Silly Things!

Last night, flicking through the list of programmes available on TV (the modern version of what the Spanish call “zapping” lets you look at a list instead of actually having to channel-hop) we came across an episode of the ORIGINAL Startrek series. Oddly enough this was on the Horror channel but it didn’t seem to involve vampires or other such things. We decided to take a look and watched to the end, mainly because it was so silly. 

Captain Kirk, Mr Spock and Dr McCoy found themselves on a planet deep in conflict between two tribes: the Yangs and the Comms (pronounced “combs”). At the point where, inevitably although also despite going against their “prime directive” not to interfere in primitive societies, they had just about resolved the conflict, one of the Yangs started to spout a garbled version of the Declaration of Independence and then someone marched in with a tattered Stars and Stripes flag. No-one fell over in surprise and said, “Hey, you have the same flag as we do!” Instead they worked out that the Yangs, white men if ever you saw any, were “Yanks” who had reverted over time into savages and lived like American Indians. The “Comms”, a very Asiatic looking bunch, were the Communists who had come to rule this world, forcing the “Yangs” out into the wilderness. Was this supposed to be Earth in some distant or alternative future? Had the Starship Enterprise gone through a time warp? None of this was explained. Presumably we were supposed to feel a warm glow of pride that Captain Kirk had persuaded everyone that Freedom (a holy word for the Yangs) belonged to all, including the Comms. A splendid piece of nonsense! 

This just provided, of course, corroboration for what some friends and I had been saying earlier yesterday afternoon: there seems to be nothing but rubbish on the TV these days. It’s all full of game shows and cookery programmes. This came up because we saw something on a big news screen while waiting for the Italian class and none of us recognised the “celebrities” referred to. 

And this seems to be an international phenomenon. I was reading about a programme in Spain called “Deja Sitio para el Postre” – “Leave Room for Dessert” – a kind of competitive pudding-making programme. One of the presenters or possible competitors has been sent back to Pontevedra, his place of origin I suppose, mainly because he failed to follow the suggestion that he should shave off his beard. And there I was thinking that the Spanish were more tolerant of beards than the British. 

Another headline concerned the beleaguered Infanta Cristina. “¿Hará la Infanta Cristina el paseíllo?” – Will the Princess take the short walk? The walk in question is the distance from her home in Palma de Mallorca to the back door of the main judicial court in that city. Goodness, there I was thinking she had gone off with her children to live in Switzerland. It must be hard to be rich and famous. 

I moved away from celebrities to read some statistics: a “Panorama dos sete grandes concellos de Galicia”, a survey of sorts carried out by the Instituto Galego de Estatística”. This told me that 56.8% of the population of Galicia still lives in the place where they were born: hardly surprising given their fierce love of their home towns and the longing that Galician emigrants have to return. Ferrol is the city with the highest percentage of inhabitants born in the place (60.8) and Ourense the one with the lowest (46.4). Considering how many British people living in Galicia choose Ourense as their place of residence, I can’t say I’m surprised. 

Only 4% of the population of Galicia (2.78 million, 51.7% of whom are women) is foreign, or at least that as the case in 2012. Ferrol, with the highest number of residents born there, only has 3% of its population from other countries. No surprise there then. Ourense, with 5.3%, doesn’t win the prize for the highest percentage of foreigners. That goes to Vigo with 6%. I wonder what the percentage of UK passport holders is. 

Vigo has the biggest population of the 7 major cities of Galicia: 297,900. La Coruña comes next with 246,100. La Coruña, however, is more densely populated with 6,512 inhabitants per square kilometre as against 2,725 in Vigo. 

I think that’s enough silliness for one day! 

Except perhaps for the reappearance of a lost knife. This was not just any old knife. Well, it was old but the perfect one to use when chopping margarine into chunks ready to rub into flour when making pasty. Also the perfect one for difficult spreading tasks. Every kitchen has such a vital implement. Anyway, it went missing. Today I found it ... inside the kettle! Quite how and why it ended up there remains a mystery. But it’s a silliness in keeping with the day.