In all of British politics,
there's scarcely a beard in sight. And none among members of the Government.
In Spain, there are beards everywhere in politics. And even pigtails.
My guess is it's something to do with the absence of a Reformation in
Spain.
Well, there is an EU
High Representative for Foreign Affairs, after all. It's just that
you've never heard of her. She's one Federica Mogherini of Italy. She
may or may not have been present at the recent negotiations with
Putin over Eastern Ukraine. But she is a lot better looking than the last (British) occupant of the post. Which is to say nothing, of course.
The Supreme Court
decided a few weeks ago that there was not enough evidence to allow a
paternity suit against the ex-king to proceed to a DNA test. So now
the alleged daughter has appealed against this decision. And the king has appealed against her appeal. Or something like that. I'm willing
to bet there's no chance the king will give a sample of anything.
Presumably, he feels happy with what he gave (probably) 40 years
ago. Final court decision in 3 weeks' time.
Talking of the Spanish
courts . . . There's a judge called Mercedes Alaya. She's
presiding, doggedly, over one of Spain's largest corruption trials. I
admire her for at least 2 reasons: Firstly, as an an attractive and
elegant women, she gets cameras thrust in her face every morning when
she arrives at court. And yet she's never shown the slightest emotion,
negative or positive. Secondly, for the 4th time, she's refusing to
comply with the unwritten (and highly questionable) rule that a judge
should suspend a 'politically sensitive' trial ahead of elections. A brave woman. But, anyway, here's a foto or five.
I've found a scrap of
paper on which I've written this quotation. Don't know who, don't
know when, but it's clearly a comment on the seeming incapacity of
Spain's politico-judicial system to punish corrupt administrators: "A
prisoner in jail feels a push towards the exit in direct proportion
to his political, social and economic weight." Sorry if I've
quoted it before.
I came across the verb
testar yesterday, clearly meaning 'to test'. But the real meaning of
this verb is 'to write a will'. Its arrival is clearly related to the
use of test instead of prueba, ensayo, etc.. The Royal Academy is
not at all happy about this English incursion when Spanish is
perfectly adequate for any related meaning and one can sympathise
with its august members. All they can do is a good imitation of
Canute. BTW: there's also the alternative of testear for testar.
Which at least takes it away from English a tad.
Finally . . .
.Carnaval: Pontevedra's big parade of floats on Saturday was rained
off and postponed until Friday next. The immolation of our parrot,
Ravachol will take place on Saturday night. In truth, our our offerings are mediocre compared with those of elsewhere in Spain. Here's an idea of
what you can see elsewhere, from ThinkSpain.
But even these pale
against what's on show in Las Palmas, when 12 beauties vie for the
title of Queen of the Carnaval.
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