Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Hey, Kathie!

And the first answer today is: Portugal!! (Of course, it's about them getting kicked around by England... but still! Portugal!)

(Can Alex really not know what a barista is?)

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Post's permalink - posted at 7:03 PM  

7 Comments:

At 9:13 PM, October 29, 2013 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Not sure whether to be flattered or insulted that it was the lowest-priced clue ;-)

 
At 10:10 AM, October 30, 2013 Anonymous Picky had this to say...

Oh dear - what have we English been doing to the poor old Portuguese?

 
At 11:15 AM, October 30, 2013 Blogger The Ridger, FCD had this to say...

:-) You beat their Armada ... "also".

 
At 12:58 PM, October 30, 2013 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

I'm not sure why (or even when) the English defeated any Portuguese armada -- perhaps someone can look it up and correct me -- because the nations have been allied since the Treaty of Windsor, ca. 1386.

After so many centuries, Churchill still invoked it during WW II to make "neutral" (ha!) Portuguese dictator António Salazar allow the Brits to build an air base at Lajes on the NE corner of the island of Terceira in the Azores. That base enabled the Allies to take away control of Atlantic shipping lanes from the Germans (because previously the mortality rate on merchant marines there had been exorbitant).

Lajes has been under the purview of the USAF since the mid-'50s, although is scheduled to be reduced in numbers and downgraded from "base" status next year, unless something can be done to the contrary in the interim (the Portuguese, as well as the Azorean-American community are trying).

 
At 8:21 PM, October 30, 2013 Blogger The Ridger, FCD had this to say...

The clue said 1615, which seems to be a British East India Company victory over the Portuguese Navy at Tapti.

 
At 4:06 AM, October 31, 2013 Anonymous Picky had this to say...

Yes , there was a Portuguese squadron in the Spanish Armada, but only, of course, because Spain had seized control of Portugal. And, true, we squabbled a bit over which of us had the right to steal other people's territory in the East. But we prefer to remember our alliance against that nasty piece of work Napoleon.

 
At 1:27 PM, October 31, 2013 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

During the Philippine era (et seq.), roughly 1580-1640, the Spanish were so hated in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Azores, that instead of building their fort facing the sea (i.e., against outside marauders) they built facing inland against the threat of attack by the natives -- and eventually they were driven out by a local insurrection.

 

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