Crime Wave

Not only Spanish custom but municipal law prescribes the wearing of shirts, collars (preferably starched), neckties *and jackets on the streets of Madrid, regardless of the weather. Last week, as Madrid sweltered under a 98DEG heat, a new criminal stalked the city's streets, and a new word crept into the Spanish vocabulary to describe him.

As rebellious Madrilenos began leaving off their neckties and jackets to escape the heat, they were promptly labeled piscinista (from piscina or swimming pool). The mayor of Madrid detailed a special anti-piscinista squad of police to round them up and restore decency.

*At the beginning of the Spanish revolution in 1936, according to British Author John Langdon-Davies, the proletariat of Barcelona took to promenading hatless and tieless along the fashionable Rambla. In a ringing editorial, the syndicalist paper, Worker Solidarity, hailed this gesture of defiance of bourgeois convention. Then Worker Solidarity was faced with a storm of protest from the hat and necktie workers' unions. The paper abruptly reversed itself, came out for hats and ties on the Rambla.

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