Irish music and life in northern Greece
Thessaloniki 26th November 2021 A headline in a newspaper the other day claimed: “Matters are getting out of hand”. A customer, denied access to a café because he did not have a Covid certificate, bit the proprietor on the cheek. The full story is here: https://www.iefimerida.gr/ellada/andras-naoysa-dagkose-idioktiti-kafe-magoylo Even more surreally (the apt word), a young actor... Continue Reading →
After the fuss surrounding the production of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, it has to be ντάνιασμα = stacking in an organised way. In the fuss surrounding the play, it has been translated as ‘segregation’. The root is ντάνα from the Italian tana. Βικιλεξικό makes it clear that it is a στοίβα (pile) από διάφορα πράγματα με τάξη το ένα πάνω στο άλλο. In... Continue Reading →
χριστοπαναγία or χριστοπαναγίες - Christopanayia or Christopanagies = cursing and swearing. Χριστοπαναγία is a composite of the Greek words for Christ (Χριστός) and the Virgin Mary (Παναγία). A common Greek curse is “Χριστός και Παναγία”, which reminds me of my Catholic mother’s frequent imprecation “Jesus, Mary and Joseph”. At home there was a distinction between... Continue Reading →
Monday 22 November 2021. A bad day for Covid. Nearly 7,300 cases, 608 intubated and 105 dead – the highest daily death toll since 3rd May when 135 died. In spite of these numbers, there are some facts which seem to be immutable. These include: slightly more men than women are infected, intubated or dead... Continue Reading →
ψεκασμένος – psekazmenos – literally “sprayed” from the verb ψεκάζω. By extension, a conspiracy theorist. A frequent sight during Greek summers is the yellow aircraft with red tips on their way to fight another forest fire. Inevitably, there are those who believe that more than fire retardants are being sprayed from the skies. Anything from... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 23/2021 Sunday 14th November. Our second session went very well. Encouragingly, at least four of the ten players were Greeks under 30 years old. I say that because it is pleasing to witness people with no connections to Ireland getting into the music. The second reason is... Continue Reading →
1st November 21: I feel as if I’m between a rock and a hard place or – to show off a little classical education – between Scylla and Charybdis, the Scylla of British infection insouciance and Charybdis of the looming Corona crisis in Greece. Yesterday witnessed the highest infection figures since the start of the... Continue Reading →
ντελιβεράς – deliveras – a delivery person A couple of weeks ago, a friend visited us quite late, so we ordered pizza. When the order arrived, the delivery ‘boy’ turned out to be a man in his fifties. More on this below. The Greek purists will be up in arms over yet another borrowing from... Continue Reading →
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