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Weird Travel Syndromes
They’re enough to make you want to stay home. Well, no they aren’t. But they certainly make you think.
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A Mental Walkabout
Once upon a time, I’d visit a different foreign country every two years. Those were the days. Now, 60 percent of my income goes toward mortgage and utilities, and I don’t see myself ever being able to leave the country again. That breaks my heart, because travel is my reason for being. Because of this,…
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My Magical European Summer
Recently, I came across a diary that I wrote when I was 19, and I read it for the first time since I wrote it. That summer was the high point of my life. (So far, at least. Who knows what the future holds.) I was traveling through Europe, and I was falling in love.…
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Trump is the New Hitler
I have a German last name, and because of that I have always taken the events that led up to, and occurred during, World War II very seriously. Growing up, I was fascinated by the Diaries of Anne Frank and all things related to concentration camps. I was proud of the fact that my father…
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Ping Pong and Paris
I was in my car when I first heard of the horrifying, senseless, heartbreaking series of events that occurred in Paris on Friday the 13th. I had to pull over to process the many thoughts that I was having. Concern for all my friends and family who live in the area competed with sadness that…
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Why Not Build a Castle?
If I had the luxury of having any career in the world (and some magic guarantee that I’d be able to make a living at it), I would be an experimental archeologist. I love to learn by doing, and there’s no other job in the world that allows you to do just that to such…
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Creative Juices
Recently I started attending a pottery class at my local community college. I’m sure I’ll be blogging more about this once I have some finished products to show you, but today my mind is focused on creativity in general. Some people are more creative than others, of course, but if you have even the tiniest…
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A Horrifying Anniversary That You May Know Nothing About
I’m 49 years old, and I’m just learning about something horrendous that happened on this day only a few years before I was born. I have no idea why this should be the case, other than the fact that I had a spotty and typically subpar Florida public school education. I knew about the Algerian…
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Drawbridge Style
It has been my privilege to be one of the few bridgetenders on the planet to have had the opportunity to operate all three of the most common styles of drawbridges. So here is an extremely basic primer. This is a bascule bridge. These come in the form of a double span, like the…
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It’s No Honeymoon
I heard recently that the tradition of having a honeymoon after one gets married has some very nefarious origins. Back when abducting the bride from a neighboring village or tribe was even more commonplace than it is today, it was a good idea for the man to hide the woman for a couple of weeks.…