Talking of idiotic
loose cannons . . . It was good to see North Korea getting some of
its own medicine, whoever was responsible for its internet shut-down.
Corruption 1: The latest
high-profile politician is resign in the face of financial
skullduggery is the mayoress of Alicante.
Corruption 2: The
Catalan opera singer, Montserrat CaballĂ©, has agreed to remit €250,000 to the Tax Office, which
is half of what she's said to have fiddled. She's also got a 2 month
prison sentence but won't serve it as anything below 2 years doesn't
count in Spain. You might ask why such sentences are imposed.
Corruption 3: Evidence
is growing of collusion between the ex-king, his long-term German
girlfriend and his son-in-law, the husband of in-the-dock Princess
Cristina. There must be a book in here somewhere. Especially if they
find the key documents which have suddenly gone missing.
An orang-utan
('jungle-man') in an Argentinean zoo has been declared a 'non-human
person' in order to secure her freedom. I wonder if this works the
other way, allowing some people to be declared apes. Possibly the new
spokesman of the Spanish PP party.
2 more anglicisms:
1. Una crisma: An Xmas
card.
2. Un clapping: A
medical practice performed on people who need phlegm expressed
from their tubes.
And a new word for me -
Normcure: A unisex fashion trend characterized by unpretentious,
average-looking clothing.
A rebellion against hipsterdom, I guess.
I've just listened to a
few minutes of a bizarre program on Moscow's RT channel. Essentially
it was a paean of praise to Vladimir Putin, possibly not being aired
for the first time. For this is a BBC report from early November
which cites the same subject and the same players.
As you might have
guessed, I try to read a page of Chaucer a day. Very hard at first,
it does get easier as you begin to recognise words similar to their
modern equivalents and words which are just spelled differently.
Spelt, for example. Anyway, I've been patiently waiting for the first
line which is exactly the same now as it was in the 14th century. And
here it is:-
But now he is in prison
in a cave
Penultimately, this is
Roger Scruton's final podcast on the fakery of modern art, in which
he lands his last hatchet blows on its rotting corpse. A sampler:
Utter trash accumulates in our our museums, largely because it has a
price. You can't own a novel or a symphony like you can own a work of
Damien Hirst. They have no price. As a result, there are far fewer
fake symphonies and novels.
Right on cue, I read
this comment on this year's Turner Prize competition: It was the
worst ever. The annual award this year cast its visitors into a black
hole of interminable video pieces. Audiences spent more time than
might reasonably be expected standing about in darkened rooms feeling
decidedly unenlightened.
Finally . . . The next
bit of THE 1942 GUIDE FOR YANKS ON THE ODD LIMEYS
Don't Be A Show Off.
The British dislike
bragging and showing off. American wages and soldier's pay are the
highest in the world. When your pay day comes, it would be sound
practice to learn to spend your money according to British standards.
They consider you highly paid. They won't think any better of you for
throwing money around; they are more likely to think that you haven't
learnt the common-sense virtues of thrift. The British "Tommy"
is apt to be specially touchy about the difference between his wages
and yours. Keep this in mind. Use common sense and don't rub him the
wrong way.
You will find many
things in Britain physically different from similar things in
America. But there are also important similarities – our common
speech, our common law, and our ideals of religious freedom were all
brought from Britain when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Our
ideas about political liberties are British and parts of our own bill
of rights were borrowed from the great charters of British liberty.
Remember that in
America you like people to conduct themselves as we do, and to
respect the same things. Try to do the same for the British and
respect the things they treasure.
The British Are Tough.
Don't be mislead by the
British tendency to be soft spoken and polite. If they need to be,
they can be plenty tough. The English language didn't spread across
the oceans and over the mountains and jungles and swamps of the world
because these people were panty-waists.
Sixty thousand British
civilians – men women and children – have died under bombs, and
yet the morale of the British is unbreakable and high. A nation
doesn't come through that, if it doesn't have plain, common guts. The
British are tough, strong people and good allies.
You won't be able to
tell the British much about "taking it". They are not
particularly interested in taking it ant more. They are far more
interested in getting together in solid friendship with us, so that
we can all start dishing it out to Hitler.
PS: My daughter has just told me there'll be 45 people at tonight's dinner next door. From experience, I know this will go on from 9pm to 5am tomorrow morning. She's thinking of sleeping elsewhere. Spanish lack of consideration at its worst.
PS: My daughter has just told me there'll be 45 people at tonight's dinner next door. From experience, I know this will go on from 9pm to 5am tomorrow morning. She's thinking of sleeping elsewhere. Spanish lack of consideration at its worst.
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