EXCERPT FROM SARA’S JOURNALMay 29, 1999
Calle Conde de Barajas, Seville
Ask Mosey
Here we thought we could answer some questions. One would think
such a thing after living in a place for a little while. What’s the weather like? (An
oven.) Where’s the closest beach? (Huelva.) Can you recommend a romantic hideaway in
Andalusia? (Most definitely.)
Instead, Ask Mosey has solicited the champion round of The Most
Complex Spanish Mysteries of All Time. Some examples:
Where can I get an authentic matador’s costume? The matador
must first be gored to death – and by then the traje de luces, or "suit
of lights" is undeniably soaked with blood. It’s then left that way, encased in
glass, and featured in the local bullfighting museum. The bereaved establishment
don’t often like to part with the courageous symbol, and it would seem the Spaniards
in general wouldn’t even consider outfitting themselves in the gold thread and
mirrored costume. Each is handmade by a private craftsman and costs upwards of a million
pesetas.
Am I related to Charles Pickman? The British Industrialist
Charles Pickman came to Seville in 1841 and built a ceramics factory on the site of the
Monasterio de Santa Maria de las Cuevas. His famous Pickman y Cia ceramics are collected
all over the world. The task of finding Pickman’s genealogy is harder than it may at
first appear. The factory closed down in 1980 and was restored for an exhibit at Expo 92.
The new Pickman plant, outside of town, offers tours and explanations of technique and
design, but not a lot on Charles’ family tree.
How many Jamons are in Spain, and how long can one last? A jamon
(pronounced "hamon") is the cured leg of a pig, complete with hoof and hanging
by a piece of string above bars all over Spain. It is the Spanish caviar. It is God’s
candy – sliced excruciatingly thin and eaten in nibbles, preferably while standing
and talking. This is the stuff in Columbus’ stomach when he landed in America. Prices
now reach 10,000 pesetas per leg ($100) if it is the leg of the wild, chestnut-grazed and
therefore low cholesterol pata negra, or Black Foot – the very best in Spain.
An average Sevillano family consumes one whole leg per week, four per month, fifty-two per
year, and this doesn’t count holidays like Semana Santa and Christmas. There are at
least fifty jamons hanging above any given bar in Seville at any given time. The number of
bars in Spain is astronomical, but still comes nowhere near the number of pubs in Ireland.
Can I find erotic illustrated stories on Mosey? See Bathbucket
Blues at: http://www.saraphina.com/moseyfrwest/112298/112298bath_bucket_blues.htm
How much wax is spilled on the streets of Seville during Semana
Santa? There are sixty brotherhoods in Seville who take part in the holy processions
of Semana Santa. Each brotherhood stages two processions averaging 800 nazarenos per
procession. Each nazareno carries one large candle for an average of 8 hours. The candle,
four centimetres in diametre, burns eight centimetres in length, melting roughly 300 ml of
wax over the course of the procession, dripping over 300 kilometres of cobblestone. Two
processions per brotherhood, make 120 processions of 800 nazarenos dripping 300ml of wax
each. By our calculations, approximately 288 litres of wax are dribbled onto the streets,
less the 200 odd children collecting wax into balls along the procession route. For weeks
after Semana Santa, the streets of Seville squeak with the layers of wax on the
cobblestone, until they are scrubbed away by the street cleaners or coated over with oils
and dirt.
Stay tuned for How Does One Become the King of Spain?
