topical – Page 37 – don't confuse the narrator

water, water everywhere

I’m in Madrid for a few days for meetings etc., and am horrified to be reminded just how much chaos the rain causes in what is, after all, a first world capital city.

I’d already seen the first major rains of the season which I wrote about in Change in the Weather, but it doesn’t get any better.

This morning the newspapers are full of the news: 130 km of traffic jams, the emergency services inundated with calls, and a woman killed after being swept away by the floods in Coslada. Continue reading “water, water everywhere”

lies, damned lies…

…and a headline from today’s Público which makes the Spanish sound even more xenophobic than they really are:

seis de cada cuatro encuestados piden la expulsión de los sin papeles - 6 out of every 4 surveyed want illegal immigrants sent home — lies, damned lies and statistics

digital manipulation

From today’s print edition of the Spanish newspaper Público comes a short piece with the headline Veto a los anuncios de senos exagerados.

I can’t find it in the online version, but a very similar article is carried by the Libertad Digital website.

Both pieces report that the Asociación de Cirujanos Plásticos del Reino Unido have asked for a ban on adverts which show “fotografías de mujeres en bikini, en poses que parecen simular éxtasis, y con los senos manipulados digitalmente” because such ads raise unrealistic expectations in young women who face plastic surgery.

It’s the phrase “senos manipulados digitalmente” which bothers me. And a quick check with the RAE online dictionary confirms my concerns.
Continue reading “digital manipulation”

autumn, but the sky’s still blue…

cloud

alone
in the blue, a small cloud, broad
in the beam as a nursery aeroplane
crumbles
and fades
to leave
a wisp
of
vapour
.

lavender-scented worries

I’ll admit it: I’m terrified of the dentist. Not any particular dentist. All dentists. And of all dental procedures, including simple check ups. The only time I’ve had hysterics was in the dentist’s chair.

Trying to make the dental practice more appealing?

Looking back, I’d say it was worth it, as I now have some personal knowledge of hyperventilating, of the pins and needles effect in the limbs – or “tingling in the extremities”, as I think it’s called in the textbooks – and of the complete inability to stop sobbing long enough to explain that I was fully aware of how silly I was being.

Surely this sort of experience has to be beneficial for someone who wants to be able to write from different points of view?
Continue reading “lavender-scented worries”