Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, June 20, 2004

A writer in today’s Sunday Telegraph compares the ‘high-trust, civic and law-governed’ foundation of North Europe with the ‘amoral familialism’ of the South. Hmmm….

Flicking through yesterday’s Faro de Vigo in pursuit of the sports pages, my eye was caught by something unmissable on the small ads page. Not only has La C. de E. [‘The Queen of Vigo. Favoured by the Elite’] upped the size of its box ad but it is facing serious competition from Piso Relax [‘Number one in Vigo, where quality makes the difference’]. In addition to a perplexing range of in-house services, both of these offer home and hotel visits. But neither mentions forests. On the other hand, La C. de E. is promoting its new ‘Boat and Limousine’ services. So it can only be a matter of time. Thank-God this is a Catholic country. Who knows what would go on otherwise.

WordWatch Special
Exhibitionismo: I read yesterday that a local resident had been imprisoned for this and immediately feared for my own liberty. So I was sort of relieved to find that it can mean ‘indecent exposure’ in Spain and not just something favoured by a significant percentage of the British population. I thought initially that this might be the first known example of a Spanish expression being shorter than the English. But, if you count the syllables, you will find that the score is 7-6 in favour of Spain.

As I was reading this paper I noticed a puffed-up, strutting male pigeon bully a female bird away from a crust of bread on the floor near my table. As he manoeuvred her away from the morsel, a sparrow flew in and took it. So much for that little bit of exhibitionism.

You may have missed the pictures of the beheaded American hostage, showing his detached head lying on his back. We didn’t, of course.

No comments: