Teucro.
Not liking beer much, I wasn't too put out.
Gadis
is a supermarket which operates in Galicia and Castilla y León. It's
famous for its amusing ads which are OTT in their emphasis on
Galician 'nationalist' sentiment. Here's their latest 4 minute - yes,
4 minutes! - offering. It's in Gallego, of course, so much of it will
be lost unless you're fluent in Spanish. And even then, perhaps. The
visual humour comes towards the end so you might want to FF until
minute 3.
Finally
. . . Commendably, the Spanish are the EU leaders in organ donations. On the other
hand, they're also the EU leaders in consumption of cocaine. Perhaps
because much of Europe's cocaine enters via our Galician coastline.
Nowt as queer as folk, as they say up North.
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