The other day, I asked my friends on Facebook whether they had any wishes as to which uncontroversial topic they’d like me to write about in my Friday Suburban Times column. Some asked for more food topics (I promise, I will sometime soon). One of my friends, German author Bettina Strang (https://wortstrang.de), suggested a number […]
Across the Fence
Across the Fence: What’s in a Handshake
The other day, a friend of mine shared on her Facebook page how there were so-called obligatory Life Skills classes at a New York school’s ninth grade. While thinking that it is sad that a lot of parents these days seem not to be able to teach those skills to their kids anymore or lack […]
Across the Fence: Aggression Pays
Really?! Does this otherwise so peaceful columnist condone aggression?! Think twice, as you know me better than that, and let me enjoy the double-take I probably caused you when you were reading my headline. Today, I was clipped by another car while doing a left turn at a crossing. It was in the left lane, […]
Across the Fence: Being Seen
The other day, I was wondering what good we had gained by the Corona pandemic. Seriously. Because I keep thinking that, no matter what we experience, there is something to learn from it. And before you think that I will belittle the results of the pandemic, I should hope you will know me better by […]
Across the Fence: It’s All Greek To Me
The other day I finished a book that my sweet friend Katerina in Athens had taken great pain to find for me. It was the English translation of a Greek author, in this case Ilias Venezis. A wonderful book to boot. But it made me thoughtful why, besides the great classics like Homer, Aristotle, Plato, […]
Across the Fence: National Days
Have you ever pondered what a national day is? By definition, it is a day that marks the nationhood of a nation or a state. The other day I looked it up on Wikipedia. Including a map that shows two nations that, to my utter surprise, don’t have any – the United Kingdom and Denmark. […]
Across the Fence: A Magic Number
Carnival is over, Lent arrived with Ash Wednesday this week. People are giving up on habits – to probably take them up again after 40 days –, or they take on specific tasks – to give them up again after 40 days. But what is it with these 40 days? Of course, it has to […]
Across the Fence: Salt On Our Tongues
As a kid, I heard of oversalted soil on which nothing would grow anymore. In ancient times, sometimes, the winners of a battle would salt the earth of their defeated enemy in order to prevent future harvests; Roman general Scipio Aemilianus Africanus did this to Carthage after the third Punic War. You wouldn’t believe, therefore, […]
Across the Fence: Playground Preferences
The other day, on a walk around Chambers Bay Golf Course, I came past the playground and pondered with how much love it has been set up. There were quite a few kids playing there, not all of them physically distancing; but in one corner, on a swing, sat a little girl all by herself, […]