Some Americans have been talking about our shared European culture lately! As CT’s resident American-in-Europe, I feel I must respond. So, here’s a European culture story. (This is Part 2, You can find Part 1 here.) Okay, so Imperia! Big concrete statue on the shore of Lake Constance. Medieval sex worker. 9 meters tall, weighs […]
wtf?
Just north of the Alps, on the border between Germany and Switzerland, lies beautiful Lake Constance. And on the northwest shore of the lake is the lovely small city of Constance, Germany. Constance is well worth a visit. A lot of German cities have rather bland or unattractive centers, thanks to the American and British […]
At some indeterminate point in the fairly recent past, citizens and leaders of most liberal democracies probably looked forward to a condition to be realized in the imaginable future that we can, for the sake of a convenient label, call Universal Scandinavia. The basic features ought to be obvious: employment and decent housing for all, […]
There’s been a a certain amount of negativity floating around lately. So, let’s talk about a toxic, venomous freak of nature and the parasite that afflicts it. Biology warning, this gets slightly squicky. Let’s start with the toxic, venomous freak of nature: the Portuguese man-o’-war. If you’ve spent a lot of time in warm ocean […]
Plain People of Crooked Timber: can’t see why you’re drafting us in here so often after leaving us out in the cold for five years or whatever, we are busy people with our own lives and so on. Me: but I love you and you’re the best! Plain People of Crooked Timber: well if you’re […]
I read reddit. Yeah, I know. Plain People of Crooked Timber: “why would you go and do a thing like that when you could sit on the kitchen floor and watch your packet of English muffins slowly pass its sell-by date and develop that unpleasant sour flavour you usually don’t notice until it’s too late […]
OK guys, here’s the deal. Last night I had a decently long dream in which Vishnu appeared to me personally, blue but golden with godly light and so on, to explain to me that he was real, and that I should worship him but not necessarily his avatars, more just him, (though I objected that […]
A transcript from memory of an evening conversation with my two older sons: “I heard that Jeff Bezos could run through the streets every day, throwing hundred dollar bills in the air, and he’d still be making money.” “I wonder if that’s true?” “Okay, how much is Jeff Bezos worth?” “Uh [googling]… wow, it says […]