Yes, I know that modern Aragonese ultra-nationalists aren’t quite the same as old German ultra-nationalists, but that c/z swap does look rather unfortunate, doesn’t it.

At stake in this terrible new conflict is nothing less than the question of whether the name of the place where the oranges come from is to be spelt Valéncia or València in standard Valencian, the former being the variant proposed by Àngel (that accent worries me) Calpe and other speakers of standard Valencian, while [...]

The action sometimes turned a shade Bulgarian during the Granada Wars–at least that’s what one infers from Diego Hurtado de Mendoza in this extract from Guerra de Granada (paras introduced for legibility):
Wounded by two poisoned arrows, Don Alonso [de Aguilar] fought until he fell, disabled by the poison used among hunters since ancient times. As [...]

Solbes is going to fund his promised tax cuts (keeps the centre happy) by whacking up duties on alcohol and tobacco (fodder for the bulgy-eyed health fundamentalists), so what better way to stop him than by supporting a liberal constitutionalist called Bouza, and the hell with pronunciation and coherence.

The new version appears to have been introduced without any serious testing or any credible bug reporting system having been devised–check the chaos over at Something in Writely is broekn. My particular problem is that using IE6 on Win XP it is no longer possible to paste into docs without the browser crashing, which makes [...]

Urquhart, The Pillars of Hercules, Or, A Narrative of Travels in Spain and Morocco in 1848: “I observed, on a placard, the two following signs of progress and civilization, in titles of new works: ‘The defender of the fair sex,’ and ‘The Ass, a beastly periodical.’ The words were ‘Il Burro, periodico bestial.” Re the [...]

I didn’t know you could charter bits of Morocco (via Felix@Morocco Time), but then, unlike Isabel Choat, I’m not on a Grauniad account More on Moroccan vices and prices from Cat in Rabat, who ain’t got a cook neither.

Spot is a dog. (Dear agent, I also do other barnyard animals, as well as goldfinches, linnets and horny pussycats.)

I rather like NATO’s new designs for the Zaragoza expo. More likely to put it on the map than take it off it, if you ask me.

Don’t try singing ¡Adelante los de Cuenca! at home or anywhere else, even if you can find the lyrics.
Troubled companies hold their Christmas parties in May and small villages hold their St John parties on June 24. This cuts the band budget and indicates a broadness of spirit rather than any critique of religion or [...]

This is one reason why large numbers of Romanian shepherds, shearers and others are ending up in Spain. There’s an interesting collection of info here (beware stupid music and cursor) dealing with the history and organisation of transhumance in Spain. While the sheepway infrastructure still exists in the Balkans, lorry transport, improved roads and the [...]

I omitted one feasible fraudulent etymology from the Viadós post because the etymon in question is little known and less read, even in his own country, whichever that was. Here he is anyway, in another anecdote from Cela’s late but frequently excellent A bote pronto:
Some 65 years ago, more or less, possibly more, when I [...]

In the spelling carnival that is the only creative feature of Iberian nationalisms, the proponents of the creation of yet more language madhhab generally favour the etymological principle over the phonemic heresy, but those of the former faith are often bitterly divided over its application.
For instance, it is crystal clear to all but Adolf [...]

Does David de Ugarte know nothing about the users and makers of the online world, or is he simply comfortable selling racial stereotypes and cheap lies to idiots in the grand tradition of anti-Americanism? But for the words “Anglo-Saxon” and “protestant”, one might think David was engaging in self-criticism here: “The majority of blogging tools [...]

The crazy European regulation making it illegal to leave carcasses in the high mountains has led to reports of starving vultures attacking and killing large live stock in several parts of Spain. Now one of Nick’s wolfmen has sent news of several hundred griffon vultures from the Pyrenees having sought alimentary asylum in Holland, in [...]

This video shows her when she knows she’s being watched:

Move your monitor back and lie on your desk with your face touching the screen and your feet left to view the next fragment. It shows her still getting used to the Bulgarian military hip camera used in its capture:

Nothing much there, but check this:

“Ah! behaviourism!” [...]

I’m different, says the former:

The death of the latter:

I’m different, says the former:

The death of the latter:

How camp! Did I mention that lunch in Bar Manolete in Mogón is excellent?

Genetic data doesn’t actually suggest that the Turks brought it with them and then rebranded themselves as Etruscans in order to sell into European markets.

This application of MIT Simile’s marvellous Timeline widgety thing is based around WordPress and RSS, but with small tweaks should be applicable to Movable Type, Atom and so on.
You may prefer to use a fine hosted service like MyTimelines if you don’t have the time to do this and if you’re prepared to accept [...]

Máximo Puente (I don’t think that’s a pseudonym–think “ain’t no mountain high enough”) also swims in it every day, says Mariano Gistaín.

The sheep and goats above have just arrived back in Plan from low pastures to spend the summer in the mountains, rather like schoolchildren coming back from a language exchange. Joaquín Costa’s Colectivismo agrario en España (1898), available in full on Corde, contains a number of accounts of communal herding arrangements in the Pyrenees:
The town [...]

Thanks to MM (with a little help from BB) for news of the English musician who used to play bugle calls on his rifle using a mouthpiece inserted into the barrel. The photograph recalls the following Spanish joke:
Two hippies from Gracia are shrooming in the woods when they find a shotgun.
“Hey man, get that,” says [...]

Disturbing developments in Lebanese pâtisserie: “This country is like a cake. On the top it is cream. Underneath it is fire.” Reminds me of the sofa-bed encountered last night in Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Greguerías, with dreams below and conversation on top. For some reason this is more popular in Portuguese (“os sonhos ficam [...]

Someone must be able to do better than this.

This is the anjova (Pomatomus saltatrix) caught off Galicia. According to Europa Press, fisherman Pablo Oliver got in touch with the Spanish National Research Council/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and the Institute of Oceanography/Instituto Oceanográfico to tell them of his discovery and to enquire as to why this fish was in waters outside its known [...]

Quiet mountain road, chilly evening. The Guardia Civil do an ID and vehicle document check and then ask us to get out. GC1 takes a couple of paces back, while
GC2: OK, we’re going to do a thorough check of you and the car for estupi … estupe … estupefacientes.
M, also happier with common parlance: Estupi [...]

Spanish wine producers have caught the marketing bug, which usually goes hand in hand with pouring loads of oak chips into the barrel to make you so ill that you don’t notice that the product is basically mediocre. This particular new bodega investment is wasted on me since I can’t remember whose it is, [...]

Cool post over at Aentwaereps about the Antwerp singer, Willy van de Velde, who grew up above the Bernad family’s “Spanish shop”, took guitar lessons from Ilse Alfonso, and called himself El niño de San Andrés because it sounded cooler than something like That geezer from St Andrew’s. As Godzjumenas observes, there’s no direct trace [...]

“En Santander. El pez y el reloj” in Los pueblos, ducking out of eternity and the meaning of life, Azorín is fetishising feet at the Cantabrian beach resort:
Little feet, arched and clad in elegant new shoes, are one of the most attractive features of a woman. I contemplate them all with the discretion with which [...]

Re “EL PALACIO DE CONGRESAOS DE BOLTAÑA”:
congresado, da.
(Del part. de congresar).

1. m. y f.coloq. Persona que se deja mandar a congresos.

It’s still rare, but here’s an example:
el candidato emite su mensaje a unos congresados pasivos, pero no se convierte, a la vez, en receptor del sentir y el parecer [...]

Disneylona Council’s planning committee recently missed yet another opportunity to prevent the mallification of downtown, when the 1920s neo-classical gem Cine París was knocked down this spring to make way for yet another facking Zara. Progressive Barcelona is so quick in demolishing the old and the odd–while moaning about the insignificant damage wrought by [...]

I’ve always wondered where Spanish judges, particularly local ones, find justification for their habit of ignoring judicial precedent and ruling whatever the hell they feel like. Having read Azorín’s Los pueblos (1904) yesterday evening, I think I’m getting closer.
It contains the story of Don Alonso, a rural judge in Ciudad Real, who is presented [...]

Should be more interesting now. Whereas previously it included a small fixed list of blogs, now it takes items I fancied from a much wider range.

I’d have thought this story establishes for once and for all that chickens discovered America, but I guess there’s still a whole load of work to do.

If you’ve left the stable door open then lunchtime is not a particularly good time for a free wash and brush-up in a bar. This can happen to the best of persons, but most of the gents one meets, struggling in cashpoints or on streets in Barcelona, netherwear clutched carefully at knee-height, are smackheads. [...]

One of the 2004 Stalinist busts of Catalan separatist Carod-Rovira has resurfaced, accompanied of course by imperial map and flag.

Deep breath: tangos, milongas, guajiras, rumbas, vidalitas, colombianas, cantiñas, bamberas, bandolás, cabales, campanilleros, canasteras, cartageneras, fandangos, garrotín, jabegotes, levanticas, marianas, mirabrás, murcianas, nanas, romances, romeras, saetas, tonás, tarantos, villancicos, zambras and zapateados. Check out Luis Carlos Díaz Salgado’s excellent rant over at A&C.

“Once upon a time, your host applied to a graduate school and requested that he be considered for a position teaching Spanish as part of the aid package. He then discovered that they had a particularly effective strategy for figuring out just how good his Spanish really was: one morning, he received a call which [...]

The Mother of God of Montserrat can come to Barcelona’s Hogar Extremeño on Wednesdays to watch the footie but she can’t bring Anubis. Whatsisname’s young Dominican is still banned.

“Most Catalan dishes are, of course, regional variations of Spanish cuisine, with an emphasis on Catalan versions of typical Spanish produce, plus a few local specialities and occasional foreign influences.” Reading him eat is just as entertaining as watching, and rather less perilous.