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Thursday, February 06, 2003 As you might imagine, the Iraq thing is a major deal here in Madrid – in part because it's of regional import, Spain being a Mediterranean country; in part because the head of the current center-right government has been pushing ahead in sync with the White House, in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Spanish population appears to be squarely against any such stance. (I base that statement on what I've seen of polls reported by the major local TV and radio outlets, along with the two major daily newspapers -- El País on the left side of the political spectrum, El Mundo to the center-right. According to them, anywhere from 70-75% of the population opposes an invasion of Iraq under any circumstances.) The last several days have seen a growing outcry against the threatened war, and yesterday morning the third-floor residents of a nearby building -- one that faces this building across the soon-to-be-ex-vacant lot out front, just across the narrow street -- hung a large white bedsheet from one of their clotheslines which bore the legend NO a la GUERRA -- a slogan that's become more and more visible here over the last week. As the morning progressed, the wind began wrapping the bedsheet sloppily around the clotheslines, slowly distorting the message. By midday, the sheet had blown around the lines enough times that nothing remained of the sign but the word GUERRA It remained like throughout the afternoon. Sometime during the evening hours, the residents cottoned to what had become of their message and freed up the sheet so that NO a la GUERRA waved once again, clearly visible to everyone passing through this part of the neighborhood. This morning the residents hung laundry to dry on the other clotheslines, giving the anti-war message a folksy, down-home feel. And that's how it's remained all day – colorful clothes and anti-war statement, all waving gently in the mild Madrid air. ******************** On a different theme altogether, the following is from an e-mail sent by a loved one back in the States about a seriously atypical drive to a movie theater that took place yesterday: I like to get to a film a few minutes before it starts because I like to see the previews. But H. does not. We were taking two cars over to the theater... as he had driven over [earlier] and the theater is not far from his house. And so, I'm ready to go and H. is not. So we're kind of hanging around the backyard... literally killing time. Then we go. I'm in front of him and we pull up to the intersection down there by the car lots behind the school. We're waiting for the light to change and I'm fiddling with the radio dial. I look up and see this pick-up truck with a trailer attached doing sort of a mini-jack- knife, sliding sideways toward my car (I'm the first one in line at the intersection). A major collision had just happened, but all I see is this truck all over the place right in front of me and I'm kinda wondering at how close it is to my car (about 2 feet)... and will it keep going in the direction it needs to without hitting me. It was one of those slo-mo nothing to be done but wait situations. It comes to a halt on the sidewalk without hitting me. I look back and motion for H. to back up a bit. He hadn't seen what actually happened either. Turns out the truck had been t-boned by a car, the front end of which was demolished. H. got out and went up to the wreck. I sat in my car. A guy from one of the car lots is out there with a cell phone. After a couple minutes, H. gets back in his car and we drive around the wreck and on to the movie. When we got to the theater, Henry says the guy in the car admitted it was his fault, though I still am not sure what he did... ran the light I suppose. Turns out he was on his way to the airport where he was to catch a plane to Mexico in an hour. I doubt he made that plane. Interesting event, though. It didn't upset me at all. But I keep thinking about this timing thing... how we were just doing nothing so as not to get to the theater too early... and then voila... boom! Front row boom. rofl. rws 12:59 PM [+]
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