Spanish views from a small town

It had to happen. Eventually, there was no way out. The good things is, we're in Spain. People might hem and haw for a bit, but the stone bridge will remain as it is. Which is good, because it's a monument. I suppose up till now no one had decided to deface it with railings because it is quite wide and old, probably from the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It used to be the route along which the carriage went from the manor house to the church, some streets away. It's about as wide as a one-way street, and it's now pedestrian. No one has to step to the side to let a carriage go by these days. What they should put up all around it, though, are signs at phone level to warn pedestrians.  Those signs should be low down on the ground, really. Or at the right height and distance that anyone looking down at their phone will catch the sign out of the corner of their eye. Otherwise they won't work. Then again, if the person is so wrapped up in his phone, the same thing wil...

Ah, the Spanish picaresque! It didn't die in the Spanish Golden Age; it's alive and doing very well. Lazarillo de Tormes, if he had existed, would have been proud of his compatriots. Those who have iPhones know how expensive they can be. Three young men in Zafra, Badajoz, also realized that problem. So they designed a phone, called Zetta, completely assembled in Zafra, that was just as good as the iPhone, but much cheaper. In the end, they developed four models, the most expensive cost €275.95 and the cheapest €169.95. Their logo, as a way of saying they were the Spanish iPhone, was a bitten acorn, just like the acorns pigs in Extremadura eat to then create the tasty cured hams. That was in 2014. Since then, they have sold hundreds of phones, a few online, many at their flagship store in Zafra, and other stores. They even met with the regional president of Extremadura last year, who promised them seven hundred thousand euros to help with research and development.  Until las...