Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Rato's threats; Madrid v. Gib; Bullfighting/baiting; Jumping; Spanish phrases; Curation; Saudi grads; Galician blog; & Is that all there is?

There's a bit of a media storm blowing through Spain's main holiday month. Rodrigo Rato is an ex head of the IMF and, more relevantly, an ex Spanish Economy Minister. After taking advantage of what he, naively, thought was a tax indemnity, he's being investigated for fraud and money laundering. Despite these clouds over his head, Rato was recently invited to come in and see the Interior Minister for an hour's chat. The latter has insisted this was merely about Rato's concerns had about his under-threat personal safety and that this couldn't have been held in any other way. More suspicious souls feel it might have been more about, say, Rato keeping his trap shut.[Geddit? Rato. Trap. Never mind.].

As anticipated, Madrid has cranked up its Gib complaints another notch, accusing The Rock's government of failing to cooperate with Spanish law enforcement authorities. What next? That Gibraltar is full of brothels which are corrupting innocent Spanish youths?

Bullfighting and bull-running/baiting are different in a number of respects. One is that the latter is free to watch. And another is that a lot more (brave/foolhardy/stupid) people get killed doing it. Here's details of the latest pointless death, one of 3 in the last 24 hours. Naturally, all of the gorings were shown in all their glory and gore on the TV. Frequently. The Spanish are not terribly squeamish.

Which reminds me . . . I've just discovered there are major differences between bunjee jumping and what I thought was the Spanish version - puenting, or jumping from a bridgeFor one thing, the puenting rope is not elastic. For another, puenting isn't regulated. And thirdly - and not surprisingly - more (brave/foolhardy/stupid) people get killed doing it. We had the latest death - of a Dutch teenage girl - this week. Attitudes toward risk are different here.

Q. How do you say 'to sleep like a log' in Spanish? A. Dormir como una marmota - 'To sleep like a marmot'. And how do you translate El perro fue sustituido por una gata? Is it:- 1. 'The dog was substituted by a cat' or 2. 'The dog was substituted for a cat'? And if it's 1, how do you say 2?

And what, please, is "the ultimate curation tool"? Or any "curation tool" for that matter?

My friend Eamon in La Coruña has sklifullly managed to reveal the face of one of the lady doctors in yesterday's picture but didn't do so with all the others as they were, he says, less attractive. I feel for the one who closed her eyes just as the foto was snapped. She doesn't even get to see these. Not that they're any different from anyone's else's. So, she can tell her parents she's any of the others and no one would be any the wiser.


I've just come across this Galician blog. It's in Spanish and seems to be aimed at cool folk - Es una edición online que recopila una selección de lugares, proyectos, ideas, artistas y locales únicos que vale la pena conocer en Galicia y sus alrededores. At least it's in Spanish. Here's the Pontevedra province bits. Nothing about Tiffintown.

Finally . . . Here's the incomparable Peggy Lee's rendition of a song which could be the Spanish national anthem, given that the chorus runs:
Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is, my friend,
Then let's keep dancing.
Let's break out the booze and have a ball.
If that's all there is

And here's the version of the divine - and equally incomparable - Ms M.

You lucky people, as Tommy Trinder(?) used to say.

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