Elegant tribute to Joan Maragall and Clara Noble at the Petit Palau de la Música on the premiere of project Living Wordby Fernando Trias de BesOrganized by Sing Us and the ARA, the event was described as "a celebration of words" and "a beautiful and magical possibility," as Pere Agustí Maragall, the poet's great-grandson, remarked just before the recital. For nearly an hour and a half, a marital dialogue unfolded, imbued with sensitivity, humor, and tenderness, between the apocryphal diary of the woman, written by Trias de Bes, and some fifteen poems; between the thoughts of the woman, Clara Noble, recited by the actress Sílvia Bel, and the verses of the husband, Joan Maragall, sung by the tenor Roger Padullés, who participated in [the event] a few weeks ago. the opera Tristan and Isolde Wagner at the LyceumAnd accompanying Bel and Padullés was the pianist Miquel Esquinas.

Being reborn after an accident: it sounds like a cliché, but we can't forget that clichés are often deeply ingrained truths. Or, at least, rhetorical fossils with a kernel of truth at their core. Just ask economist and writer Fernando Trias de Bes, who about a year and a half ago suffered a serious car accident that could have killed him, but from which he emerged reborn and creatively liberated.

A year and a half ago I was in a serious car accident in which I almost lost my life. It was nighttime. I was driving towards Seville. A girl sped towards me on a two-lane road. I was hit several times and ended up off the road, crashed into a wall.

This week, I heard an analyst explain that food inflation has been higher than it seems. The official figure, according to the INE (National Institute of Statistics and Census), was 2.4%. But if we eliminate the effect of olive oil—which has dropped more than 40% in the last year—the shopping basket would actually have increased by more than 4.5%. This is no small fact.

Sometimes I commission something from a professional, and when it comes time to discuss the price, they say, lowering their voices a little, almost blushing, "I just don't like to talk about money." I've heard this several times, especially in the artistic or cultural sphere. And it surprises me. Because they say it as if talking about money were in bad taste. As if we were betraying some invisible code of dignity or professional purity.

This week, Pete Hegseth, the current US Secretary of Defense, gathered hundreds of generals and admirals in Quantico. Most didn't know why they were there. He did. He told them they would no longer be called the Department of Defense. From now on, they would be called the War Department. "Nations are forged by waging war, not by avoiding war," he stated. "Strength commands respect. Peace does not."

Lately, I've seen several close cases of people trapped in a spiral of debt due to credit cards or quick consumer loans. It's something that happens little by little. One day you buy a cell phone. Another, you finance an appliance. Then comes the trip that seemed harmless.