- In 2017, I seem to have been a bit lazy. I did not run a single half-marathon. But with the risk of war rising, I want to become fitter again. Last weekend, I began by running a half-marathon near Pilsen in the Czech Republic.
- And as I visited the European Capital of Culture of 2015, I decided to stay for a whole week.
- If we all stop smoking at the same time, we would gain so much in weight that the Earth would leave its orbit.
- In defense of Jeremy Corbyn, who hasn’t been a spy when they were young?
- I hope you didn’t forget to celebrate/commemorate the Day of the Sea on 23 March?
- Universities that allow students to carry-out online surveys among self-selecting Facebook friends to collect “data” for research papers should be bombed. – Then, the students could study the statistics of saturation bombing.
- Thanks to long-time reader Ana Alves for The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World before the War 1890-1914 by Barbara Tuchman, East West Street by Philippe Sands and Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh.
- Looking at the Brexit transition agreement, it seems that the UK will remain in the EU, except that it will lose voting rights and not sit at the table anymore.
Hmm, great deal, I suppose. - I was really much more impressed by the Paralympics than by the Olympics.
- Thanks to Dieter Schuffenhauer for A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. This classic of travel literature is deservedly one.
- In Bhutan, you can only be a candidate for parliament if you have a university degree.
- When Bolivians travel to countries like the Netherlands, do they get negative altitude sickness?
- Thanks also to Dieter Schuffenhauer for Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India by Shashi Tharoor. I became aware of this book through an interview with Mr Tharoor. I have rarely heard an interviewee speak so eloquently, and it made me curious about his writing.
- Now that we know that Facebook is somewhere between incompetent and criminal, maybe we can all spend more time writing and reading blogs again. I generally find the level of debate on blogs higher, and it’s also easier to find old articles/comments again and to link to each other. It seems a more durable medium than Facebook, let alone Instagraph.
- Thanks to Cindy Lewyn for Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe by Norman Davies and above all for the memoir of her father, Bert Lewyn, On the Run in Nazi Berlin.
- When friends, from whom you haven’t heard in months, suddenly “want to talk to you”, you can bet that they have a legal question. Seriously, in 100% of the cases, no exception.
- For my spring hike, I am considering the idea of walking along the German section of the Roman limes. Have any of you ever done that?
- Some appreciation for my article on suicide:
- Expats are immigrants who refuse to learn the language.
- I always confuse Valentine’s Day and April Fool’s Day.
- This week, there was a sunset here in Bavaria that made me fear that a nuclear power plant had exploded.
- The cyclops was cycling in the cyclone.
- The final season of the best show on TV just began:
The Happy Hermit 
10. Absolutely!
12. Oh, I would love that around here!!!
13. I think it’s possible. I have a cousin, who lives at 2000 m altitude and she always has a headache when she visits us. If we go up to the mountains it goes away, so it might be because her organism is used to lower pressure.
17. Make that IT question in my case ;)
21. April Fools + Easter = Christmas
22. Really? You weren’t afraid of the colorful sunsets above our time-bomb chemical plant. :)
23. … with a cyclamen in her/his hair.
12. I am afraid that a lot of people suddenly would have PhDs from somewhere, then.
13. Or maybe they have a headache trying to understand/learn Hungarian? :P It just gives me a headache trying to pronounce names of places!
17. The funny/sad thing is that those people really believe they are the ONLY one bothering us with a question.
22. I have to state it again, for the record: the most colorful sunsets are to be found in Targu-Mures/Marosvasarhely in Romania/Erdely. Seriously, sunsets in your town are better than the ones on Easter Island.
23. I had to look that one up!
12. Yeap, it’s totally possible :(
13. Nope, she is Hungarian, but lives in the US! :))
23. Really? It’s a quite common flower around here, you can buy it at every flowershop.
23. Based on my experience with bookshops and supermarkets in Targu Mures/Marosvasarhely, I just have to ask if there are also Romanian and Hungarian flowershops?
#13- Absolutely! Okay, well, it’s not the Netherlands, but when I was living in the Washington, DC area, a cousin of mine visited me from La Paz during a typically hot and humid East Coast summer.
It was very balmy, and the first few days, she would feel faint shortly after stepping outside and almost immediately if she would try walking. She said she didn’t feel like any air was entering her lungs. ( I guess that’s what experiencing 100% atmospheric humidity for the first time will do to Altiplanian lungs).
Whenever that feeling hit, we had to seek air-conditioned accommodations. Then she would feel like she could breathe normally again. As a result, I ended up playing tour guide mostly at night.
Wow, that’s quite a strong reaction.
And if she goes to Santa Cruz in Bolivia, she would have much more humid and tropical climate than in DC. (I almost didn’t want to go outside in Santa Cruz, except that the hotel was not air-conditioned either, so it didn’t make much difference. Between Santa Cruz and La Paz, I would always go to La Paz, not only for the climate. But the most agreeable city in Bolivia is Cochabamba, also called the city of eternal spring.)
Pingback: Reblog from The Happy Hermit | Lets do this together
16. I’m told that 194 powers were present during the negotiations for the Treaty of Westphalia. If that count is accurate, then that’s quite a few forgotten kingdoms, duchies and what-have-yous of Europe.
It would be funny if all of them re-emerged and wanted to become independent or autonomous again. We could have tons of referendums and decades of negotiations!
More work for lawyers…
It’s still better than war. ;-)
No doubt. It’s really a win-win – no war, and more billable hours for lawyers. :-)
Re 24: it’s not bad, but here are my thoughts after seeing 1.5 seasons:
1. Beemon is really a joke. Aside from his stupid half-grin/smirk/smile, one doesn’t see any skills, really. He seems to be making every mistake in the book.
2. Philip and Elizabeth, in contrast, seem to be way too skilled. Really, they do everything.
I do like the tensions they show between Philip and Elizabeth.
I fully agree with you!
At some point, I was already thinking that Agent Beemon is portrayed so clumsy that he HAS to turn out to be hero in the final episode, probably saving the world from nuclear war.
And Philip and Elizabeth really are a bit super-human. Even if they had every possible skill, I still don’t see how they would find the time to do all the things they do at different places, plus running a travel agency.