Schaamhaarafbrandapparaat, sez Gerrit, and he knows more about words than me.

This Bob Marley story just wouldn’t work in Spain. Most people here don’t know he’s dead yet.

That’s how Barça fans greeted Chelsea boss Mourinho at the airport. Mourinho, of course, worked as press conference reverse mumbo jumbler and general gofer for Bobby Robson during the latter’s all-too-brief spell in charge of our likely lads. Tina Vallès–a real, professional translator–has the clipping.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Guantánamo is better than Belgian jails, but it’s generally easier to get people out of the latter, given the right financial incentives. I used to dream of going to prison in Holland, but I hear standards have declined.

Miguel Moliné Escalona’s got together a good collection of links re the new Catalan statute of autonomy. I guess the chosen people feel different about these things, but attempting to follow its grotesque and incoherent peregrinations makes me vaguely ashamed to be human. If I get time I’ll translate the preamble (“ramble” would have been [...]

For years RTVE, the state broadcaster, has functioned as a 24*7 cash dispenser for artistically inclined friends and relatives of the ruling class (check eg Fernando González Urbaneja). Now the government has promised to reduce its debt, currently running at around 185€ per head of population, and there’s a lot of bitching about the cuts, [...]