Peace in the Middle East?
Al wonders why peace seems to be impossible to achieve in the Middle East. So do I. There have been fights as long as I can think, and whenever it finally seems like an agreement was just around the corner, someone breaks the armistice again.
During my trip to Kenya a few years ago, I went on a one-week safari. In our minibus were students from (almost) all over the world, among them a couple from Israel. They were about the same age as I, but both had served in the army for two years. For me, it was – and still is – hard to imagine that I would have had to serve the army for two years and learned how to handle a machine gun if I had been born in Israel instead of Germany…
Normally, it all seems to be so far away and almost unreal, but you start to think about it in a different way when you actually meet people who live there and to whom these fights are an immediate danger.
BIFAZ
Der Schockwellenreiter linkt zur Bürgerinitiative für animierte Verkehrszeichen. Das habe ich schon irgendwo mal irgendwann gesehen, aber das ist schon ewig her. Und verlinkt habe ich sie offenbar auch nicht. Aber jetzt.
Grummel, man kann nicht mal auf die Seite mit den animierten Verkehrszeichen linken, denn von der Adresse wird man gleich zur Homepage weitergeleitet. Für Weblogger sind Frames doch keine gute Erfindung…
Update: André sagt, er hätte darauf schon mal gelinkt – aber das war vor Deiner Zeit, Jörg. Und ich hatte es doch verlinkt… Ich glaube, ich werde alt.
Sunset
I hope my dear readers are not bored with yet another sunset… It was just so beautiful today!
The first photo was taken from André’s office’s window, the second from a field nearby.
Mmmmh… Muffins!
Rick Saenz has photos of his daughter baking muffins on Downstairs at Dry Creek. They make me hungry!
Rick, were you thinking of our food conversation when posting the pictures? (I said I love muffins, but few bakeries in Germany have them…)
I’ve been thinking of buying a muffin baking form for months! The problem is, I don’t have much time for baking, and we don’t have a deep freezer. And if I get to bake something, it would be nice to be able to bake a lot of muffins at once, freeze some of them and eat them later…
Here’s a little collection of links to muffin recipes…
Rick, were you thinking of our food conversation when posting the pictures?
In fact, it didn’t even occur to me until you mentioned it. I guess that just shows that muffins are an unremarkable (but delicious!) part of the American culinary landscape. We have home-baked muffins fairly often, especially because Chris can’t eat wheat and muffins are one of the few breads that are easy to make with other grains. Plus they are pretty easy to make.
I don’t think muffins are regional at all in the U.S. Almost every supermarket will have them in its fresh-baked goods section (right next to John’s greasy donuts). And just about anyplace you might go to have a coffee and pastry will have them. I like muffins loaded with blueberries, but I guess my favorite would be a deep-brown bran muffin, nearly crusty on top, with lots of raisins.
I don’t think muffins are regional at all in the U.S. Almost every supermarket will have them in its fresh-baked goods section (right next to John’s greasy donuts). And just about anyplace you might go to have a coffee and pastry will have them.
You make me envious! Muffins are hard to get in Germany, and the few I’ve seen so far were quite expensive.
I guess my favorites are blueberry muffins.
As I browsed websites with muffin recipes, it occured to me that there are so many different kinds, I should really try and bake some.
Das habe ich schon irgendwo mal irgendwann gesehen, aber das ist schon ewig her.
http://spicynoodles.com/2000/02/17
Israel isn’t the only country with manditory military service. As I recall your neighbors in Switzerland have to put in a couple of years — and then they take their guns home with them! It’s a good thing they’re neutral…
Awesome sunset shots!
Israel isn’t the only country with manditory military service. As I recall your neighbors in Switzerland have to put in a couple of years — and then they take their guns home with them! It’s a good thing they’re neutral…
It was not the mandatory military service that got me thinking – we’ve got that in Germany too. It used to be two years a few years back, but not it’s been cut down to 10 months. (In my opinion, this is too short to be useful, but that’s another issue…)
The thing about the Israel military service is that it’s mandatory for both men and women, and I don’t know any other country that has that. It took a long time before women were allowed at all in the German Bundeswehr…
I started thinking about that because one of the Israelis I mentioned was a girl my age, and she had served in the army for two years, learned to operate a gun and all that stuff, while I was spending my time studying physics and having a good time.
Awesome sunset shots!
Thanks!
Ich glaube, ich werde alt.
Na, na… Was soll ich dann erst sagen?
Entweder war das gerade »fishing for compliments« oder Du hast doch folgenden wichtigen Merksatz vergessen: »Solange, wie man noch weiß, wie Alzheimer geschrieben wird, hat man es noch nicht.«
Du hast doch folgenden wichtigen Merksatz vergessen: “Solange, wie man noch weiß, wie Alzheimer geschrieben wird, hat man es noch nicht.”
Ups, muß ich vergessen haben…
Ist das nicht auch ein Zeichen für Alz… Alz… wie hieß das noch mal?