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?
Category: History
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
The need to understand
With rare exception almost every Westerner remembers where they were and what they were doing when the planes struck the World Trade Center in New York City on 11 September 2001. I remember being at a teaching colleague´s home near Bad Krozingen discussing work when one of her friends called her up and told us… Continue reading The need to understand
Bodies on the beach
Let´s talk about what we struggle to discuss, what we find difficult to comprehend…the Tunisia beach attack. 24-year-old student Serfeddine Rezgui was shot dead by Tunisian police after he attacked a beach of international Western tourists killing, at last count, 39 people. His bullets did not distinguish between nationalities as unarmed vacationing Brits, Germans, Irish,… Continue reading Bodies on the beach
The enemy electronic
Yesterday I wrote a post in this blog asking for feedback, asking for requests as to what should appear in these posts… Hank Broomfield, an old friend from my youth, (Yes, I had one!), wrote he was satisfied but being the visual guy he is he wanted pictures. (When I figure out how…) Sumit Panigrahi,… Continue reading The enemy electronic
USA: Unlimited sadness allowed
I am just one voice. A Canadian resident in Switzerland with unimpressive credentials and thus uninspiring credibility. I am far removed from the problems in America and thus unlikely to restrain America from its determination to self-destruct, a determination that is as old as the history of the United States itself. The news out of… Continue reading USA: Unlimited sadness allowed
The desire for an Amish paradise
I like the Amish. The Amish are the Christian sect that separated from the Mennonites in 17th century Europe and began emigrating to North America in search of religious freedom in the 18th century. Now living exclusively in Canada and the United States, the Amish are known for their plain attire and simple living, the… Continue reading The desire for an Amish paradise