A Special Birthday in Germany
Birthdays aren’t my favorite days, and in spite of that, I’ve had some really good ones. The best birthday I can remember, ever, came as a gift of sharing that totally blew me away.
I was living in a small German village. Little by little, I mastered enough German to be able to interact with the villagers, who were very kind to me. They included my husband and I in the village events, including private birthday parties, which in Germany, are a BIG deal.
Birthdays are YOUR day. Every woman in the village brings a cake – or two. Competition to provide the fanciest, most lucious cake is keen. The cakes are not overly sweet, but are incredibly full of fresh cream. And of course, it is rude not to try a little of everyone’s cakes . . . all eyes are all watching.
The two women in the village who took care of me were my landlady and her mother-in-law, who lived in a house just across the courtyard. My landlady sang in the village choir, which performed at a variety of locations throughout the year – festivals, local events, schools – and at 50th birthday parties. The 50th Birthday Party was very special. The whole choir would sing JUST for the birthday girl.
It was a very small village. Everyone knew everyone. Some people didn’t speak because their grandmother didn’t speak to someone else’s grandmother. People carried grudges for a long time. Memories were long, and tongues were longer. My landlady’s protection was very valuable to me, an outsider in the village, who might, from time to time, violate customs without even knowing about it.
My husband and I were leaving Germany, after four years in the village. It was around this time of the year, the cold cold of winter in Germany. One evening my landlady came down and asked us to come to her birthday party the next night – our birthdays are only two days apart, and we had often celebrated together. We were delighted for the invitation, as we knew the choir would be seranading our landlady.
There was a lovely catered sit-down dinner. Everyone was in dress-up clothing, and the wine and beer were flowing. We knew it would be our last dinner in the village, and we felt so honored to be included.
And then the choir arrived. The choir master made a speech to our landlady, congratulating her on her special birthday and giving her a long list of good wishes. And then he turned to us, and said that tonight our landlady was sharing her birthday with me, and they would sing two songs for us on our departure.
This was her special day. Her 50th birthday is the day the whole village would honor her. It only happens once in your lifetime. And she shared it with me.
The choir sang “The Gypsy Wanderers”, and truly, it was appropriate for my husband and I, departing for our next life in Doha. From the first notes, I cried. I’ve never minded my vagabond life, but for that brief moment, I regretted not having the kind of deep roots that kept me anchored in one place. I would never have a village singing for my 50th birthday; I had never earned that honor. And my landlady gave it to me, simply, without fanfare, sharing the honors she had earned day by day, living in the village. She gave it expecting nothing in return for it, sheerly for the joy of sharing.
In the Headlights: Added to the Blogroll
I don’t remember how I came across this blog, at some time in December, but I remember laughing my head off. After two months, I find that she still delights me every time I visit. Today at In the Headlights (a reference to a common English phrase “deer in the headlights” meaning that wild-eyed-I -don’t-know-what-to-do-next-so-I’ll-just-stand-here-frozen look) Riannan shares an e-mail from a friend with curmudgeonly rules for 2007, and earlier on the page, shares a site where you can have mittens, etc. knit out of your pet’s lost hair! Dying laughing.
(And no, she is not a relative of mine. I don’t know her! I just like her blog!)
This woman comes across some of the most amazing things. She, like me, is all over the map – salsa dancing, books, great recipes (the latest was Oven Baked Sesame Scallops, oh yum!), stories about friends, some of the funniest signs I have ever seen, and screwball ideas. She can give your day a lift.
Google Earth – Map Your Books!
More news from Earthling (not quite my co-blog writer, but he sure gives me some good stuff to share with you 🙂 )
“This just launched, very cool. Google books search now lets you see a map of all the place mentioned in a book.
Go to books.google.com
Search for your book
Click the ‘about this book’ link.
example: Pride and Prejudice
The 9/11 Commission Report
911 Commission Report
Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation
By William Temple Hornaday
Vanishing Wild Life
The great cities of the ancient world, in their glory and their desolation
By Theodore Alois W. Buckley
Ancient Cities
The Book of Ser Marco Polo
By Marco Polo, Henry Yule, Henri Cordier
Marco Polo
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes
Kiss Kiss Bang! Bang!: The Unoffical James Bond 007 Film Companion
By Alan Barnes, Marcus Hearn
James Bond”
Travels of Ibn Batuta AD 1325 – 1354
Ibn Batuta
My comment: The maps usually showed up on the lower right part of the page, not always immediately visible, you have to scroll down. Not every page had a map, but the reference led to other similar books which had maps.
I didn’t even know Google had a book search section – and it is good! When I am reading, I like to read a train of books on the same subject – and I like the way Google gives small summaries which can give you an immediate indication whether this book will interest you or not. Thanks, Earthling!
Protestors for Hire
Fresh in from this morning’s BBC News:
Germans put price on protesting
They refuse to rally for neo-Nazis, but as long as the price is right a new type of German mercenary will take to the streets and protest for you.
Young, good-looking, and available for around 150 euros (£100), more than 300 would-be protesters are marketing themselves on a German rental website.
They feature next to cars, DVDs, office furniture and holiday homes.
For some, these protesters show how soulless life has become. For others, they breathe new life into old causes.
Staging a protest
Their descriptions read like those on a dating site.
I would like to point out that not all protests will tally with my own point of view and I would like to distance myself from these
Demonstrators’ disclaimer
Next to a black and white posed picture, Melanie lists her details from her jeans size to her shoe size and tells potential protest organisers that she is willing to be deployed up to 100km around Berlin.
Six hours of Melanie bearing your banner or shouting your slogan will set you back 145 euros.
A spokesperson for erento.com was unable to say how many demonstrators had been booked since the service was launched earlier this month, but that there had certainly been demand.
Organisations using the service are unlikely to reveal themselves, keen to pass off their protesters as genuine supporters of the cause. But German media reported a Munich march had hired protesters because its own adherents were too old to stand for hours waving banners.
Erento.com stresses that no protester needs to offer their services to a cause they object to, and therefore many may genuinely believe in the protest they are joining.
But the fact they are paid has perturbed a number of commentators in Germany, especially those who remember the passion-fuelled protests of 1968.
“It seems to confirm the increasingly common assumption,” wrote one, “that democracy is for sale”.
My Comment:
What would such a service look like in Kuwait?
“Will protest for Gucci?”
“Available for the right cell phone?”
“Protestors available in designer abayas?”
Or would they all be brought in from the Phillipines, Nepal, Indonesia, Bangladesh, contracted in multiples of 100?
Weather Underground
We all have routines that get us through the things we do every day, things we do almost without thinking. You get up, you take care of your morning ablutions, fix some coffee, and then, in my case, you check e-mails, read the day’s selections from the lectionary, check the blog, and check the weather.
Part of my routine is Weather Underground. I like it so much, I added it to my blogroll, over there to the right. When I click, I get Kuwait Weather, first thing, but over on the left are all my favorite cities where I have family and friends – Seattle, Pensacola, Doha (Qatar), Mfuwe (Zambia), Colorado Springs, Zanzibar . . . all at a glance. With one click, I can see what the weather will be there, too.
And for any other city I’m travelling to, I can just type it in and it will take me there.
When my son was getting married, I could check the weather for many years back to see how hot it generally gets on that day in that city – it gave me a range for which to pack.
I’ve tried a lot of other weather sites, but this one has the things I need. It’s part of my daily routine. You can find it here.
The Onion Satire
In her blog, my niece, Little Diamond, posted a recent article (satire) from The Onion. Titled 800,000 Privileged Youth Sign Up to Fight In Iraq, you can read it here.
The Onion isn’t really news. It’s a poke at the news. It’s one of the funniest websites I visit.
Spicy Peppers Attack Cancer
The BBC reports today that a link has been discovered between spicy hot peppers and cancer cell death. Click here:How Spicy Foods Kill Cancer
In short, the article states:
“Scientists have discovered the key to the ability of spicy foods to kill cancer cells.
They found capsaicin, an ingredient of jalapeno peppers, triggers cancer cell death by attacking mitochondria – the cells’ energy-generating boiler rooms.
The research raises the possibility that other cancer drugs could be developed to target mitochondria.”
Buried deep in the article is the disclaimer that no one believes eating a lot of hot spicy peppers will either prevent nor cure cancer, and that peppers as a part of a diet that includes a lot of vegetables and fruit are recommended.
1906
This was a forward I received today. I don’t know where the statistics come from, so I can’t verify. If true, it is pretty amazing what a difference 100 years can make.
The year is 1906.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes !
Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the Year 1906
************************************
The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47
A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa , and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California .
With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union .
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower !
The average wage in the US was 22 cents per hour.
The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year .
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
a dentist $2,500 per year,
a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year,
and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at HOME
Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION !
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as “sub-standard.”
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair
once a month,
and used borax
or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from
entering into their country for any reason.
The Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona , Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30 !!!!
Crossword puzzles,
canned beer,
and ice tea
hadn’t been invented yet.
There was no Mother’s Day
or Father’s Day.
Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn’t read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine
were all available over
the counter
at the local corner drugstores.
Pharmacists said,
“Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.”
Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.
There were about 230 reported murders
in the ENTIRE U.S.A. !
I’d Be Lost Without It: Misto Sprayer
Seven years ago, my nephew, Global Man, gave this little tool to my sister for Christmas. I had never heard of it, and so he showed me how it worked. WOW.
We are firm believers in olive oil. And firm believers in food with less processing and chemical additives, rather than more.
He showed me you you put the oil in, maybe half a cup, and screw the top back on. How you pump the brushed aluminum cap up and down five or six times to achieve pressure inside, then just press the button and out comes a VAPOR of olive oil. The vapor is so fine, that I use it now for almost everything.
It took me a while. I was afraid the taste of olive oil would detract in some recipes, but the vapory film of oil laid down is so fine that it goes undetected in every but the very most refined recipes.
Instead of the spray cans you buy in the stores, full of chemical aerosols to make the oil spray, it uses air – imagine! And it allows you to use your very favorite olive oil all the time, so your cooking gets all the added benefits of olive oil, but so finely sprayed as to spare the calories.
I love this tool. It is available in better (walk-in) cooking stores, also from Amazon, and other mail order cooking supply stores. William Sonoma has one called QuickMist; looks like the same tool. I’d be lost without it.
Farewell Old Year
I’m ready for a new year. I’ve read your blogs, I can see that most of you are ready too, we are all ready for a new start, new hope, a better tomorrow.
2006 was a full year for us – a move to Kuwait, our son’s wedding to a wonderful young woman, and several trips back to take care of family business. My husband and I looked at each other and laughed – this year we haemmoraged money. We thank God we had the money we needed when we needed it, but the sheer volume of it, going out, stuns us. We hope this will be a better year, a more stable year, as we squirrel around, hiding our nuts for the winter of old age.
By the grace of God, my Mom is doing well, and thank all of you who have expressed concerns for her. She is grieving, she misses him so much, but none of us would choose for him to suffer one more minute on this earth when he could be in a better place. She spends her time right now surrounded by family and friends. We know she is going to have some bad moments, but she is amazingly resilient, and we see all sorts of signs that she will do well, once the grief abates.
Here is a photo of the photo I told you about earlier in the blog – Dad holding me up so I almost look like I am sitting on the mountain. Those old black and white photos were SO crisp; they enlarged without any serious loss of resolution.
I tell my friends this set the pace for my life of thrill seeking behavior . . .(just kidding, folks)
I wish you all a great day, tieing up loose ends, and a wonderful new year.
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