Smile, and smile, and be a villain

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley" <dfrankiswork at ...> wrote:
> Catlady:
> > > > Prince Henry the Navigator? Fernando Magellan? Aren't there any
> > > > Portuguese great authors? 
> CMC:
> > Luis de Camoes (1524-1580) is usually ranked as Portugal's greatest 
> > author Some rank him as the equal of Homer, Virgil and Dante. (I've 
> > not read him, even in translation, so I have no opinion).
> > 
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_de_Cam%C3%B5es
> > 
> > Maybe Portugal's educational system has been imitating America's 
> too 
> > closely.....
> 
> Those were my reactions at first, too (Vasco da Gama?), until I 
> meditated on the implications of the phrase "a TV show".  No doubt a 
> poll of all Portuguese would come up with something different.
> 
> David

Surprised me too.
Did a search and the rest of the 10 finalists were:

Admiral Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) who discovered the sea 
route to India, 
King Alfonso Henríques, the 12th century founder of the nation, 
15th century King João II, 
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), 
Sebastião José de Carvalho de Melo (regent of Portugal in the 
18th century), 
the poets Luiz Vaz de Camoes (1524-1580) and Fernando Pessoa 
(1888-1935), and 
Arístides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954), who as consul in France 
saved the lives of thousands of Jews in the Second World War. 

Seems like a fair list of meritorious types.

However:
"Historian and former parliamentary deputy José Pacheco Pereira 
told the newspaper Público de Lisboa on Tuesday that he was not 
surprised at the result, "because the programme format encouraged
the mobilisation of vocal supporters of either Salazar or Cunhal, 
who in a way personify the divisions among Portuguese in the 20th 
century." 

Pandering to the current fashion of 'politics is all', then.
Still surprising that a righty trounced a lefty so convincingly though,
especially in the Europe of today.

Kneasy