Submitted by Susanne Bacon. The first time I was ever aware that there are such things as topical programs to orchestral music, I was in fifth grade. Our music teacher told us just to listen and try to figure what we were listening to. I was bewitched by the piece, and though I can’t remember […]
Across the Fence
Across the Fence: Sound Beacons
It might be an open secret that my husband and I love exploring. Anywhere we go, but also anywhere we stay. Washington State has to offer lots of marvelous sights, and over the years, I have shared quite a few places you might find interesting. What you might not know about yet is our love […]
Across the Fence: Mapping Surprises
Has it ever occurred to you that the road atlas you may still own might not be up-to-date or totally wrong in places? And that nobody bothers to update it, obviously, as so many people rely on GPS these days? My husband and I still study maps – most of you know this by now. […]
Across the Fence: Time-Wise Business
The other day, I drove home by way of Gravelly Lake Drive in Lakewood and passed by the tiny strip mall across from where the video shop was about a decade ago. Before the latter went out of business because everybody turned to new media. Now that people re-discover the treasures they have on video, […]
Across the Fence: Love Your Neighbors
The first impression makes or breaks a relationship. This applies especially when you are moving into a new neighborhood. And it is also a mutual thing, of course. From my parents I had learned that you best introduce yourself before you even move in. Especially in an apartment building. We went from door to door […]
Across the Fence: Honing Hand Skills
“Could you sew this up, please?” My husband handed me one of his favorite pieces of clothing the other day, and I handed it back to him – repaired – shortly afterwards. Only then it occurred to me that I had simply used a skill my mother had taught me when I was barely out […]
Across the Fence: TV Dinners
Submitted by Susanne Bacon. Frozen convenience food, also known as TV dinners, has never been part of my German life. My mother was a home-maker, and she cooked and baked everything from scratch. Most of my peers’ mothers were also home-makers doing the same. Those peers who probably had TV dinners had working mothers and […]
Across the Fence: The Benefits of Business Trips
January – bleak, dark gray, depressing … That’s how it is for many of us in the Pacific Northwest. Especially the dark gray. To me, it used to be the middle of the busiest traveling season of the year back in the day when I was still the editor-in-chief of a German trade magazine. Because […]
Across the Fence: Trip Traps
Do you like outings? To exciting places? At hardly any cost at all? Traveling world champion Germany used to have an answer to that seeming contradiction “exciting AND cheap” back in the day. And I can’t remember a week when I didn’t find advertising for such trips in my mail box. The concept was called […]