“Cutre captures something I love about Spain, which might be my favorite place to travel. It is unpretentious and unprecious, descriptions that cannot be applied to nearby France (duh) or Italy (too much gravitas in their dolce far niente). The Spanish understand that you might as well stop whatever you’re doing at 3 PM, it’s not that important, and have a vermouth and some olives. Several tiny beers over the course of hours are better than one big one. Low-keyness is its own value; the activity itself is more important than its perfection. Caring too much about the precise quality of where you are is not the point”
https://onethingnewsletter.substack.com/p/spains-word-for-cool-tackiness