In one trendy place that served very good mojitos, J. pointed out the flag hanging above the bar. The Spanish flag is three horizontal bars: red, then yellow, then red again, the yellow band twice as thick as the red ones.
![Flag of the Second Spanish Republic, 1931-9](http://fotw.fivestarflags.com/images/e/es1931.gif)
This republican flag from the 1930s, J. explained, was banned in Spain under Franco, and even now it's a bit of a shocker. He spoke of the frission of seeing it hanging from the arm of the Philip IV statue in Madrid, in the midst of a political protest.
![Winston's turf mohican](http://www.peopleincommon.org/images/churchill.jpg)
(The Internet also tells me of the irony of the purple band: it's not purple, but royal Castilian purpure.)
J.'s own republic sensibilities would be stronger but his king is helluva tough. Our Charles III did something similar, I said, in the first issue of 2000AD.
As well as the politics, we discussed how Bowie's lyrics translate and pretty much everything under the sun. My best effort to explain a reference to badgers was "a sort of mash-up of a boar and a tiger".
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