Pick-A-Day

March 2024
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Archives

Whatchamacallit 105: Paul Revere and the North Church

Last August I visited Boston where I walked the Freedom Trail.

While there’s a lot of good things to say about the Freedom Trail in theory (great idea!), practically speaking, it has many issues.

Certainly, I enjoyed many moments on the trail, including seeing this statue of Paul Revere with the famous North Church […]

Whatchamacallit 98: Shade

I miss when America was great.

During the Covid-19 crisis, I am going to try and make a point of writing a blog post about an object in my home.

We’ll see how long this lasts.

Boston’s Freedom Trail: Simultaneously Genius and Frustrating

I was recently in Boston as part of a trip to New England – this was an opportunity to, first, strengthen my case for having visited Massachusetts (It’s no longer the state that I have spent the least amount of time in; that is now Arkansas) and, second, to walk the Freedom Trail.

The […]

It’s starting again…

Back in 2004 when I moved to Germany, I constantly had to explain George W. Bush and explain why it was he was (re-)elected president. Much of the time my new friends and colleagues sought to understand how such a great country (like America) could vote for such an idiot – Republican behaving badly.

In […]

Learning English: I’m OK in OK

A couple of months ago, one of my colleagues told me about a book that he’d read in grade 8 English: I’m OK in OK: The Diary of My Year in Oklahoma.

I decided to read the book.

For those of you familiar with the EU ranking of language skills, the book is rated A2 […]

Two things that are annoying about America

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had a lot more interactions with Americans than I normally do, and I was reminded of two things that I find annoying about the States.

First, the drinking age is 21. I cannot think of a single good logical reason for this to be so.

Second, health insurance […]

What the hell is going on in America? A Rant.

Although I’m an American, and although I actually pay taxes in the United States, I’ve tried to avoid immersing myself too far into the details of the current debacle in the United States.

Honestly, I’ve been focusing a lot of my non-work brain time on other issues so my exposure to the problem has been […]

What Unites…

I want to thank everybody who commented and provided suggestions as to what to talk about during my Living in Germany as an American talk.

Amongst the others, I want to thank 50% of My DNA (I stole one of your photos, but I credited you), and PapaScott (I quoted one of his 2009 blog […]

Mothers and Mobility

This past weekend was shockingly lazy: apparently I had a sleep deficit and I made up for it with a vengeance. Other than reading and taking four long naps, I did two significant things: I went to a park (where I read Straight Man, a delightful book), and I went to the gym.

It was […]

Heart(less) Mountain

It snowed last night.

It’s not exactly my worst fear, but it’s come awfully close: It’s snowing in Cody, Wyoming. I got up here with limited road challenges: a few brief periods of limited visibility and a bit of slush here and there.

This morning I went out to find my car covered in […]