On three different occasions I have witnessed a co-worker cry. Many times I hear co-workers complain about their jobs. I recall a beloved co-worker Vanessa, of Macedonia, (a country in the throes of civil unrest on a scale not far removed from Syria’s problems), who remarked to me that the job was not at all… Continue reading The wonderful world of work
Hurrah for Folly-would
Gosh darn it… Why are those “liberals” so hard on “average” citizens? Why do liberals condemn ordinary folks so much for simply wanting to protect their families and homes? I mean, let’s just look at things from our point of view. We all know the surety of things we believe in… – When a white… Continue reading Hurrah for Folly-would
Leave the door open
I often find myself feeling weary and down-hearted when I make the mistake of finding out what is going on in the world outside my own little circle of life. More and more the media seems obsessed with fear-mongering and xenophobia. Fear the stranger. Fear those who are different. Those here by accident of birth… Continue reading Leave the door open
Along the Comedy Circuit
A few weeks ago, soon after our (I and She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed) Sardinian adventures, the wife and I went a-walkin’ one weekend along a trail called the Witzweg (Joke Trail), a three-hour walk from one small Swiss hamlet, Walzenhausen, to another Swiss hamlet, Heiden. Not a bad experience, really. You get yourself to the Lake of Constance… Continue reading Along the Comedy Circuit
The end of the world as we know it?
According to NASA scientists, an asteroid will do a fly-by in the skies above ol’ Earth next week. These good folks, who have spent decades studying the skies and the stars and everything in between, assure us that there is nothing to worry about and that we are completely safe. Of course, why should we… Continue reading The end of the world as we know it?
Thus endeth the lesson
This coming Monday I will be thinking about a woman I have never met who will teach for the first time my last student whom she has never met. Final lesson of my teaching career until October (and maybe final one of all?) took place yesterday evening. My private student in Weinfelden (See: No smile… Continue reading Thus endeth the lesson
Taming the black dog
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
The sounds of silence
First thoughts upon first awakening are sometimes strange and wonderful things…. (After all, there must be something positive about getting up at 0400 in the morning to be ready to do a 0630 shift at Starbucks St. Gallen, an hour’s distance from my home.) I remember snatches of dreams that have somehow drifted over from… Continue reading The sounds of silence
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?
Only a cup of coffee?
“Not that many consumers care to dwell on where their fruit has come from, much less where their shirts were made or who fashioned the rings which connect their shower hose to the basin. The origins and travels of our purchases remain matters of indifference…. Why, then, endowed as they are with both practical importance… Continue reading Only a cup of coffee?