As it is getting warmer, a lot of German-speaking Europeans will flock to a type of restaurant typical for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They are open-air, rustic, and cozy. And, of course, you have heard about them, as the German term “Biergarten” has made it into the English language with pretty much the same pronunciation. […]
Across the Fence
Across the Fence: Wanderlust
Submitted by Susanne Bacon. A while ago, at one of my book signings at the Steilacoom Historical Museum, a gentleman asked me whether I could write more about German topics sometimes. I racked my brain because – as many of you know – I used to write the column “Home from Home” for quite a […]
Across the Fence: Inspiration and Creation
What a daunting title for this article, isn’t it? Yet, we all have got them in ourselves, inspiration as well as creation. Sometimes, the two just don’t necessarily come together. Why is that? Take a Frenchman named Marcel Proust. He was inspired by the word Madeleine – the biscuits, mind, not a girl. He could […]
Across the Fence: Punctuation ad Absurdum
English is my second language, as you all know by now. And some may have realized that mine is a mix of British and American vocabulary. Go figure! My teachers back in the day taught us German students British English with as much of an RP accent as possible. Most of them were good teachers. […]
Across the Fence: A Mighty Podcast
Do you like books? And do you like listening to podcasts? Then this one might be exactly the thing for you: “Mighty Books” is a podcast on YouTube and Spotify in which Ryan Oliver interviews authors about their books. Ryan is an author himself, and I have been one of his interview partners last year. […]
Across the Fence: New Year, New Beginnings
The count-down has started towards midnight this last day of the year. I admit, I’ll not even stay up – haven’t done so in years. What for?! To watch a ball drop 3,000 miles away in a city that’s not even our capital? Or for the fireworks around the Space Needle? Both basically events on […]
Across the Fence: Behold the Light
One of the best Christmas memories ever is to come out of the cold into the warmth of home. I remember I had boots with hooks and laces when I was about four or five. They were beautiful and certainly NOT what was in fashion back then. I loved to put them on when it […]
Across the Fence: A Beverage of Consequences
We all know it. We all have, at one time or another, enjoyed the beverage. There are yards of shelves in supermarkets dedicated to it. And yet, when we walk past it or even choose a variety, we probably don’t even think about it any more than the next pleasant cup of it in a […]
Across the Fence: An Agent of Love
Ouch! Lena had hit her thumb with the hammer that had been meant to hit the nail in the ceiling of the shop window. Having run out of thumbtacks, she had had to switch to nails in order to hang all these beautiful bunches of mistletoe. Some were bigger, some were smaller, and some had […]