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Beginning Schubert

Schubert collection

2018

Robert William Vonnoh, Winter sun and shadow, 1890.

Scrapbook for December

Spot the human dot | What's in a name? | Aspen year

Posted on  UTC 2018-12-01 02:01

Words: 388; reading time: 1 minute

Trouble brewing and coming our way. Image: Neven Krcmarek.

Thoughts for the coming year

But no tidings of comfort and joy.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-12-14 14:38

Words: 1,700; reading time: 7 minutes

The Wordsworths letter to Coleridge, December 1798

13 December: Saint Lucy's Day

220 years ago, William Wordsworth sent his 'Lucy' poems to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-12-09 08:04

Words: 4,916; reading time: 22 minutes

Updated on  2018-12-17

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Alinde D 904: Rochlitz and Schubert

A lesson in metrical magic from the master.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-12-03 13:12

Words: 5,364; reading time: 24 minutes

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 'Maria mit dem Kind', c.1670-80, Dresden.

Quotes and images of the month for December

Quotes: George Eliot Journals, Friedrich Hebbel, Diaries. Images: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Virgin and Child.

Posted on  UTC 2018-12-01 07:32

Words: 2,485; reading time: 11 minutes

Mark Senior (1862?-1927), Trees at Runswick Bay, ND

Scrapbook for November

More Envy of the World™ | InSight lands on Mars | Something for the flag experts | Three-bar flags | Good idea, Angela! | Our aspen | More means less

Posted on  UTC 2018-11-01 02:01

Words: 578; reading time: 2 minutes

Brexit: a status report. Image: Rob Potter on Unsplash.

Brexit: where there's life, there's hope

Parliament 1 : People 0.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-11-24 14:11

Words: 526; reading time: 2 minutes

Rightwing thugs in Chemnitz, caught in the act

Hunting down immigrants in Chemnitz

At last some facts, three months after they were really needed. Better late than never.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-11-19 13:16

Words: 1,285; reading time: 5 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

19 November 1828: the death of Franz Schubert

190 years ago – time to be rational.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-11-18 14:46

Words: 8,774; reading time: 39 minutes

Martin Walser on horseback on the Walser-Brunnen in Überlingen by the sculptor Peter Lenk.

Thinking in tongues

A coda to Albrecht von Haller's Bernese dialect upbringing: some excerpts from Martin Walser's speech 'Remarks on our dialect'.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-11-12 09:56

Words: 1,187; reading time: 5 minutes

Follower of Caravaggio, 'Saint Matthew and the Angel', 1620-30 (detail).

Quote and image of the month for November

Quote: Karl Friedrich von Kübeck: the viva voce examination, 1801. Image: Follower of Caravaggio, Saint Matthew and the Angel.

Posted on  UTC 2018-11-10 10:19

Words: 642; reading time: 2 minutes

Fake piety for Armistice Day 2018 – shrouds and body-bags

Empty gestures make most noise

The fake pieties of Armistice Day keep coming.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-11-08 15:30

Words: 1,281; reading time: 5 minutes

Hans-Georg Maaßen, ex Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz

Protecting the German constitution

Enough empirical truth for the moment, Maaßen. Get out now, before you cause any more trouble for the Dear Leader.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-11-07 17:17

Words: 1,292; reading time: 5 minutes

Nüremburg Chronik, Burning the Jews

Blasphemy redux

The unpleasant face of secular piety.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-11-06 16:23

Words: 1,407; reading time: 6 minutes

Updated on  2019-04-15

Games of chance: Il Sodoma, Le Tre Parche, c1525, (detail)

Lottery wins

Coping with divine rejection – a sufferer writes.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-11-04 10:47

Words: 1,290; reading time: 5 minutes

Nobody listens to me any more!

Richard North, the angry Sage of Bradford

Up a fjord without a paddle. 'My beautiful Flexcit! Wrecked, I tell you, all wrecked.'

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-11-02 16:53

Words: 988; reading time: 4 minutes

The Sopranos – packing heat.

A well-known opera – but which?

Guess.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-11-02 09:32

Words: 447; reading time: 2 minutes

Laurence Sterne, Lord Byron, Arthur Rimbaud

Three early November anniversaries

Tristram Shandy's birth, the death of Byron's 'Boatswain' and Arthur Rimbaud's crossing of the Gotthard Pass.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-11-01 15:28

Words: 2,046; reading time: 9 minutes

Otto Modersohn, Autumn on the Moor, 1895

Scrapbook for October

Kubitschek: down but not out | Aspen calm | The Great British Winter Festival | Gottfried Keller's 'Dreambook'

Posted on  UTC 2018-10-01 02:01

Words: 1,722; reading time: 7 minutes

The leftwing in Hessen, 2018

That German right-wing landslide

German politics through the looking glass.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-10-30 07:18

Words: 725; reading time: 3 minutes

Updated on  2018-10-31

Oil portrait of Albrecht von Haller by Johann Rudolf Huber, Bern, 1735.

Albrecht von Haller's love poem Doris

16 October 2018: 310 years since Haller's birth.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-10-29 08:30

Words: 212; reading time: 1 minute

Pepper the robot

Pepper, the dim robot

Compliant Members of Parliament outclassed by a laptop. It didn't take much.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-10-18 11:31

Words: 555; reading time: 2 minutes

Ballet Zürich's 'Winterreise'

Ballet Zürich's Winterreise

Great despair – and that's only the audience.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-10-15 17:55

Words: 210; reading time: 1 minute

Bavarian flag detail

The Bavarian earthquake

— Did the earth move for you, Marie?
— Not that I noticed. Perhaps next time.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-10-15 10:05

Words: 507; reading time: 2 minutes

No sleep for you, matey!

Digital servitude

From digital deathbed to bridal-bed bliss in one hectic weekend.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-10-10 17:25

Words: 1,145; reading time: 5 minutes

Updated on  2018-10-16

SWISS – Die Airline der Schweiz

Phoenix rising

A review of Werner Vogt's new book SWISS – Die Airline der Schweiz

Posted by George Meredith on  UTC 2018-10-04 07:24

Words: 1,233; reading time: 5 minutes

Caravaggio, Boy with a Basket of Fruit, c1593

Scrapbook for September

Lunacy of the Year award | Of moles and men | Late summer Tennyson

Posted on  UTC 2018-09-01 02:01

Words: 683; reading time: 3 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Gay days in Old Vienna?

Oh no, not that again!

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-09-30 22:30

Words: 1,484; reading time: 6 minutes

Theresa May explains

Is Theresa May the bottom of the U-bend?

Probably not: it appears to be one long pipe going straight down.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-09-21 18:54

Words: 746; reading time: 3 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

How to write a big book in two days

Professor Julian Horton shows us how.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-09-19 17:02

Words: 1,045; reading time: 4 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Schubert's downward spiral, 1827

Driven to despair by a fourteen-year-old girl, apparently.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-09-17 11:18

Words: 9,062; reading time: 41 minutes

Updated on  2018-09-18

Frank Crumit (1889-1943) in the 1920s. Image: United States Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ggbain-35308.

The pig got up and slowly walked away

7 September: 75 years since the death of Frank Crumit.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-09-04 13:23

Words: 340; reading time: 1 minute

Peder Severin Krøyer, Roses, 1893

Scrapbook for August

Rattling the begging bowl | Coexistance | Ten to three | The noise of apples falling from trees | Tommy Robinson free | The obituary from Hell

Posted on  UTC 2018-08-01 02:01

Words: 2,056; reading time: 9 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Franz Schubert in search of lost time

Does happiness linger in places? No.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-09-01 16:37

Words: 10,829; reading time: 49 minutes

Updated on  2018-09-07

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Rolling the bacterial dice in Old Vienna

Ah, Treponema pallidum pallidum! — and who's your pretty friend?

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-08-23 15:17

Words: 10,540; reading time: 47 minutes

Ferdinand Hodler, Wilhelm Tell (Detail) 1896-97

Google, facebook, Switzerland – peas in a pod

Internet user tracking the official Swiss way.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-08-13 11:25

Words: 1,497; reading time: 6 minutes

Updated on  2019-07-28

Hot in here, innit? Anselm Feuerbach, 'The Symposium', 1871-74

Language, Truth and Logic

We're right, you're wrong. Go away and shut up.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-08-06 14:41

Words: 2,813; reading time: 12 minutes

Nicola Simbari, 'Gennarino', 1980

Scrapbook for July

Two lettuce leaves short of a salad | Tommy Robinson | For your diary | Our aspen in summer | Here we go again | Don't do it, Vernon! | The free market | That Brexit shambles | Novichok: the story so far

Posted on  UTC 2018-07-01 02:01

Words: 1,434; reading time: 6 minutes

The Au Peninsula in the Lake of Zurich

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock: Der Zürchersee

Love Island 30 July 1750, with a Seefahrt that is not to be sniffed at. A meditation for the Swiss National Day, 1 August.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-07-30 17:26

Words: 11,893; reading time: 54 minutes

Updated on  2020-10-22

Harold Monro in the Poetry Bookshop in 1926

The Poetry Bookshop 1913-1935

Just what was needed on the eve of the Great War.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-07-17 07:43

Words: 3,678; reading time: 16 minutes

Updated on  2019-01-06

Theresa May 2018-07-13: Telling it like it isn't

Brexit: statements to remember

Just make sure you remember them correctly.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-07-14 10:02

Words: 1,002; reading time: 4 minutes

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's herbarium for Julie Boy de la Tour, 1772 (detail).

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's herbarium 1772

2 July 1778: 240th anniversary of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's death.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-07-13 10:53

Words: 487; reading time: 2 minutes

Marian Kamensky, 'Muttitanic' 25 November 2017. www.humor-kamensky.sk

Germany: where are we? Where are we going?

Nowhere. Fast. Does it matter? No.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-07-10 09:57

Words: 1,152; reading time: 5 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Franz Schubert below stairs

July-November 1818: 200 years ago in Hungary.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-07-08 16:22

Words: 18,696; reading time: 1 hour 24 minutes

Updated on  2019-05-08

Peder Ilsted, 'A Sunlit Interior', 1909

Scrapbook for June

Solar sucks | Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) | The Art of the Deal | Yet more site changes | More site changes | Site changes | Trump meets Rump

Posted on  UTC 2018-06-01 02:01

Words: 1,123; reading time: 5 minutes

A figure from the Kaiserbrunnen in Konstanz, Germany

The Kaiserbrunnen in Konstanz

25 years ago the 'Fountain of the Emperors' caught up with the modern world.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-06-28 09:44

Words: 4,287; reading time: 19 minutes

Dance of death: From Danny Boyle's NHS drama at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012.

5 July 1948: 70 years of the NHS soup kitchen

It could have been worse. No, it couldn't.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-06-25 07:44

Words: 4,242; reading time: 19 minutes

Updated on  2018-10-13

Generalfeldmarschall Rommel 1942/43

Folk Devils and Moral Panics

Just don't mention the war – even if you manage to remember it.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-06-22 11:22

Words: 1,503; reading time: 6 minutes

'And always hold on tight to Nurse, for fear of meeting something worse'

All at sea with Seehofer

Sink or swim time for Germany's flexible Interior Minister and his aggrieved party.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-06-20 13:23

Words: 1,892; reading time: 8 minutes

The puce and black cover of 'Blast', issue 1, 20 June 1914.

20 June 1914: blasting and blessing

Whipping up an artistic storm as the thunderclouds gather.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-06-18 17:33

Words: 5,086; reading time: 23 minutes

Adolf Hitler in 1937 greeting the crowds from a window in Bayreuth (detail). Image: NZZ/Heritage Images.

Hitler: demon, dummy or smooth operator?

Oh no, not him again…

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-06-12 09:14

Words: 1,147; reading time: 5 minutes

E-Prix spectators in Zurich 10.06.2018. (detail) ©Karin Hofer/NZZ.

The Swiss, bless 'em!

Sense and senselessness, all in one weekend.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-06-11 13:03

Words: 512; reading time: 2 minutes

Henriette Browne, 'A Girl Writing', c.1870 (detail).

Image of the month for June

Henriette Browne, A Girl Writing.

Posted on  UTC 2018-06-10 11:07

Words: 959; reading time: 4 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

3 June 1828: Fugue at midnight

Franz Schubert once again working for nothing, 190 years ago.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-06-03 11:22

Words: 5,324; reading time: 24 minutes

Updated on  2018-06-27

Rage against the Google search machine.

Leftist bias at Google?

Surely not! Seek and ye shall find…

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-06-02 09:12

Words: 116; reading time: 1 minute

Kees van Dongen, 'Spring', 1906

Scrapbook for May

Site changes | Yulia Skripal | Yet more on the GDPR | The GDPR(?) | UK trade post-Brexit | Playing the Windsors | Comment of the day | That time of year when… | 999 blue balloons | Site changes

Posted on  UTC 2018-05-01 02:01

Words: 1,416; reading time: 6 minutes

The defenestration by Václav Brožík (1851-1901) c1889 (detail)

23 May 1618: the Second Defenestration of Prague

400 years ago, the brutal start of the brutal Thirty Years' War.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-05-30 08:12

Words: 2,975; reading time: 13 minutes

Tommy Robinson gagged

Tommy Robinson: jailbird

That'll learn him. We certainly hope so.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-05-28 10:14

Words: 5,048; reading time: 22 minutes

Updated on  2018-06-14

–Nobody listens to me anymore! –I wonder why?

Richard North: still bouncing off the walls

A quick glimpse through the peephole of his padded cell. No change – best not open the door.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-05-27 10:12

Words: 910; reading time: 4 minutes

Breaking gender rocks in the German language quarry.

German transgender gender

No laughing matter.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-05-26 16:03

Words: 4,777; reading time: 21 minutes

Updated on  2018-06-11

John William Waterhouse R.A., Hylas and the Nymphs, 1896. Image:©Manchester City Galleries.

Serious advice for all men

Scouting for Girls or Boys. Some words for the innocent: Be prepared.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-05-23 08:23

Words: 1,406; reading time: 6 minutes

Updated on  2018-06-06

One of the lawyers, an illustration by Gustave Doré from the 'Works of Rabelais', 1894 edition.

Peter Winkler reports from Planet Zog

At last, the Swiss get to hear the truth about that Trump chap. It's worse than they thought.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-05-22 10:49

Words: 1,322; reading time: 6 minutes

Henry Windsor (layabout) and Meghan Markle (Social Justice Warrior)

British Republic Day

20 May 2018 was the start; the end will come sooner than anyone thinks.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-05-21 11:12

Words: 1,194; reading time: 5 minutes

Updated on  2018-07-18

Henry Windsor (layabout) and Meghan Markle (humanitarian, looking eerily like Wallis Simpson, that other American)

Staring into the cultural abyss

A wedding that will be remembered – but for all the wrong reasons.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-05-20 08:14

Words: 1,388; reading time: 6 minutes

Updated on  2018-05-21

Irish customs stop

Brexit and Ireland

Let the UK have a fresh start with Ireland.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-05-18 16:46

Words: 759; reading time: 3 minutes

Updated on  2018-07-13

Suicide by cop in Gaza

Suicide by cop in Gaza

David picks up a rock and lobs it in Goliath's direction. We know how this will end.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-05-17 11:09

Words: 601; reading time: 2 minutes

Updated on  2018-05-17

Henry Windsor (layabout) and Meghan Markle (humanitarian, looking eerily like Wallis Simpson, that other American)

Diana's revenge

The fall of the House of Windsor: coming along nicely.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-05-16 16:20

Words: 617; reading time: 2 minutes

Illustrated London News, Saturday 6 October 1951: Churchill and Rufus leaving Buckingham Palace.

Winston Churchill: animal lover

Horses, dogs, cats, geese, goldfish – even the odd ladybird.

Posted by Werner Vogt on  UTC 2018-05-16 16:13

Words: 1,801; reading time: 8 minutes

Ogden Nash, 'The Primrose Path', Simon and Schuster, New York, 1935. Dustcover.

Behind the copyright ramparts

Doing dead artists no favours at all.

Posted by George Meredith on  UTC 2018-05-11 09:03

Words: 1,193; reading time: 5 minutes

Switzerland meets the Duracell bunny.

Our battery-powered Smart Grid

Dumb as a rock – but at least it really is dumb now.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-05-09 15:03

Words: 912; reading time: 4 minutes

Johann Richard Seel (1819–1875), 'Der Eintritt der Censur in Deutschland' or 'Der deutsche Michel in der Gewalt der Zensur', 1842 (detail).

The New Hambacher Fest 2018

Those right-wing thugs winding us up again. Good job so few people heard about it.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-05-08 14:35

Words: 2,810; reading time: 12 minutes

Updated on  2018-05-10

Karl Marx (1818-1883) in Hannover in 1867. Image: Friedrich Karl Wunder (1815-1893)

5 May 1818: Marxmas

The 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. Still crazy after all these years.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-05-02 06:03

Words: 5,175; reading time: 23 minutes

Updated on  2018-05-05

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron by Richard Westall, 1813

3 May 1810: Lord Byron and Lt. Ekenhead swim across the Hellespont

Not as simple as it sounds.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-05-01 06:34

Words: 5,348; reading time: 24 minutes

Vincent van Gogh, 'Branch of an Almond Tree in Blossom', 1890.

Scrapbook for April

King Louis | Pallywood | The art of wellbeing tour | Sun Queen nuts | Germany: Toddlers mixing paint | Patience

Posted on  UTC 2018-04-01 02:01

Words: 675; reading time: 3 minutes

Tom Evans working the media megaphone

The case of Alfie Evans

Awful. In every respect.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-04-29 13:02

Words: 1,090; reading time: 4 minutes

Jet emissions in 1965

The hydrogen fuel cell takes flight

Bye bye, kerosene. You have served us well but it's time to go.

Posted by George Meredith on  UTC 2018-04-27 13:03

Words: 2,202; reading time: 10 minutes

Updated on  2018-04-28

Victor Klemperer 1952. Image: Bundesarchiv

20 April 1945: Hitler's last birthday

The Klemperers' refugee flight during the last months of the Nazi regime.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-04-20 06:32

Words: 13,387; reading time: 60 minutes

Francis Cruikshank, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston c1855

The poisoning of the Skripals

An opera buffa of Wagnerian length, lacking all humour.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-04-06 13:03

Words: 660; reading time: 3 minutes

Ségolène Royal on the road to nowhere.

On the French road to nowhere

And currently getting nowhere fast, too.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-04-05 14:16

Words: 973; reading time: 4 minutes

Updated on  2019-07-30

Novichok? No, Aceto Balsamico di Svizzera

Balsamico, Swiss style

Cheap and cheerful – a good Helvetian compromise.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-04-05 07:12

Words: 344; reading time: 1 minute

Aceto balsamico di Modena tradizionale - no screw tops here!

3 April 2018: Happy birthday, Balsamico!

Twenty years and still going strong.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-04-03 09:12

Words: 1,897; reading time: 8 minutes

Jan Davidszoon de Heem, 'Stillleben mit Vogelnest', post 1670 (detail)

Dr Groddeck will see you now

Our Easter special: a psychoanalyst's view of Jan Davidszoon de Heem's Still life with bird's nest.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-04-01 07:22

Words: 2,249; reading time: 10 minutes

Paul Klee, 'The Lamb', 1920.

Scrapbook for March

The cloud of unknowing | Nerve gas: you ask, we answer. | The cheque's in the post | Amelia Earhart | Persil Man | Dog-bites-man

Posted on  UTC 2018-03-01 02:01

Words: 1,139; reading time: 5 minutes

Weather vane. Photo by Jordan Ladikos on Unsplash

State of the Climate 2017

The ten points you need to know.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-03-28 10:23

Words: 629; reading time: 2 minutes

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) 'Ein Weberaufstand - Beratung', 'Weavers' Revolt - Discussion', 1897.

Figures of Speech discussion group closed

Silence is golden, it seems.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-03-23 19:05

Words: 76; reading time: 1 minute

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

26 March 1828: Schubert's only concert

A breakthrough for Franz 190 years ago that came just too late.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-03-22 09:54

Words: 3,969; reading time: 18 minutes

General Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937)

21 March 1918: Operation Michael

The beginning of the end of the First World War, one hundred years ago.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-03-20 07:22

Words: 1,714; reading time: 7 minutes

Take a guess

The key question in abstract art

What on earth does it mean?

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-03-19 07:21

Words: 1,000; reading time: 4 minutes

Herdenschutzhund

Going to the dogs

The decline and fall of Andermatt, Switzerland.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-03-11 14:32

Words: 2,343; reading time: 10 minutes

Updated on  2019-09-28

The Sound of Music, 1965: The barely legal Liesl and the Nazi postboy Rolfe working on their Anschluss.

The Sound of Martial Music

Seven days in March eighty years ago: the Austrian Anschluss.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-03-06 07:03

Words: 10,056; reading time: 45 minutes

Updated on  2018-03-24

Embracing the EU: You've come such a long way, big boy!

Judgement of Solomon required

Never mind. Let's all sit down and have a chat about it.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-03-01 10:18

Words: 1,139; reading time: 5 minutes

Dim Theresa May. Image: Breitbart/Geoff Pugh/AFP/Getty.

To Charlotte While Shaving

A remarkably prescient verse portrait of the childhood of Theresa May.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-03-01 07:24

Words: 440; reading time: 2 minutes

Gustave Caillebotte, 'Rooftops In The Snow', 1878.

Scrapbook for February

Dementia and alcohol | A new dawn breaks | Deplorable fake news | Not so grand Coalition | Germany: Grand Coalition defined | Cuprinol Man

Posted on  UTC 2018-02-01 02:01

Words: 1,699; reading time: 7 minutes

Götz Kubitschek speaking at the 'Zukunft Heimat' demo in Cottbus, 24.02.2018

'Now WE ask the questions'

The wind of change in Germany? Götz Kubitschek's speech to the Zukunft Heimat demonstration in Cottbus on 24 February.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-02-27 10:43

Words: 1,966; reading time: 8 minutes

Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst

22 February 1943: the White Rose

Hans and Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst: guillotined on this day 75 years ago.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-02-24 15:33

Words: 950; reading time: 4 minutes

The Swiss PostAuto service

The PostAuto car crash

The unpleasant whiff of subsidy corruption in Switzerland.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-02-24 10:12

Words: 1,275; reading time: 5 minutes

Updated on  2019-07-28

Nikolas Cruz looking out of this world on his mugshot (Broward County Jail).

Mass shootings in the USA

No quick fix, no easy solution.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-02-23 10:49

Words: 861; reading time: 3 minutes

Kirsty Sharman

Kippered Kirsty: a lesson to us all

In defence of the unreasonable, the bloody-minded and the pig-headed amongst us.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-02-21 10:12

Words: 1,077; reading time: 4 minutes

Updated on  2018-02-24

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Midnight, 21 February 1818

On this day 200 years ago, Franz Schubert was drunk in charge of an inkpot.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-02-21 00:01

Words: 6,383; reading time: 29 minutes

Martin Schulz. Image: ©SPD (detail)

Martin… er… who?

The German Foreign Minister for 36 hours. Gone and soon to be completely forgotten.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-02-10 10:14

Words: 515; reading time: 2 minutes

Updated on  2018-02-10

FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page

It's a hard life at the FBI

Maybe get a blister on your little finger. Maybe get a blister on your thumb.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-02-08 13:01

Words: 580; reading time: 2 minutes

Updated on  2018-02-25

Richard Nixon in 1974

Watergate through the looking glass

No smoking gun but a lot of mirrors.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-02-05 10:07

Words: 840; reading time: 3 minutes

Effete, hypercritical, unforgiving: Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931), Count Robert de Montesquiou 1897, ©RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay) (detail).

Desperately hating Donald

The German-speaking media opines on President Trump's SOTUS speech.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-02-02 22:19

Words: 4,993; reading time: 22 minutes

Updated on  2018-02-07

Logo of the NoBillag referendum initiative.

Pulling the plug on the Swiss broadcaster

An interesting referendum coming up on 4 March in Switzerland.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-02-01 07:23

Words: 751; reading time: 3 minutes

Updated on  2018-03-04

Elizabeth Layton-Nel (1917-2007), taken sometime during her war service.

The real Elizabeth Layton

Wartime clouds of smoke in 10 Downing Street.

Posted by Werner Vogt on  UTC 2018-02-01 08:14

Words: 1,876; reading time: 8 minutes

Dim Theresa May. Image: Breitbart/Geoff Pugh/AFP/Getty.

The Peter Principle – May extension

Every day more and more people ask themselves: How did someone as dim and incompetent as Theresa May get to be Prime Minister of Britain?

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-02-01 07:34

Words: 3,658; reading time: 16 minutes

Updated on  2018-02-24

Vincent van Gogh, 'The Starry Night', 1895 (detail).

Quote and image of the month for January

Quote: Gérard de Nerval, Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie. Image: Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night.

Posted on  UTC 2018-01-01 01:02

Words: 454; reading time: 2 minutes

Paul Klee, Red Balloon, 1922

Scrapbook for January

Germany: no change – as usual | The End of the Rainbow | A word to the wise | Ordinary Passengers | Our solitary aspen cluster | NHS excuse of the week | Envy-of-the-World™ – no change | Warpaint | Eight dummies and a funeral

Posted on  UTC 2018-01-01 02:01

Words: 1,438; reading time: 6 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

Franz Schubert's 31st birthday

31 January 1828. Celebrating his last birthday with a big hit.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-01-30 08:32

Words: 1,216; reading time: 5 minutes

Franz Schubert, Pencil sketch by Friedrich Lieder, 1827

January 1818: Franz Schubert dodges the draft

Saved for musical posterity by three quarters of an inch.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-01-24 17:15

Words: 1,087; reading time: 4 minutes

Updated on  2018-02-14

Saint Meinrad being clubbed to death in front of his ravens.

21 January: Saint Meinrad's Day

Clubbing in the Dark Forest. Even the ravens were upset.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-01-21 08:12

Words: 1,127; reading time: 5 minutes

Dr James Hanson telling the US Congress in 1988: 'Hand over the cash or the planet gets it.'

Hotting things up in the USA

A guide to making measurements fit the theory.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-01-19 15:20

Words: 797; reading time: 3 minutes

Don't drink the green stuff! Too late – meet Mr Climate.

Swiss Government-sponsored CAGW alarmism

Does the Swiss Federal Metereological Office actually believe the stuff they write? We hope not.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-01-18 10:22

Words: 4,922; reading time: 22 minutes

Updated on  2018-01-30

'Darkest Hour', 2017, poster (detail)

Gary Oldman shines in Darkest Hour

An actor with Winston Churchill's DNA – A review of Joe Wright's film Darkest Hour.

Posted by Werner Vogt on  UTC 2018-01-16 07:19

Words: 915; reading time: 4 minutes

Karl Marx (1818-1883) in Hannover in 1867. Image: Friedrich Karl Wunder (1815-1893)

The Base and the Superstructure

Why you can never control social media. It is what it is.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-01-14 14:37

Words: 5,557; reading time: 25 minutes

Updated on  2018-01-14

W.H. Auden, ND

W.H. Auden's poem The Witnesses

Poetry for the social media age.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-01-10 14:56

Words: 967; reading time: 4 minutes

Dim Theresa May. Image: Breitbart/Geoff Pugh/AFP/Getty.

What Theresa did next

Our puzzled readers write.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-01-09 10:14

Words: 134; reading time: 1 minute

Stollenloch ©Natascha Knecht, NZZ, 29 May 2013. 'Eigernordwand: Wie ein Zwerg am Berg'.

Hole in the wall

The one in the north wall of the Eiger.

Posted by Austin Morris on  UTC 2018-01-06 15:55

Words: 546; reading time: 2 minutes

Mia Valentin, Kandel

Mistrust of strangers

Too late for Mia Valentin.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-01-05 08:23

Words: 2,757; reading time: 12 minutes

Updated on  2018-09-18

Beatrix von Storch, AfD inciter of hatred

New Year's greetings from the fuzz

The police in Cologne spreading happiness around.

Posted by Thersites on  UTC 2018-01-02 16:40

Words: 612; reading time: 2 minutes

Heinrich Danioth, Föhnwacht, Bahnhof Flüelen (detail)

Two Swiss railway station waiting-room murals

Witnessing the collapse of civilisation. Perhaps.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-01-02 10:17

Words: 2,469; reading time: 11 minutes

Cover of Der Spiegel, 44/1979, 29.10.1979

Were the Nazis left-wing extremists?

Yes.

Posted by Mad Mitch on  UTC 2018-01-01 07:03

Words: 1,680; reading time: 7 minutes

Mrs. Dorothy Spreadbury, Inventress of the Oxford Sausage.

New Year's Greetings from the Oxford Sausage, 1772

Student humour 245 years ago. No safe spaces here.

Posted by Richard on  UTC 2018-01-01 07:12

Words: 63; reading time: 1 minute

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