6. The hole had only one opening. It was not only camouflaged with mud and bricks – it was blocked. He could not have climbed out without someone on the outside removing the covering.

Is DEBKAfile legit or a bunch of crackpots? Would it change anything if Saddam Hussein had been held captive and sold to the Americans rather than courageously captured by them?

They’re spreading a great deal of salt on the roads and I’m low on wiper fluid and budgeting it, cleaning the windshield just a little and only when absolutely necessary, waiting for melting ice to run down the glass and using that to clean off more salt, saving fluid for the ride home when the roads could be really hairy who knows with the result that the world is seen through a thick grey film this morning.

A streetcar sparks and I think of Poland now.

Girl: MGwulggwul.
Dad: [translating] Her mentor said…
Girl: Mgwulggwul.
Dad: She’s going to France for a semester…
Girl: Mgwulggwul.
Mom: Look, would you please just take out the retainer so I can understand you?
Girl: Mgwulggwul.
Dad: She says, Dad understands me.
Mom: Take out the retainer.
Girl: Mgwulggwul.
Dad: It has spit on it.
Girl: Mgwulggwul.
Mom: So what, it’s your spit.
Girl: [removes retainer, wipes finger on dad's pants] Still…
Mom: I mean, it’s not like when your father peels a tangerine and then licks all the sections so no one else steals them from him…
Dad: Mgwulggwul.

The temperature plunged, rain changed to snow, thunder rumbled over our house. It was wonderful. Not so great to drive in however. You’d think Austrians would have figured out driving in snow by now. But the freeway was slowed to a crawl.

My boss grabbed me this morning and dragged me away from my desk and twisted my arm and made me accompany him and an attractive lady from work to the picturesque easternmost province of Austria, namely Burgenland, where we had to visit vintners and taste their products and buy some for receptions at work.

Burgenland typically produces some of the best wind wine in Austria, maybe the best, and we went to some of the best winemakers. Buying from the producers themselves, it is relatively cheap. I picked up a couple cases of this and that for home consumption too. Well, home drinking. Now that my cleaning lady might have been exposed to TB, I hate to say “consumption” anymore.

After making such a big deal of it during November, I suppose I should report in on the results of the Metamorphosism Challenge. As you will recall, the challenge was to write two novels in a single month under hardship conditions for a minimum of 93,000 words.

Continue reading →

We will need a link to a Caspar David Friedrich seascape for this post.
Where are all the Caspar David Friedrich seascapes this morning?

Here are a couple. Not the one I mean though. Imagine this one without the people, painted all only in brown. Oh, here’s a nice one of Andromeda by Gustav Dor