Some historical advice from an Irish perspective for Esperanza Aguirre on the pitfalls of attempting to demonstrate by symbolic means the virile and libertarian spirit of Madrid in the invented and regrettable conflict between it and doldrummed Barcelona.

Peter Mandelson on how fortunate we are that the European Commission is unelected, remote, unaccountable, and a major bureaucracy.

A fragment from Italo Calvino’s quasi-17th century folk romance, Il visconte dimezzato/The cloven viscount, uses storks as a portent of battle. Several unconnected 2nd century Greek accounts might appear to do the same, perhaps particularly if one’s a lazy sod and doesn’t read anything but scraps of stuff on Google Books.

The artist speaks.

A Portuguese menagerie of sozzledness.

Influence of fat content on palatability of roast beef.

Nearsightedness is increasing, and there aren’t many other reasonable explanations.

“Discontented devil of a blackamoor, why canst thou not be satisfied to live here?” “Avast there; all our gold and diamonds can’t procure us here the bright sunshine and joyous people, nor the rich fruits and wine, of my native clime.”

Escolar is “a nasty fish with buttery flesh that can cause bizarre episodes of diarrhea, accompanied by a waxy intestinal discharge.” But that has nothing to do with Spanish bloggers.

–Hello.
–Hello, is that the Department of Tourism? Yes? Hello, a week ago I sent you an email asking if this Friday you could let me and a group in to see the crypt of blah blah blah, and I was wondering whether this would still be possible.
–Oh yes, I read the email.
–So?
–Yes, that should be [...]

A not particularly serious assault on Prosper Mérimée.

Is Mr Barbecue Bunny’s sardonic grin pre- or post-mortem?

There’s an oddly proportioned hare in one of this autumn’s auctions in Barcelona.

It does have its advantages. Ants are not one of them.

Yet more Spanish culture for Brussels to ban.

Restif de la Bretonne goes one step beyond Shakespeare and says that poetry is the language of Gods and beasts, and that reason speaks in prose.

Can someone work out from this steaming pool of verbal diarrhea if they’re loading the donkey down with GPS recorders etc and then letting it go wherever it wants? Now that would be really interesting. Er, not, actually. [Whatever happened to Deirdre (?) and the donkey and cart with which she made her way from [...]

Tracing that hot doggie.

Or perhaps it isn’t.

Will my favourite herpetoid be safe from the war on the narco wild life?