Dawn

Dawn

Monday, January 08, 2018

Thoughts from Galicia: 8.1.18


Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain. 

If you've arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, see my web page here.

Spain
  • The sport of padel/paddle (pádel) is said to be very popular here. For years, I've twice daily driven past a court near my house and wondered what it was like. Yesterday I finally stopped to take a look at it. And what a strange amalgam of tennis and squash it is, involving a peculiar solid-but-holed raquet and walls. No surprise to see that you can buy shoes specially designed for padel. Presumably a cross between a tennis shoe and a squash shoe. Or possibly exactly the same, but with 'Padel' written on the side.
The USA
  • At the Golden Globes awards ceremony last night, numerous actresses protested against sexual harassment by wearing black. I couldn't help noticing that many of them still managed to look pretty sexy. Surely they should all have worn polo neck pullovers. A couple of examples:-



This one obviously couldn't be bothered:-

  • Good news: Murder rates in America’s largest cities fell to historic lows last year as the police used technology to monitor gun violence and predict crime hotspots. Needless to say: The figures jar with the Trump administration’s claims that America is enduring “rising violent crime [and] a staggering increase in homicides”.
  • Not So Good News: America's ability to confuse entertainment and politics has been furthered by Oprah Winfrey's announcement that she is (again) considering running for the presidency.
  • Debatable News: Trump isn't another Hitler; he's another Obama.
The World
  • As a lover of Iran, I naturally sympathise with this article, by someone who know what he's talking about. Opening sentence: A truism about U.S. politics and media is that, once a foreign leader or a country has been demonized, everything written or said about the subject will be skewed to the negative, a rule reflecting Washington’s groupthink and careerism.
The Spanish Language
  • After a welcome comment from reader María, I now posit this hierarchy of responses to the statement “I have an IQ of 160”:-
- Mentira!: You are a liar.
- Me parece una mentira: It seems like a lie to me. (Polite way of saying 'You are a liar'.)
- Me parece mentira: That sounds incredible/It can't be true. (Very polite way of saying 'You are a liar'.)
- Estás equivocado: You are wrong/mistaken. (Politest way of saying 'You are a liar'.)
Refutation welcome.

Nutters Corner
  • Tele-evangelist and seller of crap End Times food, Jim Bakker, claims that the Xmas-tide fatal Amtrak rail crash was a warning from God. Though he doesn't say about what. Perhaps about being dumb enough to buy crap food from Jim Bakker, then.
Social Media
  • YouTube (owned by Google) is making very good money from allowing the uploading of vile vblogs such as one which centred on a body found hanging in a Japanese forest. As someone has put it: YouTube is a media behemoth that has mutated beyond its original purpose as a community for like-minded people to interact with the motto of “Broadcast yourself” into a hyper-competitive, cut-throat world where everything is content. In other words, only money counts.
  • I did my miniscule bit last night and quit Facebook. If I'd needed a final straw, this message yesterday morning would have done the trick:- Good morning, Colin! Stay dry today in Santa Comba. Rain is forecast. I was, in fact, in Santiago, 30km east of Santa Comba.
  • I'm now looking at alternatives to Gmail and am prepared to pay for a degree of privacy.
Galicia
  • I've mentioned at least once the plethora of (often conflicting) speed signs on the N-550 between Pontevedra and Santiago. Yesterday I noted these:-
  1. As you leave the 50kph village of Esclavitud ('Slavery') going north, you meet a sign saying End of 80. Just before the La Perla brothel.
  2. As you leave the 50kph village of Valga going south, you meet a similar sign, this time saying End of 70.
Pontevedra

  • Twice a day, I drive past an enclosure belonging to the Galician Environment Ministry. It contains a number of (possibly obsolete) fire vehicles and at least 30 brand-new Toyota Landcruisers, all white. I wonder why:-

Plus 2 of the laziest guard dogs you can imagine:-


Finally
  • Private Eye magazine had a large Xmas cryptic crossword of almost 70 clues. Would you believe that number 1 Down was:-
- Clue: The president's old farts (6 letters)
- Answer: Trumps.
Needless to say, I got it immediately.

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