Reading
the always-entertaining art critic, Brian Sewell, I was struck by
this comment about Salvador Dalí - “Even in
his dotage, Dalí could not live without a daily dose of hero-worship
— and if it did not come, then he was quite prepared to go out on
to the streets to get it.” For exactly the same thing could be said
about the now-reviled Jimmy Savile, who used to 'perform' every night
at the Flying Pizza restaurant in Leeds. Where he moved around the
place, working each table to get the attention and approbation he
needed. And I have to say – having witnessed the performance – it
was done very professionally. Which is not to say he was a good man.
Readers confused as to why I should stress this, should click here.
Or go to the web site of any British paper.
I
heard a nice Spanish phrase the other night: Describing a very young
baby, a friend called her Muy
bebé
- or 'Very baby'.
A
copa
is a drink of spirits and mixer, usually served in a large glass with
plenty of ice. Costing 5 or 6 euros here in Galicia. The mount of
spirit is at least 4 or 5 time what you'd get in a British pub.
Unless the bar owner had diluted it with water, a not-unknown
practice. I mention this because, the night I heard the Muy
bebé
comment,I also heard a woman say that she and her husband had been
stopped by the police in the wee hours of the morning, after her
husband had had 7 – yes seven – copas.
She, in contrast, had 'only' had two mojitos. Despite this, her husband had been driving. Anyway, the woman
reported that the police had asked her husband whether he'd been
drinking and he'd lied that he hadn't. Whereupon they let him drive
on. Astonishing.
Reading
the entrails of Sunday's regional elections, the Financial Times
opined that - “Analysts
and commentators agreed that Mariano Rajoy, the country’s prime
minister, emerged from the electoral contest in his home region with
fresh political capital. But they stressed that it was far from clear
how Mr Rajoy would spend it.” On the wider issues of the Spanish
economy, the paper commented - “Many economists believe that
Spain’s deteriorating public finances will ultimately force the
government to request a bailout, possibly in conjunction with other
troubled eurozone economies such as Cyprus and Portugal. But others
point out that recent economic news from Spain has not been all bad:
one indicator, the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds, has fallen by
about 140 basis points over the past two months to 5.45 per cent,
according to Bloomberg data. And while much of that drop can be
linked to the promise of ECB intervention, it also suggests that
investors no longer regard Madrid’s economic prospects as bleakly
as they did.” So, has Sr Rajoy's masterful inactivity really been
masterful? I guess it won't be long before we know, especially if the
almighty market runs out of patience and Spain's bond yields return
to the heights of yesteryear.
There
used to be two savings banks – or caixas – here in
Galaicia – Caixa Galicia and Caixa Nova. They were forcibly fused,
to become Novacaixagalicia. But I see this has now been renamed
Novagalicia Banco. I was going to say that the next step was to call
it NGB but, checking on Wiki, I see this has already been done!
Incidentally the Wiki entry on Novagalcia uses the horrible term –
bankisation.
Occasionally one regrets the flexibility of the English language,
while being aware that words we now find acceptable were detested
when they first crept into the language decades ago. For all I know,
people once hated 'plastic'.
Finally
. . . For all you Catholics out there – In an episode of Family Man
recently aired, Peter and his (Catholic) family go off to church of
Sunday morning. The sign outside says “Come for the Mass. Stay for
the Guilt”. Which I rather liked.
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