Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*
Living La Vida Loca in Galicia/Spain
Good to read that a junior officers’ association has described recent open letters from ex-militarists as malicious personal opinions of some retirees who were soldiers one or several decades ago.
On the other hand, answering the question of whether Spain’s armed forces have a far-right bias, analysts of all political stripes say the answer is No. They claim the chuntering of the former servicemen is symptomatic of broader political tension across Spanish society. According to a Spanish member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, What the letters show is how very polarised Spain is. I guess time will solve this problem. As to how much of it'll be required, your guess is as good as mine. Meanwhile, at least we don't have US-style armed militia groups. So, maybe the prospect of another civil war is lower here than there.
A mansion forcefully and fraudulently 'gifted' to Franco by 'a grateful' Galicia has finally been handed over to the state, on the orders of the Supreme Court. But not without the appalling Franco family trying to strip it of numerous artistic treasures that had somehow found their way into it. Ironically, the family brought this onto their own heads by trying to sell the place for €8m in 2018
This last week, I've had 2 cars pass right in front of me when 3/4 of the way across a zebra crossing. And the other day I read in my diary of 2001 that my dog hadn't yet learned drivers here don’t always stop for crossings. So, you'll realise I wasn't exactly astonished to read yesterday that a woman had been killed on one of these in Ourense the night before. Or that another woman had been killed there in 2019. Dangerous places for the unwary. Especially up in Ourense.
Here's Marìa's Riding the Wave: Day 26. More on the mansion.
The UK The EU
Suddenly, Boris Johnson is talking - after ditching the 'Norway' and 'Canada' labels - of an 'Australian terms' trade deal. This is the British government's euphemism for a No Deal Brexit. And trading on WTO terms, with all the negative connotations of that.
Click here for an entertaining review of the latest biography of the dishevelled charlatan in charge of British affairs, entitled - Who's to blame for [the 'multi-flawed'] Boris Johnson?. A man who surely won't be prime minister when the 2024 general election takes place.
The USA/Nutters Corner
Just when you thought she couldn't get any dumber . . . Former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, last seen praying to God to give Donald Trump a second term, is now insisting that her vote for Trump was stolen from her . . . by Satan*. A hell go a guy, that Satan.
The Way of the Woke World
Those awful British Xmas crackers . . .
- Old and now unacceptable joke: What noise does a cow make at the North Pole? An Eski-moo!
- Possibly acceptable new joke: When is an igloo closed? When nobody can get In-u-it.
- And one to ponder: What did the dyslexic Devil-worshipper do? Sold his soul to Santa*.
English
* 'Satan': As I've previously noted, from the Persian Sheytan, شیطان Or, if you prefer, the Arabic alsheytan, الشيطان
Finally . . .
Amusing aphorisms No. 12: I finally got 8 hours of sleep. It took me 3 days, but whatever.
* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.