Ulysses: “I suppose the people gave him that nickname going about with his tube from one woman to another.” Junius Henri Browne wrote in 1873 that he “gained a much worse reputation [in the US] for licentious stories than he deserved, from the spurious and prurient rubbish that used to be put off on the [...]

I’m curious as to the relationship–if any–between Manuel Girona i Agrafel, who has a street on one side of Avinguda de Pedralbes, and “Jordi Girona”, whose street on the other side of Av de P takes up more or less where Manuel Girona leaves off. Also as to how Jorge Girona Salgado, or, as the [...]

When Europa played over at Sant Andreu in November, the local Four Bar Squad, which has record, unveiled a banner showing another local saint, St Martin, in wolf costume slaughtering a pig dressed as one of Europa’s following (they believe they’re tigers, not pigs, but whatever):

Sant Andreu duly murdered Europa 3-0. The return is this [...]

I was having a chat about stuff with Pete Doherty this morning, and he tells me that because of the common genetic ancestry of most of the races of the Milky Way galaxy, many species are able to interbreed with or without the help of genetic technology. In fact dogs and doves are quite similar, [...]

The monument is a quality marble tomb round about where the sea gate was, on which Habsburg general Josep Moragues’ head hung in a cage for 12 years from 1715-1727, his body having previously been quartered on the Ramblas. This for surrendering on a Bourbon pardon at the end of the War of the Spanish [...]

Apparently my disco-dancing lies somewhere between that of Zakyfreshkiller of Casablanca (?):

… and that of Manny of Grimethorpe:

I’d tended to think of myself as Maikelyakson, but you certainly can’t win them all.

Brief for Barcelona council
Eduardo Chillida sold us a “sculpture” called In praise of water/Elogi de l’aigua/Elogio del agua. In fact it is clearly nothing of the kind. It is a poorly-built orange-peel hydraulic grab, of the type used in quarrying. That explains why he had it put in the old quarry at Creueta del Coll. [...]

L’Independent, a government-financed, ovine local rag, which has turned off its WP feeds and whose Feedburner URL is http://feeds.feedburner.com/tu_codigo_feedburner. Sigh…

Just before he died, says Cecil Parrott in The bad Bohemian, the author of The good soldier Švejk (that’s Shvake: “No one pronounces it Shvike–not even in Germany”) drafted a letter to the district police:
I, the undersigned, ask respectfully to be kindly given the necessary passport for a stay in Spain (Barcelona, Calle Rosellos [sic: [...]

German sausages commonly arouse Spanish bar owners to orthographical orgasm, but this is perhaps the most beautiful, and at first sight most puzzling spelling of Frankfurt in the peninsula:

No time to inquire her ancestry of the lady at this magnificent tapas bar in the Creueta del Coll park, Barcelona, but one suspects the Dread Hand [...]

They don’t screw around with it like the brand marketeers do. Fact #6 from a good post by Ryan Opaz helps us understand why a sizeable proportion of new Spanish wine is toxic piss: “Oak aged wines that come in under 10euros/dollars/pounds are 9.9 times out of ten flavored with chips/oak slats/oak tea bags. ‘Aged [...]

Expedición de Catalanes y Aragoneses al Oriente:
Fué batalla muy terrible y sangrienta, y duró mas el alcance y el matar, que el vencimiento; porque en siendo muerto el Duque, y empantanadas las primeras tropas de la caballería, hubo gran desorden en lo restante del exército enemigo, con que fué facil el rompelle. Ganada tan señalada [...]

Provided by the Junta de Andalucía in collaboration with Vodafone. Don’t forget your glasses, and enjoy the raffle, presumably to be held in the rest break between the Introduction and the Practice sections:

The English Wikipedia says that the history of Andalusia ended with the Muslims, which seems like fair comment. The Spanish version says that [...]

I ask because the chattels of the gentlemen right fore in this early nineteenth century image of the Palace of Barcelona clearly include a front-loading automatic:

(Full image on single-post page.)
Blasco de Garay, eat your heart out.

An ex-English teacher says:
One thing I tried to discourage the students from doing, as it happens, was pursue their interest in learning colloquial English phrases. They all wanted to do so: they thought it would show how much they knew real English, English as it is spoken and therefore English as they wished to speak [...]

Valencia, late C19:
Batiste no dudó que aquellas gentes se vengarían. Conocía los procedimientos usuales en la huerta. Para aquella tierra no se había hecho la justicia de la ciudad; el presidio era poca cosa tratándose de satisfacer un resentimiento. ¿Para qué necesitaba un hombre jueces ni Guardia civil, teniendo buen ojo y una escopeta en [...]

–Uncle, I’ve decided to get baptised and celebrate my first communion next week. Will you be there?
–Only if you buy yourself a buttplug.
I’m not that easily shocked, but etc etc

Antonio Gascón Ricao:
Es de sobras conocido que una de las habilidades más comunes de las brujas consiste en clavar agujas o cortar con unas tijeras un corazón, el hígado o los riñones de un animal, y así, el daño causado en dichos órganos animales se puede reproducir de igual forma en la persona a la [...]

For rural tourism + magical & mysterious garden project in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Babia, summer home of the kings of León. Brief brainstorm: The León King, Clanging gardens of Babia (garden features mobiles with bottles/bits of metal), The banging gardens of Babia (but erotic gardens are so C20th), Flower of Babel, er… Spanish [...]

Man trapped inside elevator at Fontana metro: