http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/no-smoke-without-ire-the-ecigarette-revolution-8994118.html
Maybe you’ve heard about the idea of “other Zions.” This is the movement in the history of Jews where, despite the biblical narrative of return to the land of Israel, Jews founded new “father lands” in the period of their dispersal where Jewish states of autonomy were able [more]
London light is some of the most beautiful light I’ve recently seen (‘recently’ being: this morning). It is soft and hazy because the fog is so thick yet razor sharp with coldness that it cuts right through your chest. London is like the Marilyn Monroe of cities; it [more]
Milan, behind Garibaldi train station, just in front of the unfinished “vertical forest’” buildings. in this district where everyhting is changing, you find this great popular place, where the time has stopped, where magicians come for diner to show they new tricks. The amazing food of sir Tomaso. Via de [more]
There is something startling about natural scientists. A friend of mine recently dated a post-doc physicist, who needs 11 hours of sleep and says he wouldn’t even start thinking a thought without a timeframe of minimum five hours with no disturbance. They often have something philosophical about them, [more]
In front of the Landesbank, not far from the Fernsehturm, you very often see people recruiting other people, for the Malteser or Amnesty International. Sometimes it’s Scientology offering free “stress tests”. The Amnesty and Malteser folks will step in your way and even follow you for a meter [more]
“Act like you’re in a movie or something. You can’t be scared of shit. You have to be hard. Don’t be scared of anything.”
I just realized that I am doing it. I am sharing. I am tired and it takes some work to be open to other ways. Somehow I am living the dream, working harder and faster with more. My private life becomes more public at the same time that [more]
I really knew very little about her. I suppose my perception of her was colored by a media-driven image: Elfriede Jelinek the socially phobic, feminist, Jewish-but also Catholic, Marxist intellectual who gladly and stridently voiced her opinions to journalists about the FPÖ and Haider, always at a distance. [more]
Die Tamale ist ein lateinamerikanisches Gericht aus Maisteig und anderen natürlichen Zutaten. Hot Tamales ist eine US-amerikanische Süßigkeit aus Zucker und anderen unnatürlichen Zutaten, die nach Zimt schmeckt und irre süchtig macht. Hot Tamales gibt es seit 1950, und seit es sie gibt, haben sie sich, von der [more]
(via www.ulrichmoritz.de) Es erscheint fast sinnlos, etwas über einen Künstler zu schreiben, über den sich schon so viele Schriftsteller eloquent Gedanken gemacht haben. Ulrich Moritz hat seine Werke jahrelang nur an einen kleinen Kreis von Sammlern verkauft, die ihn dann letztes Jahr in einer Ausgabe des ZEIT Magazins [more]
There’s a hammer hanging in Nimrods room – a judges’ hammer. Rumors circulate about that solid piece of wood. Some say Nimrods grandfather stole it in a UN-meeting. Others say it stems from the time of Israel’s foundation and actually belongs to a museum. Recently on Skype we spoke [more]
This morning I noticed two essential differences between the US and Germany. 1) Pre-schoolers are taken on strolls through graveyards and 2) German squirrels have shockingly long ears. I discovered the first item as I was walking through the cemetery near my house. I’ve been looking for wooded places [more]
It’s remarkable how effortlessly people develop a sense of community. Not hard at all, especially if you’re a business traveller stranded at the airport. As I write this, I sit in Terminal D of Zurich International Airport. I got up at 5:45 to catch the 8:20 flight to [more]
There is a little farm in our park. Maybe it’s a zoo but I like to think of it as a farm. It always reminds me of an imaginary childhood on the countryside I never had. It was feeding time when I arrived. I heard the animal keeper [more]
Am 1. April 1944 wurde der Bahnhof der Schweizer Stadt Schaffhausen durch die US Air Force bombardiert. Ein Versehen; darauf einigte man sich auf beiden Seiten. Der Bahnhof war halb Schweizer Bahnhof, halb Deutscher Bahnhof und in mancher Nacht hatten deutsche Züge (beladen auch mit Waffen) den [more]
Most of you know me as a calm, rational person, but I have an obsession to confess. I am obsessed with people. Not everyone, just certain kinds, very special kinds of people. Persons that make my heart bounce around instantly like a squash ball without the gravity. They [more]
Wer Buße tut, gelobt Besserung. Wer eine Lücke büßt, füllt sie aus und macht damit alles besser.
The same film can’t be made twice. The film as a tangible byproduct and accurate representation of event could act as a warning for and responsibility of future filmmakers.
Yesterday, I showed up to my weekly sing-along, held in a friend’s apartment, to find that her kitchen looked more like a war room than a piano bar. Apparently, the downstairs neighbor had threatened to go to the landlord to complain about the music, and the group was [more]
It’s this time of the year, for almost 30 years. Three decades and it always feels like the first time. The song and especially the video is ingrained in 40 western-european somethings. No matter what you listened to after the age of 14, even if it was hardcore, [more]
Nothing but these two thoughts. Yes, Leon Wieseltier once wrote that “displaced and unglossed quotations […] bristle smugly with implications”, but maybe this time it’s different. I don’t feel they are displaced. I. “Nature is very exact in the matter. Grief hurts just as much as it is [more]
It’s still very small and frail, kindly supported by two sturdy wooden posts and strong ropes. You almost overlook it on your way when passing by. Only a miniature memorial stone embedded by low concrete kerbs in the form of an arrow points to it. In fact, I [more]
Today I am thinking about Elfriede Jelinek and how she has been positioning herself in the past 15 years as an author, both in her writing and in her public persona. What I find in Jelinek’s collaborations with Christoph Schlingensief in the first decade of the 21st century [more]