Day 2: The Phone Company Behind the Curtain
BARCELONA, Spain -- Last night I took a walk around the Gothic Quarter where I'm staying, and headed over to the Cathedral, which is illuminated at night. I was dismayed to discover that not only was the Cathedral not illuminated last night, but it's covered in scaffolding and undergoing major renovations. That's fine: I'm sure it needed it, and I can live with some scaffolding. But, no, instead we're forced to look at huge drawings of what the Cathedral would have looked like, had the scaffolding not been there. And an annoying advertisement for Telefónica, Spain's national phone company, superimposed over the drawings. And their three-language plea to "buy a stone," and support the renovations. Whatever happened to the collection basket?Tomorrow, the iPhone hits Spain, and Telefónica, magnanimously, will be giving away iPhones in exchange for a two-year contract, monthly usage quotas, and new customer's male heir. Spain's general lag in technology is nothing new, as my attempts to get a wireless internet connection to work in the country's most forward-looking city has proven, so I'm curious how this iPhone thing will pan out. Last time I checked, Macs were as scarce as Jews around here, but maybe things have changed.
Then again, judging by Telefónica's self-serving advertisement on Barcelona's second-most famous Cathedral, maybe they haven't.
Labels: Spain
posted by SJB at 5:18 PM
6 Comments:
Jews wouldn't be so scarce if the Spaniards didn't insist on putting ham in, around and on top of everything. But I guess that's the point. Vis-a-vis my trip to Spain last year, thank goodness I don't even vaguely keep kosher.
I think the scarcity of Jews has something to do with their unceremonious expulsion in 1492, but the ham thing probably doesn't help.
That could be true, although it's not something I've heard. I'd imagine, though, that it would have been more of a scenario of telling on your neighbors if they don't have a leg of ham hanging from the window because they might be secretly non-converted Jews or Muslims.
Exactly -- if ham is the predominant protein, it becomes instantly suspicious if you're not eating it, hanging it from your window, discussing the finer points of its flavoring, etc. Actually rather brilliant, really. If there's any historic truth to it.
How often do I get to share these lyrics?
Oh goodness, now my mind is reeling with comparisons of Jews and computers:
*Ah yes, but all of the Jews in Barcelona are using Macs
*I hear the same thing about PCs in Tel Aviv
*Is the iHam another attempt to eject Jews (and Moors) from Spain?
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