Until recently, the little town of Arcade – 15km along the coast from Pontevedra – was famous only for its oysters. But a few months ago a young Arcadian hairdresser [Ana María Ríos] was arrested in Cancun, Mexico, accused of drug smuggling. Her case became a cause celebre here in Spain and she was eventually released and returned to Arcade in glory. She then fell out of the media until last week, when she re-appeared, topless, on the cover of the magazine Interviu, which specialises is this sort of thing. Another media storm followed, especially here in conservative Galicia. One could be forgiven for forgetting that, come summer, there will be dozens of young Spanish women on our beaches displaying at least as much as Ana. Her crime appears to be getting 90,000 euros for it. Her truck-driver husband - Ana was arrested during their honeymoon – has dismissed local critics as idiots. The general view is that, now his wife is a ‘celebrity’, it won’t be long before he’s the one being dismissed. Probably in favour of one of the bullfighters who seem to favour vacuous blondes. Not that Ana is blonde. But she soon will be.

I moaned recently that, unlike the major newspapers, I didn’t have a proof-reader. But now I’m wondering whether I’m alone, at least in the case of the UK’s Daily Telegraph. Its on-line edition now comes complete with basic spelling and punctuation errors and tonight’s included these marvels:-
- Mr Dimas said that Gu(with umlaut)nter Verheugen, (ck) the German Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry . . .
- The Russian magnate, Mr Prok-horov . . .

Galicia Facts

January 6 – the Epiphany - is a big day in little Bueu, just along the coast from Pontevedra. For this is the location of the only church in Spain dedicated to the Three Kings. Or Wise Men in the Anglo world. In fact, the only other in Europe is said to the cathedral in Cologne. Though Wikipedia claims it’s dedicated to ‘Saints Peter and Mary’.

This reference to Wikipedia allows me to introduce a word new to me. This is the term for web sites such as this one which rely on contributions from the public and it’s crowdsourcing.

And, talking of new words, I stumbled across this bit of Spanglish in an article on the photos of Ana from Arcade – photoshopizado. I assume the verb is photoshopizar. Though possibly fotoshopizar in Gallego.

And finally on words – I see Doris Lessing has written a new novel in which men evolve from a women-only society. The men are know as squirts, against clefts for women. One wonders why.