All the papers and news are full with reports about the “discovery” of the Higgs bosom.
I don’t understand it. Not at all.
First, it’s not like Rebekah Higgs was particularly hiding her bosom.
Second, and no offence to Ms Higgs, what is so particular about her bosom?
I admit that I like Tom Cruise, probably because he played the leading part in one of my all-time favourite movies, A Few Good Men.
“You never believed that I really believe this shit, do you?”
To many, Mr Cruise is a red rag because of his membership and active involvement in Scientology. Admittedly, Scientology is a crazy club with weird beliefs. A big waste of time and money at best, something more dangerous at worst, but certainly a ludicrous undertaking. [I can feel a lawsuit coming my way.]
In my view, this is Mr Cruise’s personal business. If he wants to listen to sermons of Xenu and work on becoming a thetan in his spare time, that’s his decision. None of my business. Or yours. It doesn’t make Tom Cruise sound very smart, but then he is an actor and not an intellectual. Secondly, while the Scientology story sounds crazy, it doesn’t sound much more crazy than a lot of the Bible or Quran stories. And nobody asks for a boycott of Christian or Muslim actors.
But then, after remembering the film Valkyrie again, it suddenly dawned on me that Tom Cruise has a little secret.
“And if it will cost me my other eye!”
Connecting the story behind Valkyrie with Tom Cruise’s unusually active involvement in Scientology, I begin to understand:
Tom Cruise is playing a double game. He is working his way up the ranks of Scientology – just like Claus von Stauffenberg did within the Wehrmacht – to get as close as possible to its ultimate leadership. Then, once he will have gained their trust, he will blow them all up. If my theory is right, this will happen on 20 July.
Better luck than in 1944!
I used to have a beautiful blue sweater, which I can be seen wearing in this photo during a visit to Buskett Gardens in Malta.
And then one day, it was gone.
For months, I had been wondering where I had placed it, when I might have given it to a poor freezing soul at the side of the road or who might have taken it without my permission.
Until today, when I spotted Keira Knightley, clearly wearing what used to be my favourite blue sweater – although it looks like she washed it a few times too many.
Unbelievable. Keira Knightley not only took my sweater after our encounter (about which I have only a very vague recollection, I have to admit), but she even shares it with Steve Carell in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.
Other people would be happy that their sweater made it into a movie, but I honestly don’t have that many clothes. If I’ll be robbed by a few more actresses, I’ll be walking around naked. So, Keira or Steve, whoever of you has the garment now, please return it. Thanks.
Tonight, at 2045 CEST: Germany meets Greece in the quarter finals of the European Football Championship 2012.
In a sense only a football match, this encounter is completely overcharged with expectations, hopes and fears. After years of the financial crisis in Greece and the German help in the fighting of – depending on one’s view – this crisis or its aggravation by the German insistence on austerity, the relationship between the two countries and nations is fraught with tension. Germans believe that their retirement cheques is becoming unsafe because Greeks pay no taxes. Greeks on the other hand think that the Germans only pretend to bail them out, while in reality they only give financial injections to their own banks. The inevitable clichés of the “lazy Southern European” on the one and Nazi comparisons on the other side abound.
A miracle will be expected of both national teams tonight. A fair draw would be the best result to ease political tensions, but is not an option in the quarter finals of a European Football Championship. One of them has to win. Worse, one of them has to lose and has to return home in shame. Some in Germany – mainly those who don’t usually show that much interest in football – almost demand a loss of their own team for the sake of European unity.
Because of these excessive expectations, the match between Germany and Greece was secretly brought forward and was already played yesterday. Here is the exclusive report about the match:
(Es gibt auch eine deutsche Version dieses Artikels mit einem deutschsprachigen Video des Spielberichts.)
The journey of your favourite vagabond that began in 2009 with my move to London and last saw me move to Malta continues. I am on the move again after I had briefly returned to London for a few weeks. Even more so than previously, I find London unbearably loud, crowded, noisy, dirty, smelly, polluted, stupid and outrageously expensive. It’s high time to leave this hell hole of a city behind me.
After three years living on islands, first Britain and then Malta, I return to the mainland. I want to have the flexibility again of visiting neighbouring countries by spontaneously hopping on a train or a bus; and the insular mentality also showed in both the UK and Malta.
I have decided to remain in Europe for now and for two reasons: As an EU citizen, I don’t need any visa or residence permit to settle in another EU member state. Also, I find it saddening that in the course of my travels I have been to almost all continents of the world, but I still haven’t seen half of Europe. Most of these as yet unvisited countries are in Eastern and Northern Europe.
My choice fell on Lithuania. I will move to Vilnius on 1 July 2012.
I was drawn to Lithuania because I have never been to the Baltic states. Indeed, I have never even been to any of its neighbouring countries. I plan to visit Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia during my stay in the region. And yes, I will have enough time for all of that.
After living in a metropolis and on a barren rock (which had more charm than this description would make you believe), I was longing to return to a green country. Lithuania promises to be just that.
I am looking forward to going hiking, cycling, camping and just walking through endless forests. And I won’t need to miss the water either, both sweet and salty.
Lithuania should also be an interesting country for a history buff like me, both dating back back a millennium and the more recent history of the 20th century. Independent between the two world wars, then first occupied by the Soviet Union, then the German occupation in 1941, before it finally fell back under Soviet rule three years later and only regained freedom in 1990, Lithuania is a perfect case study for the European history of the last century. Under Nazi-occupation, Lithuania, once a major centre of European Judaism, also played an especially grim part in the Holocaust. The Nazis – and quite a few Lithuanian collaborators – murdered almost the entire Jewish population of Lithuania.
Lithuania even has so much sense of history to celebrate my birthday on 6 July as a public holiday. (Still looking for a present? See here.)
So, in two weeks I’ll be sitting here, reading a book and smoking a cigar:
Why don’t you come for a visit?
If a bank cannot even build a straight office tower, how can you expect it to keep a straight balance sheet?
The headquarters of Bankia in Madrid, Spain:
“We are not only drunk when building office towers.”
In the year 1995
Question: What do you study?
Me: Law.
Reaction: Wow!
In the year 2012
Question: What do you study?
Me: Philosophy.
Reaction: ???
When I studied law more than a decade ago, some of my high school classmates were jealous, the girls admired me and my parents were happy not to question what I was doing during these four years at university. It was largely unwarranted awe and admiration because law is not a particularly hard subject to study, it just requires a lot of reading, some logical thinking and writing skills. I still don’t know why so many fellow students dropped out (about half of them) or failed the bar exam (about a third of the remaining).
“But what shall we do with this philosophy?”
Wherever I went and declared that I studied law, the reaction was “Wow!”
Now, that I study philosophy, the reaction is a totally different one. Often I can see that the questioner regrets posing the question because he or she doesn’t know how to continue the conversation. I can virtually see the question marks in their eyes.
But sooner or later somebody will ask “And what do you want to do with that when you’re finished?” Notwithstanding my disdain for people who believe that philosophy is something that can be or even has to be “finished”, I could come up with some “sensible” or widely accepted replies:
You see, I can think of some possible way to make a living with philosophy. But the truth is, I don’t want to. Because in all honesty,
“To you it may look pointless, but I enjoy it.”
There is a country in Europe
The country is Britain. Or as it pompously calls itself “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.
Well, “stuff happens” one could say. Not all countries can be perfect, not all countries can do well, not all countries can be liberal democracies. But the real question is: what do the people do against this bleak situation? Do they revolt? Do they protest? Do they engage in a civil debate about important issues? Do they try to change their situation? No, no and no.
Why not? Because the dictator monarch throws a big party, gives people a few days off and because the country will have a sports festival for 2 weeks in summer.
“Flags are more important than jobs.”
“Equality is for wimps.”
“Panem et circenses” still works.
Some photographers complain about their models; that they never do what you tell them, that they think they are the better photographers, that they constantly criticize and nag and that they are a spoiled bunch of people.
I don’t have that problem.
I told all of my models to look in the same direction at the same time, and they obeyed.
(photographed in June 2011 during my walk along Hadrian’s Wall)
The Happy Hermit 