Four provocations with little grace

1. Adif and the train drivers who operate in Catalonia have thoroughly inspected all the tracks and identified the number of dangerous areas. They have reported that the sections of commuter rail lines that need repair are exactly 155. Not 154, not 156. 155. Does anyone think this number is a coincidence? Those of us who have been suspicious for some time now see it as a provocation every time this number is mentioned.

2. Didn't they want Mourinho? Three times as bad. Before the Benfica - Real Madrid match on the final day of the Champions League, Álvaro Arbeloa described the Portuguese coach as "one of the boysMourinho, for his part, said that of all the players he had managed in his career, Arbeloa was one of the people he appreciated most. Hours later, when Benfica defeated Real Madrid and when their goalkeeper, with the last shot of the game, scored the fourth goal that qualified them, Mourinho went off to celebrate, just barely. In his unrestrained celebration, no one remembered that he was Arbeloa's friend or that he had been the Real Madrid manager most favored by Florentino Pérez. Beach bar He only had four words:Mourinho is so good"Deep down, they're drawn to this manager who's currently struggling. They admire him, they love him, and he drives them crazy in equal measure. As fate would have it, the draw has pitted Real Madrid and Benfica against each other again in the round of 32, three consecutive matches against Mourinho Madrid."

3. Silvia Orriols has been able to explain the Aliança Catalana project to the business world. Until now, the country's economic elite had also socially isolated the far-right pro-independence movement. Emili Cuatrecasas, however, invited her to the Hotel Terraverda, within the Empordà Golf Club, which he has owned since 2017, so that 250 people could hear the arguments of the mayor of Ripoll. Now that polls place her as a possible third force in the Catalan Parliament, they wanted to know what she was getting. Little by little, it's surprising to see how the firewalls are being dismantled. Of course, there are people who, regardless of what they're going to say, know how to play all the cards. Let's remember that Cuatrecasas, right after the Catalan independence referendum, hired Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría as a partner at the firm. In 2019, she went from being Vice President of Rajoy's government, and from being subject to Article 155 of the Constitution, to sitting on the board of directors of one of Barcelona's highest-billing law firms. Incidentally, the Empordà Gulf is a golf course where, since the new ownership took over, the dress code requires players to tuck their polo shirts into their trousers. Clearly, they value order to the point of absurdity.

4. Weeks before going to the Liceu, to see a performance included in the ballet subscription, you received an email. They warned you that Balkan Erotic Epic It was a show with sensitive content, featuring full-body knots and explicit sex scenes. For this reason, minors weren't allowed in, and all attendees had to put their mobile phones inside a secure case with a magnetic closure. Only after three interminable hours of Marina Abramovic's choreography—which we probably could have done in an hour—did the Liceu staff unseal the little bag. No one filmed the festival of twitching penises and vaginas that seemed to invoke the gods. That said, not a single phone rang during the entire performance. Perhaps this measure should be implemented in theaters as well. And then, they should also put the entire collection of supposedly smart phones that people have on the hour, or when they need to take their pill, or when they're reminded that they haven't gotten up in too long, inside the same case.