Quasi-current Affairs
-
Happy Halloween!
You can revisit my previous Halloween post with renewed illustrations: Continue reading
-
English as He/She/It/They is Spoke
11 minutes’ read I was a devoted student in the early days of my English language learning adventure. So much so that, as a teen, I managed to gather a few like-minded colleagues and we embarked on a frenzy of extra-activity translations. We translated words and expressions directly, searching in musty dictionaries and demanding attention Continue reading
-
The Antimatter Wedding Anniversary
In reality, it’s called the Golden Anniversary, and I can’t imagine why. Half a century together deserves to be likened, if at all, to a substance more valuable than gold or merely golden. But do bring out gold coloured tat: balloon arches, ribbons and giant bows, dainty plastic forks and spoons, sparkly cakes, streamers, sequin Continue reading
American Gothic, Antimatter, Antimatter Anniversary, Can Can, CERN, Durian, Elon, Golden Wedding Anniversary, Granite Anniversary, Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Longest Marriage, Matter, Northeast Brazil, Oak Anniversary, Pearl Anniversary, Porcelain Anniversary, Ruby Anniversary, Shortest Marriage, The Kiss, Tin Anniversary, Upstate New York, Wedding Anniversary, Zermatt -
The Golden Phallus of Football: A Tale of Trophies, Triumphs, and Turmoil
He was full-blown on the telly: gloriously orange face and splendid platinum blonde hair that lent him a smidgen of gravitas for a fraction of a second. The Thingy (henceforth TT) sat at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, facing the camera that he so adores. I did a double take while TT spewed Continue reading
Brazil Football Champion, Canada, Chinese Football, Estadio Centenário, Fake World Cup Trophy, FIFA, FIFA Founding, FIFA World Cup, Football, Golden Phallus, Jules Rimet, Jules Rimet Trophy, Maracanã Stadium, Meso-America Football, Mexico, O Sole Mio, Pickles, Replica World Cup Trophy, Stolen World Cup, The World Cup, Three Tenors, USA, Winners of the World Cup, World Cup 1930, World Cup 2026, World Cup Audience -
Revealing the Bottom Line: from Bonbon to Bumbum and Beyond
Warning: This rant has graphic descriptions of surgical procedures. My flight from Leeds-Bradford to Faro in Tinned Sardine Class was noisy, and the unruly child kicked the back of my seat frequently, but the goods trolley glided by offering all types of unnecessary things to alleviate flight rage. I overheard one flight attendant saying to Continue reading
-
A Road By Any Other Name
There must be a Rose Street somewhere in the map… Source I arrived home after a week’s sojourn in Geneva and noticed that someone had defaced the wall area above the post box of my apartment building. Someone, apparently not very cognizant with graffiti, the high art of writing, drawing and painting on walls, had Continue reading
-
The Prince’s Tax
One day in 1847, when Pedro II was 22 years old and apparently bored with his Oh, so tedious life as an emperor, he decided to play a type of Monopoly with the vast lands he had inherited from his father. Well, no, the lands were not inherited directly. His father, Pedro I, had abandoned Continue reading
-
Pedro II, the Magnanimous
You may remember D. Pedro I, the fickle-hearted emperor. Now we have D. Pedro II, who was Pedro I’s only surviving male son born in wedlock, who became the second emperor of Brazil. They say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but how did Pedro II fare? Pedro II, whose mother died Continue reading
-
The Emperor’s Fickle Heart
When Dom Pedro I, the first emperor of Brazil and later King Pedro IV of Portugal, died in 1834 at Queluz, Portugal, he left a will ordering the transportation of his body to Brazil, and his heart to Porto. Could such an exalted man have made his feelings clearer? He loved Portugal beyond life itself Continue reading
Regina's Rants 