Dawn

Dawn

Monday, December 16, 2013

Catalan Confusion; Peter O'Toole and me; Being submissive; Odd names; & Wrestling with Spanglish

Unless Madrid somehow manages to stop it, the Catalans will have a referendum on independence next year. The major questions I have are:-
1. Will the questions be framed in both official languages, Catalán and Spanish?
2. If so, will the Catalans rip up all the answers made in Spanish?
Of course, if the Catalan for No is the same as it is in Spanish, this question won't be as 'nice' as it would be otherwise.

But, anyway . . . Sitting in a hotel in Nairobi many years ago, I noticed that a chap across the room had, despite the distance between us, the most piercing blue eyes imaginable. I later discovered this had been the just-deceased actor Peter O'Toole. I imagine he had a lot of luck with women. Some of it possibly good. BTW - When I say 'just-deceased', I mean yesterday. Not before I saw him in the Nairobi hotel.

Talking of women . . . I went to Paintings section of our new museum building yesterday with my Ferrol friends Richard and Blanca. I was going to say the Art section but, as this means anything these days, I had to resort to 'Paintings' to be accurate. And there, by pure chance, I came across the statue that was the model for the frontispiece to the recent literary sensation - "Marry and be Submissive" (Casate y Sé Sumisa).



Sorry about the quality. I'm having to use my dumbphone as my camera is bust.
On a brass plate outside some offices in town, I noticed the following names yesterday. As ever in Spain, there's one forename and two surnames, one from each parent:-
- Alejandra Caldera Mato
- Diego Hurta de Uña
- Miguel Diós Blanco


The English equivalents of these are:-
- Alexandra Boiler I kill
- James Market Garden of Fingernail
- Michael White God.

The plate said they were lawyers but I have my doubts.

Finally . . . The Spanish word cachacascán doesn't appear in most dictionaries. Not even that of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language. As you'll have guessed, it comes from the English 'catch-as-catch-can' and appears to mean a form of wrestling popular in Mexico and places like that, where it's also known as lucha libre. Or 'free fight'. Which has nothing to do with being submissive within marriage. Or anywhere else.

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