It was a day in August. I don’t know which one because they were all the same. Something unprecedented happened: the two teenagers who were spending their vacation with their parents, and who were never seen before noon, were already up at eight. “Are you going to the kiosk?” they asked. I was shocked: they knew the concept of a kiosk, that mythical place. I got excited. “Do you want me to bring you La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo, the Pronto?” “No, no. We want the Elle, which in the September issue gives a makeup that with the magazine comes out four times cheaper.”
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Well, you have to start somewhere, I thought. I took them to the kiosk like someone taking Crocodile Dundee to buy Gillettes at a Primor. As soon as he saw me, my regular kiosk owner looked at me, saw I wasn’t alone, and didn’t take a second to tell me: the Elle is sold out. Here and throughout the region. Some influencer had talked about it and the world went crazy. Sold out nationwide, with kilometer-long lines as if the kiosks were ticket booths on Gran Via/Aribau. No joke. Ask your trusted kiosk owner. I looked at them, thought about the teenage frustration management I would have to activate that morning, and grabbed my Vanguardia, which was not sold out.
We had the two Spains each doing their own thing, one focused on Ceuta and the other on Ayuso’s penthouse, which chopped up could be the next gift from Elle. But there was a silent Spain fighting to get a magazine to snag a makeup. Take note, Count of Godó, if you want to sell Vanguardias like hotcakes.
Forgive the frivolity, I missed that among the reasons Pedro Sánchez gave for the massive influx of people, he didn’t say they had found out through social media about the Elle magazine. That’s more believable than the claim that Moroccan authorities did not cooperate in the events of July 30.
By mid-morning the girls had already gotten an Elle on Wallapop, for double the price of the kiosk. According to them, it was still worth it. OK. I tried to analyze everything that had happened. Why does buying a magazine make makeup four times cheaper? Why is there such demand? Is it another trick by Sánchez to distract us, like with the total ecliPsoe, which according to deniers was a government invention so we would stop looking at Ceuta?
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Supporting Ceuta with the shout “Pedro Sánchez, son of a bitch,” just what is needed to fix the chaos
This summer has had an unusual speed. Is it part of the historical acceleration we live in? The term is from Julián Casanovas, a historian I heard on La Ser with Sastre. It has become very complicated to stop and analyze what is happening to us. Little analysis, overinformation, and zero calm. No one listens. No one teaches you. No one wants to learn. Because we have appropriated the truth. Each one their own.
We simplify the complex. Social media helps. And woe to you if you don’t take sides with yours, with your homeland. Go to your town square with the flag to show solidarity with the people of Ceuta shouting “Pedro Sánchez, son of a bitch,” just what is needed to fix the chaos. And the next day Trump and Milei adding fuel to the fire. What interests do they have to be so focused on Spain?
In just one summer we have seen how those who were clapping their hands applauding the anti-racist speeches of Pope Leo XIV now tiptoe past the death of more than 140 human beings trying to reach a European land called Ceuta. Can you imagine 140 Spaniards drowning in the sea at once? What explains so much contempt for the other?
The embarrassment continues. So does the heat. The hottest summer in recent decades. But climate change doesn’t exist, it’s a woke invention. We need a lot of makeup to cover so little shame.
