Language Going Nowhere

The Brazilians have a lot to answer for in the corruption of the Portuguese language but, to their credit, the Portuguese generally do their best to resist.

The latest mess I have come across in this area appeared in a proposal from a marketing agency to apply their talent to redesigning our company stationery. Nothing unusual there, except that the word they use for stationery is estacionário. They have got to be kidding!

Admittedly, there is no single word in Portuguese to describe all the headed paper, envelopes, visiting cards and so on that fall under the title "stationery" in English. So some idiot went to an English-Portuguese dictionary, looked up "stationary" and found "estacionário". Brilliant!

Of course, the idiot didn't know (or didn't care) that "stationary" means stopped, while "stationery" refers to those products sold by a stationer. So let's just use the wrong word, and get on with it. It's easier, and etymology is a bore, anyway...

Mark Knopfler in Lisbon

Mark Knopfler played at Campo Pequeno in Lisbon last night. I took my guitar-crazy elder son. It was SUPERB! Backed by excellent musicians with dozens of guitars and other instruments on stage, one of the all-time great guitarrists gave us a great show of musical prowess, though with his usual low-key presentation style.

I was worried that, like so many musicians who have been around for a long time, he would insist on playing only his recent music, but I was proven wrong. The balance between Dire Straits and his solo work was perfect. When the audience started getting restless with the wonderful, but unknown, recent guitar work, better known tracks appeared to liven us up again. Starting with Sailing to Philadelphia and Why Aye Man, he went on through more recent songs, that I must admit I can't name, to excellent versions of Romeo and Juliet, Sultans of Swing and Telegraph Road.

Campo Pequeno was packed with a very participative audience, including a lower than usual quota of adolescent idiots to disrupt proceedings. At the end Mark Knopfler and the band appeared impressed by the audience's enthusiasm, playing four encore songs, including Brothers in Arms before being sped away in comfort leaving the fans to face the only negative experience of the evening - more than half-an-hour to get out of the underground car park. So while I can recommend Campo Peqeuno as a venue, don't even think of parking there.