Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Pontevedra Pensées: 26.2.17

Regular readers will know I think percebes(goose barnacles) are grossly over-rated as a delicacy, tasting to me like rubber dipped in salty water. But I know several people – both Spaniards and foreigners - who totally disagree on this. In fact, I discovered on Friday that their fans even include the guy who told me long ago that even during the lean years of the civil war no one would be caught eating either them or barnacles. They were seen back then as animal food, until the marketeers got to work on them. He especially likes the large variant from Cedeira, north of La Coruña on the Galician coast. Maybe I should try them at the inevitable annual gastronomic festival there.

Click here if you want to know the Spanish province with the largest black economy. No prizes for guessing it's in the south.

And click here if you want Don Quijones's take on the latest immoral/semi-criminal activities of the European banks. 

Talking of banks . . . My new one sends me an SMS every time I use my debit card for amounts over, I think, €50. In fact, I actually received a message last night even before my receipt had been given to me. I'm not sure I welcome this.

Two new words for me today:-

Shonky: This is said to emanate from the Antipodes and to mean: dishonest, unreliable or illegal, especially in a devious way. The same word serves as a noun for a person engaged in suspect business activities.

Catfisher: The devious brand of love cheat who creates a fake online identity to lure innocent lonely hearts into a relationship. 

As these things happens, I was going to cite this morning the case of the so-called Don Juan of (nearby) Marín, a guy who's finally been arrested after deceiving and defrauding more than 70 women over 40 years. Hard to see how he could have got away with this for so long. One of his tricks was to nick the phone or laptop of his last victim to gift to the next one. Apparently he didn't do it for the money or even the sex but – as a psycho – to exercise power over weak women. So, if your new man has given you a mobile phone or a laptop . . . .

Nutters' Corner: Two more quotes from the same US evangelist pastor:-
  • The biggest problem with India today is Hinduism; the best thing you could do to help poor people there is to teach them the Bible.
  • Atheists are so insecure they don't want anyone seeing nativity scenes, crosses, etc. as they don't want people to think for themselves. We're not afraid to teach children about how to understand different views. Atheists are afraid to let people be taught to think critically about origins, as people would then understand evolution's a religion

And just in case you think nuttiness is confined to the US of A: One of the wealthiest Cambridge colleges is to rethink its menu after ethnic minority students complained about culinary offerings such as “Jamaican stew” and “Tunisian rice” on the grounds that the names are “cultural misrepresentations” as they do not exist in their supposed native countries. Poor damaged things.

Finally . . . Another Bill Tidy cartoon:- One of my all time favourites . . . 
Ah, c'mon, Genghis - we need only one more to make a horde!




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