Oh hey, how’s it going on this lovely Sunday morning?
After last week’s Five Things, a few people reached out and offered to bring canned pumpkin purée along from their next trip to the states, but that won’t be necessary. We went to a pumpkin patch last Sunday and my wife made the purée herself, just so that our daughter could make pumpkin bread again. It’s 28 °C outside and I’m getting fall vibes. And this time I won’t have to drive to a bunch of grocery stores a few days before halloween to find a pumpkin that’s suitable for carving, as we already bought that exact pumpkin already. Wow, we’re have the season all figured out already. Not that this is a German tradition, but we mix and match German and American traditions as best as we can, just were it makes sense. So for instane we don’t do Thanksgiving, but I have been cooking a classic American Thanksgiving meal on Christmas for many years now. Oh, speaking of which: for more than a week or so German grocery stores have put Christmas cookies on display in the aisles. I’m really waiting for the moment when all the Easter stuff gets into the stores before December 24.
Anyhow, read these five things now! And please consider to go paid, Christmas is around the corner and good deeds will get noticed by Santa!
The German problem? It’s an analogue country in a digital world
Actually, it’s worse than that. We’re so analogue and I always thought it’s because of old men in charge, but there’s some sort of weird analogue DNA that is hard to replace.
Moleskine Mania: How a Notebook Conquered the Digital Era
I think Moleskines are fantastic. I have a few of them. Yet I never use them. Mostly because my handwriting is pretty bad and I oftentimes can’t decipher what I once wrote…
The Big Baltic Bomb Cleanup
World War II ended 79 years ago and it still has an impact on our lives. Massive amounts of bombs were disposed in the baltic sea to quickly get rid of them and it is not that easy to reclaim all the bombs. This story is interesting to me because I grew up in a small city with an ammunitions factory in World War II and when the war was over, they dumped all the weapons and ammunition in the nearby lake. The little beach was called “Ammunitions Corner” and there was a big sign about no diving, yet every year somebody found some old weapon or hand granade. I guess the attitude towards child safety at the lake was a bit different in the 70s…
America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny
I understand some of the reasons why people like to use cash, but I try to avoid it as much as possible. The penny is a peculiar thing, though.
Protecting the Prairie
“All told, 62 percent of the North American grassland biome —tall-, mixed-, and short-grass prairie—has been lost, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. Here at the eastern edge of that region, the supremely ravaged tallgrass prairie might be the first of those grasslands to completely disappear. This is why, on our bit of land, we destroy trees.” - what a great read. Now I know so much more about the prairie, which has always been an almost magical place to me, thanks to watching too many Western movies when I was a kid.
That’s it. Have a great Sunday! If you missed last Sunday’s edition of Five Things, have a look here:
— Nico