Today is the Ides of September and clearly it is an excuse of a day to make some changes. Of late, I have been plunged into a state of gloom. A heavy black cloud has descended without warning, for no particular reason, and illogically and irrationally I have been unable to see my way out.… Continue reading Taming the black dog
Category: History
Love thine enemy?
On 6 February 1998, Season 4, Episode 3, (Hearts and Minds), of the TV show The Outer Limits, was broadcast. “In order to survive, a soldier must fight many battles, physical as well as mental. But in the heat of the struggle, reality can sometimes fade, like memory, until only one thing remains certain…the first… Continue reading Love thine enemy?
An artistic temperament?
It seems at times that all kinds of odd characteristics and behaviour go with the job of being an artist… French Impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) was working on a group of winter landscapes. The pictures were set in very beautiful and spectacular mountainous countryside and featured an oak tree and a river.… Continue reading An artistic temperament?
Under the skin
Oh, narrow, dark and humid streets rising like crevices to an unforgiving sky. I long for a Cathedral, a fine old pagan stone fortress, just for its refreshing cold atmosphere. I would even settle for a baroque, homely, altar in a corner hole in the wall, just to squat in the corner and enjoy the… Continue reading Under the skin
The Devil’s Saddle and the Alligator
Often when one considers Sardinia one thinks of it as a playboy’s playground. Former PM Silvio Berlusconi is famous for the lavish entertainments (notorious “bunga bunga” parties) he hosted (guests included Tony and Cherie Blair) in his sumptuous Villa Certosa on the Costa Smerlada far north of the island near Arzachena. This coast’s cachet among… Continue reading The Devil’s Saddle and the Alligator
Great expectations?
Well. in an hour and an half’s time, a mini-adventure begins… Off to Sardinia with She Who Must Be Obeyed… What to expect? What to expect? Mediterranean. Hot hot hot weather. A Canadian in Sardinia = a penguin in Hell? A land of sardines? A land of sardonic laughter? A land of danger? In the… Continue reading Great expectations?
The cards we’re dealt
The Swiss, especially the German-speaking Swiss, always have to be different. Consider playing cards. The Swiss German speaking part of Switzerland has its own deck of playing cards. They are mostly used for Jass, the “national card game” of Switzerland. The deck is related to the various German playing cards. Within Switzerland, these decks are… Continue reading The cards we’re dealt
Song of the executioner
As I slowly walk across Canton Schaffhausen I come across a number of small hills that bear the name “Galgenbuck”(Gallows Hill). The cantonal capital Schaffhausen itself was a Reichstadt, an imperial free city, meaning it was directly subject to the Holy Roman Emperor and no other government. He granted it the privilege of being allowed… Continue reading Song of the executioner
Rooster in the Henhouse
There are situations in life when you know you shouldn’t look, but you can’t help yourself. Scenes of disaster, like a car crash or a fire, find people gawking and staring, knowing they should either help or stop staring but the impulse to simply look is irresistible. A man is walking with his wife and… Continue reading Rooster in the Henhouse
Follow the money, Dennis
In the movie V.I. Warshawski, Kathleen Turner as Vicki Warshawski, explains that the first rule of detecting is to “follow the money” if you want to know what the reality of a situation was. In Schaffhausen, I had looked at where the money wasn’t… (See Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution.) So I then began to look… Continue reading Follow the money, Dennis