language use & abuse – Page 15 – don't confuse the narrator

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.
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Comprehending compression

Definiciones del
Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española:

comprensión.
(De comprehensión).
1. f. Acción de comprender.

compresión.
(Del lat. compressĭo, -ōnis).
1. f. Acción y efecto de comprimir.

Y tú, ¿irías al taller ofrecido por esta gente?

less is more

I tend to avoid the big American food and coffee chains, and don’t think I’ve been in a Starbucks more than three times in my life. However, I was shopping in Bristol with my sister this summer and there came a moment when coffee became a high priority. Preferably coffee in a real cup. Oh, and a comfy seat. Coffee in a real cup, a comfy seat, and perhaps a piece of carrot cake.

And Starbucks seemed to meet the criteria.
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Olympics II

In keeping with my previous post, I am unaware whether the the Beijing Games have already finished or are just due to do so, although, despite news boycotts and a general head-in-the sand attitude, the information is filtering through that the end is nigh.

All along, the “Team GB” nomenclature has been irritating me and I have finally decided why. There’s more to it than the fact it just sounds silly.
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naming names

From Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest:

CECILY […] This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners. When I see a spade I call it a spade.

GWENDOLYN [Satirically.] I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different.

I wonder how different the average Spaniard’s social sphere is from that of the average angloparlante.
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