Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Spain and the EU; Jewish interest; Jewish Oddity; Free houses; Ham-carving; Troles; & Total recall.


The EU has asked Spain for further information about the incident down Ceuta, when 15 'Southern Saharans' died in an attempt to swim into the African enclave, after the Guardia Civil had fired rubber bullets at or 'above' them. The response from Madrid has been classically two-pronged. 1. Mind your own business. This has got nothing to do with Brussels, and 2. These attempts at mass illegal immigration is an EU problem. Give us several millions to finance measures to prevent it.

Talking of Madrid . . . Its offer to give easy Spanish citizenship to Sephardic Jews has been met by a huge level of interest. Though it's doubted many of those entitled will actually move here. The attraction - now that Spain has waived the obligation to give up one's existing nationality - is that one can have dual citizenship. Just in case. More here.

Talking of un-refusable offers . . . . The mayor of a tiny village in the Almerian Alpujarras would be happy to give you a house, provided only that you have children and are happy to move there. For, with its population of 360 falling, the village can no longer justify a school. The mayor admits there's not much to do in the place - and that anyone with practical skills will be especially welcome - but it's certainly an opportunity for someone. Or three. More here.

And talking of Jews . . . I was fascinated see that Orthodox Jews in Israel are refusing to obey a new new which obliges them to do military service. One of their arguments is that praying and studying the Torah is a full-time and useful occupation. Albeit one that doesn't pay much. Meaning they exist on the dole. Nice work if you can get it, even if it does mean you have to all wear the same strange garb and sport the same silly hairstyle. And that's just the men.

Having been given an entire jamón recently and having bought a jamonera, I've entered the world of ham-carving. I eschewed the special knife and used a standard British carving knife, sharpened on one two of the several things my father used. But I doubt I'm yet ready for this sort of thing. My father, by the way, would have been an excellent ham-carver. The family joke was that he cut the meat so thin we could read a newspaper through it. And - over the years - he wore down the knife so much with sharpening that I genuinely thought all carving knives were only a quarter of an inch wide, with an arc from one end to the other. This, of course, was back in the days when every family in the UK sat down for a full roast dinner on a Sunday. I suspect these days few Brits would know what a carving knife was. Never mind a roast.

Somewhere out there is the person who first used the now-ubiquitous word 'trolls' for the vile idiots who bedevil Comment sections on the internet. And tweetland as well. How wonderful it must feel to see your novel usage catch fire. But, anyway, the Spanglish for 'troll' is trol and the plural is troles, just in case you need them. Oh, and the Spanglish for 'tweet(s)' is tuit(es).

Finally . . . Here's a cartoon which, after 2 marriages, was bound to appeal to me. And possibly a few more men as well.


Have you given any thought to what I said to you on that dark stormy night in the country 14 years ago?


Weather note: I don't think it rained here yesterday. And the sun is up this morning. The birds are tweeting - in their amusingly old-fashioned way - and there's a bee seeking pollen in the rosemary flowers. Life is suddenly a lot better.

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