Nice poster; the Gag Law; Franco and wine; The Quranists; A special tortilla; & A special Foto.

Another nice Spanish poster:-

We're in the age of

Coffee without caffeine,

Milk without lactose,

Cigarettes without nicotine.

When, roughly, will we have

Governments without imbeciles?

And crooks, one might add.

Talking of crimes . . . Here's Spain's fascist "Gag Law" in action, being used against a kid who accused his local force of being lazy on his Facebook page. I'm reminded of the law of the early 20th century under which - in special courts - the Spanish army could prosecute anyone who offended it in any way at all. This was its compensation for losing the last of Spain's colonies and then being defeated by a Moroccan force in North Africa. Salve for deep wounds, then,

I've just learnt that "The Franco dictatorship was a dark time for wine production, as wine wasn't allowed to be exported. Franco was a teetotaller and believed wine should only be used for church sacraments and not much else". I mean, how could the Spanish allow this idiot to rule them for 40 years and to die in his bed? Especially as he committed crimes far worse than even this one.

There is, I hear, a Muslim sect - the Quranists - whose members reject the later Hadiths and Sharia law and rely entirely on the Koran for their beliefs and practices. Mainstream Muslims regard them as "the most shameless hypocrites and liars amongst Muslims, who contradict, oppose and break all of the central claims of Islam without any compunction." The leading cleric of the sect "enraged devout Muslims to the extent that they shot him to death in 1990". This might sound better in Arabic. More of this vitriol here. And I thought the Shia-Sunni schism was bad enough.

Another honour from one of my favourite tapas bars . . . Under my gentle pressure, they now offer a tortilla done with onions and ginger. And this they call La tortilla de Sr Colin. But I doubt they'll serve many, especially not among the conservative Gallegos, for whom ginger is far too 'hot'. Which reminds me . . . my cleaner persists in regarding my pepper cellar as spice and putting it in the cupboard with other spices. Every week I put it back near the salt cellar and every week it goes back to the cupboard. Just one of 7 or 8 things I have to undo every Monday evening or Tuesday morning. But it's good to have a routine, I've heard.

Finally, finally . . . If anyone wants to see a foto of me, track down my FB page, where I now appear in the cover foto. I'm the one who's not the owl. This is the only foto ever taken of me in which my face is not (sometimes bright) red and my hair (sometimes snowy) white. Brilliant photographer or reality? I leave you to guess. Though it's obvious why I've waited so long to 'come out'.