English in Madrid

Source:  Alasdair Elmes on Unsplash When faking your own death to get out of catering a wedding is not fraud  Madrid court finds two entrepreneurs not guilty after they lied to a couple about their supposed demise and kept the fiancés’ money Just hours before a wedding was due to take place, Jesús C., the businessman in charge of cater ing the event, sent a mail to the bride purporting to be someone else, and claiming that both he and his son had died. The message explained that the company would not be able to serve the food – which was already 75% paid for. The lie has been described as such by the Spanish justice system, yet the perpetrators will not be punished as the courts found that the ruse cannot be considered fraud. The man in question already had a criminal record for misappropriation of funds, and six other couples say he pulled the same trick on them. The public prosecutor was calling for a prison sentence of one year and three months. ...

Source: Wikipedia Stolen Picasso found in Romanian forest revealed as fake What was thought to be a stolen artwork by Pablo Picasso recently discovered in Romania has been revealed as a forgery . Experts had hoped that the painting was Harlequin Head, snatched from the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam in an infamous art heist six years ago. A Belgian theatre company duped a Dutch writer , who wrote a novel based on the daring robbery , into thinking she had found the missing artwork in Romania. It says it staged the hoax as part of a project about the value of truth. The theft of the century, as the 2012 heist was dubbed by local media, saw pieces by Picasso, Monet, Matisse and others taken in three minutes. Four Romanian art thieves were jailed for the heist, but the seven artworks - estimated to be worth as much as €200m (£160m) at the time - were never recovered . Some of the pieces are feared to have been burned by one of the robber's mothers - who t...

Exposed: student conman who fooled king A 20-year-old student from an elite business school who was arrested last week on suspicion of swindling, forging documents and impersonating public officials cosied up to the cream of Spanish society, even managing to attend King Felipe VI’s proclamation. Who is Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias? Now millions of people in Spain have heard of the fresh-faced man just out of his teens who in just a few years and without any official position in public life managed to hobnob with leading politicians and business figures, even attempting to negotiate in legal matters on behalf of Spain’s former King Juan Carlos. Many of those he met on the way were initially sceptical about this wunderkind with excellent contacts in the governing Popular Party (PP) but his charm and impressive lists of contacts, backed by the evidence of selfies taken with the great and the good which he kept on his mobile phone, usually smoothed away any doubts.   The...

Syria Gay Girl in Damascus blog a hoax by US man  A blog purportedly written by a gay woman in Syria, which described life in Damascas amid the current political unrest , has been revealed to be a hoax.   A Girl Gay in Damascus gained a worldwide readership and was closely followed by news organisations.  But the true author has now come forward - Tom MacMaster, an American man studying in Scotland.  Many Syrian activists have reacted angrily, accusing him of trivialis ing or even harming their cause. "One day if I'm kidnapped by my government, many readers won't care because I could turn out to be another Amina," wrote one Lebanese blogger.  The Gay Girl in Damascus blog, dating back to February this year , claimed to document the life of 25-year-old Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari, a half-Syrian, half American lesbian living in Damascus.  Entries covered her social life and relationships, but "Amina" also criticised President Bashar al-A...

Source:  Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash Men tell more lies than women Men are more likely to tell lies than women and feel less guilty about it, says a survey . In a poll of 3,000 people, researchers found that the average British man tells three lies every day, that's equivalent to 1,092 a year. However the average woman appears more honest, lying 728 times a year - around twice a day. Mums are the people mostly likely to be lied to, says the Science Museum who commissioned the survey . Twenty-five per cent of men say they've lied to their mother, but only 20% of women admit to hav ing lied to their mum. In comparison, only 10% of people said they are likely to lie to their partner. MEN'S TOP 10 LIES 1. I didn't have that much to drink 2. Nothing's wrong, I'm fine 3. I had no signal 4. It wasn't that expensive 5. I'm on my way 6. I'm stuck in traffic 7. No, your bum doesn't look big in that 8. Sorry, I missed y...

Read about the Cottingley fairy hoax . Source: bbc.co.uk Read about the Hitler diaries hoax . Source: BBC On this day Read about the Piltdown man hoax . Source: bbc.co.uk/history Read about the Loch Ness monster hoax . Source: museumofhoaxes.com

Britain's most popular lie: 'sorry I had no mobile phone signal' Researchers found the average Briton tells on average four lies every day or almost 1500 every year. Almost one in six men admitted they were most likely to lie to their wife or girlfriend, on average at least twice a day. The most popular lie was saying you had no mobile phone signal, with one in four people admitting regularly using the little white lie. It usually came after they hit the "ignore" button when their mobile rang. One in three Britons have lied about their weight, a quarter fibbed about the amount of debt they are in and 30 per cent have bent the truth about the amount of exercise they do. Kissing or spending the night with another person emerged as the worst lie to tell while one in five males admitted to lying to their girlfriend to go to the pub or watch sport. Almost a quarter of blokes have told their partner they look good in an outfit , despite think ing the oppo...

Source: Wikipedia   Source: You Tube (tarot1984)  Key Words: catch it bin it kill it Here is an ad, in reaction to the flu pandemic, which shows how easily a virus is spread . Do you think that the advert is effective? What do you think about the whole Swine flu thing?  Do you think we are over-reacting or should we be doing more to combat it? Are you ready? What's the difference between ill and sick ? This is a difficult one because there is sometimes little difference but I'll try to explain. Ill implies a more serious condition that lasts longer. He's been very ill . (He was off work for a long time) As soon as I started to feel ill , I went to the doctor (I had symptoms and the doctor told me what I had) I got ill while I was on holiday. ( I discovered what I had when I returned from holiday) Sick implies a less serious condition that doesn't last long. It can also mean to vomit. He 's off sick today. He'll be back tomorro...

Image source: Wikipedia     Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 motion picture set in the 1960s . It was co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and adapted by Jeff Nathanson loosely from the book by Frank Abagnale Jr. and Stan Redding. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks . Plot: The film begins with an FBI agent, Carl Hanratty Jr. (Tom Hanks), arriving at a French jail in 1969 to meet an imprisoned and sick Frank, who attempts to escape. The scene flashes back six years earlier. Frank's father, Frank Sr. cons   a woman to lend him a suit for Frank Jr., who later guises as a driver for Frank Sr. to get a loan   from Chase Manhattan Bank. When the loan is denied ( due to   IRS tax evasions by Frank Sr.), the family is forced to move from their grand home to a small apartment, with tension building between the family; it also appears that his mother is having an adulterous affair with the bank agent as well. Frank Jr., feeling he will not fit...

I found this article about a liar who has made headlines recently: Suspected bogus 9/11 survivor from Barcelona The sacked   head of a 9/11 survivors network alleged to have invented her experience of the attacks on New York's World Trade Center is of Spanish origin, a newspaper reported Saturday, quoting acquaintances as saying she always sought to be the centre of attention. The Catalonian daily La Vanguardia said Tania Head was better known in Barcelona as Alicia Esteve Head, publishing a photograph of her with colleagues taken when she worked as a management secretary in the city between 1998 and 2000. Associates told the newspaper she often recounted unlikely   stories which put herself at the centre of the action, notably one of a high-speed car crash in which she was badly hurt . Tania Head was sacked from the prominent survivors' group on Wednesday, a day before the New York Times ran a front-page story that said "the pieces just didn't fit ...