Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 31.3.20

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

  Note: I'm indebted to Lenox Napier's Business Over Tapas for 1 or 2 of today's items.

The C Word
  • As suspected, counting is done differently from country to country
  • Details here of the impact of the Spanish crackdown on non-essential jobs, with info on what's open and who's still working. (Which possibly answers the question of whether I can get a plumber to attend to the leaks in both my bathroom and kitchen - category 24?).
  • Lessons from the Spanish experience.
Coronavirus: A Less Negative Take
  • Spain has seen a decline in the number of daily deaths.
  • The British Mercedes Formula1 team is working with scientists on the testing of a breathing aid - the CPAP - which could halve intensive care needs. This 'bridges the gap between an oxygen mask and full ventilation.'  
  • Sarah Hall, 26, is a secondary school teacher from London who suffers from both diabetes and a lung condition but has survived the virus.
Life in the Time of Something Like Cholera
  • María's Chronicle Day 16.
  • British ornithologist David Lindo  has been tweeting and live-streaming birds he spots from the roof of his building in Spain. "The sky is a great arena. Anything can fly past and, at the very least, it will give you peace. My message is simple: keep looking up." 
  • People always step up to the plate. My elder daughter has sent me this short video of what happens nightly in her street in Malasaña, Madrid:-
  • But is the best news yet, about my birthplace?:-
  • En passant . . . If you're a user of Tinder or the like, I'm told that it's best to select a member of one of the police forces as your next 'friend'. They can move around and visit you. That said, what would be the point if you have to stay 1 to 2 metres apart?
Germany
  • Remarkably, North European Germany produces more solar energy than Spain, Portugal, Italy and France combined.  IGIMSTS.
The USA
  • It's not all bad news . . . Joe Biden has surged to 9-point poll lead over President Trump.
  • Close your eyes and just listen to this brilliant rendition:-
  • This rather sums up today's USA. Which, sadly, will be an object of not just laughter but scorn in decades to come. As the author concludes: It's appalling that anyone, much less a president, would waste the nation’s time by allowing a pandemic briefing to turn into a church service. It’s even more disturbing how few people care. Then again, given all the ways this administration tramples over the Constitution, you can hardly blame the media for not sufficiently covering them all.
Spanish
  • Word of the day:-To scorn: Despreciar. Doesn't seem quite strong enough, does it? 
English/Scouse?/Finally . . . .
  • A friend has sent me a video of a (late) comedian telling a (rather rude) joke, in which the word keks occurs. I hadn't heard this since I was in grammar school in said Birkenhead, a few decades ago. I was interested to see the meaning - trousers - and origins here. But was disappointed to find nothing on gruns, or underpants. Anyone?

*A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

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