Only in Spain?: An
organisation called Manos Limpios(Clean Hands) has brought many, if
not most, of the suits for corruption against politicians and civil
servants but, needless to say, is now is under investigation itself. The
action may even be non-frivolous. Or even just vexatious.
Desperate Times:
Desperate measures. Perhaps not surprisingly - given the huge size of
the underground economy here - the Spanish Tax authorities have
powers unknown in the Anglo world. For example, they can embargo your
current account. Or even simply take money from it, I suspect. And
now they've given themselves the power to do the same with deposit
accounts. You've been warned. Don't cross them!
Galician Airports: We have 3 small, (minimally) international facilities. Yesterday the local paper reminded us of what we've known for years – that you can't get either a bus or train from Pontevedra (the provincial capital) to any of them. But you can to Oporto airport in nearby North Portugal. Guess which airport is growing most rapidly. Truly astonishing but symptomatic of the stupid 'localism' - and pathetic politics - that hold back development in Spain.
Galician Weather: When
the weather changes here, it really can change. I like to think we
actually live in the Atlantic. And when the wind shifts from the
warm, wet south west to the cold, dry north, the temperature can drop
rapidly by 10 degrees or more. Which explains why I nearly froze to
death walking across the bridge from town yesterday. Midst a
northern, hail-laden gale.
ECT: Or electro
convulsive therapy. I have reason to be grateful this is still
permitted in cases of depression resistant to drugs, in the UK at least. So, I was
fascinated to read that it enables dyslexic kids to read faster. I
wonder how they found out. Maybe I should read the Times article that
I can't link you to. But here's a Telegraph article to be going on with.
The UK Property Market:
House prices in Britain seem to have been rising for ever, though I
know this isn't true, as I've lived through 2 eras of decline. But, in
one city in the UK, prices have actually fallen in the last 15 years,
against an general increase of 172%. Poor bloody Bolton. Or the
centre of it, to be specific. The second worst performer was Leicester,
the Curry Capital of Britain, I believe.
The UK Establishment:
The EU Referendum blogger, Richard North, is not very impressed by
this. Witness: The one thing you can guarantee about the
establishment is that they look after their own. Arguably, that is
one of the reasons why they are the establishment – they have that
insiders' willingness to defend themselves against all comers. Even
allowing for that, though, the affection being shown for a son of the
establishment, millionaire Boris Johnson seems to transcend even the
loyalty of the clan. For a man whose full name is Alexander Boris de
Pfeffel Johnson, this affection approaches a level of morbid
pathology that is close to disease, defying any imaginable logic. [X
is one] of the seemingly helpless establishment patsies who have
fallen under the spell of this man. Besotted with him, they seem
prepared to forgive any amount of abuse and professional misconduct. More here. Dr North is on the verge of despair at this situation. See here for
details.
Donald Trump: I was
going to write that his latest astonishing act was to revoke his
pledge not to stand against the official Republican presidential
candidate, if he's not selected. But then he opened his gob on
abortion and pronounced that women who'd had an illegal abortion should
be punished 'somehow'. You couldn't make it up.
Finally . . . As a
liberal user of English, I enjoyed these bits of a review of a new
book Horrible Words by Rebecca Gowers: It is the latest attack on
those awful, unholy “gripers” in our midst (John Humphrys, Simon
Heffer, Kingsley Amis, Peter 'Dutch' Missler) who dare to lay down
the law about English for the general reader, and thereby attract the
ire of all those who work on language in an academic capacity. Such
“naysayers”, you see, are too quick to cry, “Non-word! Horrible
word! Do not use this word!” when they see something new that
offends them.
Thanks to Rebecca, we
can see that in 1926, the great philologist Henry Watson Fowler
described the word “optimism” as “repulsive”. In 1935, AP
Herbert said that “personalise” was “obscene”. And in 2010,
Simon Heffer not only pronounced against the word “onto” but
claimed (against all visible evidence to the contrary) that it “does
not exist”. Obviously, all these chaps look ridiculous for taking
such stands. But at the same time, I can’t help feeling that
someone here is missing the point slightly. Isn’t reading style
guides meant to be a source of entertainment as well as
enlightenment? Also, doesn’t the reader have the right to disagree?
I rejoiced in all Partridge’s strictures and pronouncements. I
still do, while doubtless breaking most of his rules every time I sit
down at my keyboard.
In a more general way,
though, one must defend the style guide for the simple reason that
many [inadequate] people desire everyday guidance on sticky issues. There is no
authority governing the English language: we all know this. There is
no academy. No wonder we turn to the “naysayers”, because at
least they understand what we are crying out for, which is a bit of
certainty, for pity’s sake.
You might think you can
trust in dictionaries, but no: dictionaries keep apace with usage, so
as to have relevance — and also to keep selling new ones. You ask
them for bread: they give you stones. So I think we should be very
grateful to all those chaps (it’s usually chaps) who are willing to
draw a line in the sand. Yes, they can end up looking absurd; yes,
they invariably over-reach themselves. But at the same time, those of
us who want to know what the hell to do when pluralising
spokesperson, shouldn’t we have somewhere to turn? I have to admit I have no sympathy for this view, based on my experience of Peter 'Dutch' Missler.
So, what's odd about this foto?
Well, in 15 years, this is the only person, apart from me, I've seen reading a book in public in Ponters. And I can't see myself, of course. So, unique.
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