Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Frieda the forerunner; Targeted text; Trolley folly; Pilfering presidents; Weird words; Messi magic; and A Barcelona ban.

In March 1912 - exactly a hundred years ago - the English poet, D H Lawrence, was invited to lunch at the house of Mr and Mrs Weekley. When Mr W. was late arriving and Mrs. W. was at a loose end, she suggested they went upstairs to get to know each other better. Which done, they became lovers and, eventually, husband and wife. When I heard about this today, I wondered whether the lady wasn't the forerunner of all those unhappy British wives I wrote about last night. Though clearly she needed no help from the internet.

Which reminds me . . A couple of people have told me that last night's post drove Google to surround the text with a variety of ads for dating sites for the mature person. Though it's possible - given Google's frightening capability - that younger readers will have had ads for sites catering for unhappy souls in their 20s, 30s and even 40s.

As I've noted, recessions in the UK bring an upsurge in thefts of metal from church roofs. In Spain, one Madrid-based scrap dealer hit on an alternative - supermarket trolleys. 3,000 of them, in fact. When it was suggested he could have made 290,000 euros selling them, he retorted - "Do you think I'd still be living with my mother, if I had?" Which is not an easy question to answer in Spain.

The ex President of the Balearic Islands has been sentenced to six years in prison for corruption. There are seventeen autonomous communities (or regions) in Spain and he's the eighth ex-president to go before the courts for corruption. No bad going. My guess is there'll be more.

I was pondering today how composite words lose their literal meaning and come to mean something entirely different from their components. For example, 'congratulations' is enhorabuena in Spanish. Literally 'in good hour'. Then there's Noche Buena and Noche Vieja - Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Literally 'Good Night' and 'Old Night'. Thinking about examples in English, I came up with indeed, moreover, albeit, altogether, everyone, everybody, goodbye, nevertheless, and alright. But I'm sure there are better ones.

Lionel Messi's hat-trick [there's a good example] last night made him the club's top scorer ever with 234 goals. As your fancy takes you, all of them can be seen here. Incidentally, I didn't realise he's as small as he is. Which is 5' 5". Or something around 165cm.

Having mentioned Barcelona, I'll just pass on the news that the municipal authorities say they will completely ban prostitution on the streets of the city before the summer, backed up by greater enforcement and larger fines. Good luck to them. And tough titty to anyone sad enough to plan a holiday around this activity. You can now cross Barcelona off your list.

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