all the rage

I haven’t been following the X-factor/Rage Against the Machine story, but it’s one of those things that filter through even if you aren’t the least bit interested in it, and the headlines this morning make it unmissable.

Even so, the only real interest I have in the story is that it’s triggered a memory of being asked by a Swedish friend’s son, back in the early Nineties, what Rage Against the Machine meant.

word power

They say that in Valladolid they speak the purest Spanish. And apparently it’s powerful as well as pure.

From the Castilla y León pages of El Mundo, the headline: “Una pareja de sexagenarios desarma a un atracador en su portal sólo con palabras”.

The story begins:

El poder de la palabra es inmenso, pero no sólo en sentido figurado. Solamente con ese arma, una pareja sexagenaria logró desarmar al atracador que trató de robarles cuando entraban en el portal de su vivienda en [...] Valladolid.

broken bridges

One of the things inherent in Spanish culture is the idea of fiestas. Yesterday, December 6th, was el Día de la Constitución, and tomorrow is La Inmaculada Concepción. Both are usually bank holidays, and, depending how they fall, there is often a ‘puente’ linking the two.

I’d expected today to be declared a national holiday to compensate for the fact that the Day of the Constitution fell on a Sunday. No such luck.

It occurs to me that the refusal to link la Constitución with la Inmaculada could be an affirmation of the separation of church and state. And I think we should be having a bank holiday to celebrate that.

Westminster sunset

Sneak view from the rear

As a follow up to the pictures of pigs post, another story from the BBC:

BBC News photographer Jeff Overs was stopped and questioned for taking photographs in Westminster.

(I took the photo to the right on a trip to London earlier this year. Nobody tried to stop me, although, with hindsight, my choice of perspective of the monument seems far more suspect than the usual tourist might choose.)

“back to common sense”

From the BBC news website yesterday:

Every school pupil in England is to be taught that domestic violence against women and girls is unacceptable, as part of a new government strategy.

Which is all very well – and I’m glad they got that comma right – but what about domestic violence against men and boys? And what about violence in general?