2018

Scrapbook for December

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

UTC 2018-12-01 02:01

Words: 388; reading time: 1 minute

Thoughts for the coming year

But no tidings of comfort and joy.

Richard Law UTC 2018-12-14 14:38

Words: 1,700; reading time: 7 minutes

13 December: Saint Lucy's Day

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-12-09 08:04

Words: 4,916; reading time: 22 minutes

Updated on 2018-12-17

Alinde D 904: Rochlitz and Schubert

A lesson in metrical magic from the master.

Richard Law UTC 2018-12-03 13:12

Words: 5,364; reading time: 24 minutes

Quotes and images of the month for December

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

UTC 2018-12-01 07:32

Words: 2,485; reading time: 11 minutes

Scrapbook for November

UTC 2018-11-01 02:01

Words: 578; reading time: 2 minutes

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

Parliament 1 : People 0.

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-24 14:11

Words: 526; reading time: 2 minutes

Hunting down immigrants in Chemnitz

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-19 13:16

Words: 1,285; reading time: 5 minutes

19 November 1828: the death of Franz Schubert

190 years ago – time to be rational.

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-18 14:46

Words: 8,774; reading time: 39 minutes

Thinking in tongues

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-12 09:56

Words: 1,187; reading time: 5 minutes

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.

UTC 2018-11-10 10:19

Words: 642; reading time: 2 minutes

Empty gestures make most noise

The fake pieties of Armistice Day keep coming.

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-08 15:30

Words: 1,281; reading time: 5 minutes

Protecting the German constitution

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-07 17:17

Words: 1,292; reading time: 5 minutes

Blasphemy redux

The unpleasant face of secular piety.

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-06 16:23

Words: 1,407; reading time: 6 minutes

Updated on 2019-04-15

Lottery wins

Coping with divine rejection – a sufferer writes.

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-04 10:47

Words: 1,290; reading time: 5 minutes

Richard North, the angry Sage of Bradford

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-02 16:53

Words: 988; reading time: 4 minutes

A well-known opera – but which?

Guess.

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-02 09:32

Words: 447; reading time: 2 minutes

Three early November anniversaries

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-11-01 15:28

Words: 2,046; reading time: 9 minutes

Scrapbook for October

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

UTC 2018-10-01 02:01

Words: 1,722; reading time: 7 minutes

That German right-wing landslide

Germany through the looking glass.

Richard Law UTC 2018-10-30 07:18

Words: 725; reading time: 3 minutes

Updated on 2018-10-31

Albrecht von Haller's love poem Doris

16 October 2018: 310 years since Haller's birth. [3 pages]

Richard Law UTC 2018-10-29 08:30

Words: 11,953; reading time: 54 minutes

Pepper, the dim robot

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-10-18 11:31

Words: 555; reading time: 2 minutes

Ballet Zürich's Winterreise

Great despair – and that's only the audience.

Richard Law UTC 2018-10-15 17:55

Words: 210; reading time: 1 minute

The Bavarian earthquake

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-10-15 10:05

Words: 507; reading time: 2 minutes

Digital servitude

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-10-10 17:25

Words: 1,145; reading time: 5 minutes

Updated on 2018-10-16

Phoenix rising

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-10-04 07:24

Words: 1,233; reading time: 5 minutes

Scrapbook for September

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

UTC 2018-09-01 02:01

Words: 683; reading time: 3 minutes

Gay days in Old Vienna?

Oh no, not that again! [3 pages]

Richard Law UTC 2018-09-30 22:30

Words: 10,597; reading time: 48 minutes

Is Theresa May the bottom of the U-bend?

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-09-21 18:54

Words: 746; reading time: 3 minutes

How to write a big book in two days

Professor Julian Horton shows us how.

Richard Law UTC 2018-09-19 17:02

Words: 1,045; reading time: 4 minutes

Schubert's downward spiral, 1827

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-09-17 11:18

Words: 9,062; reading time: 41 minutes

Updated on 2018-09-18

The pig got up and slowly walked away

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-09-04 13:23

Words: 335; reading time: 1 minute

Scrapbook for August

UTC 2018-08-01 02:01

Words: 2,056; reading time: 9 minutes

Franz Schubert in search of lost time

Does happiness linger in places? No.

Richard Law UTC 2018-09-01 16:37

Words: 10,917; reading time: 49 minutes

Updated on 2018-09-07

Rolling the bacterial dice in Old Vienna

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-08-23 15:17

Words: 10,540; reading time: 47 minutes

Google, facebook, Switzerland – peas in a pod

Internet user tracking the official Swiss way.

Richard Law UTC 2018-08-13 11:25

Words: 1,497; reading time: 6 minutes

Updated on 2019-07-28

Language, Truth and Logic

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-08-06 14:41

Words: 2,813; reading time: 12 minutes

Scrapbook for July

UTC 2018-07-01 02:01

Words: 1,434; reading time: 6 minutes

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.

Richard Law UTC 2018-07-30 17:26

Words: 11,893; reading time: 54 minutes

Updated on 2020-10-22

The Poetry Bookshop 1913-1935

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-07-17 07:43

Words: 3,678; reading time: 16 minutes

Updated on 2019-01-06

Brexit: statements to remember

Just make sure you remember them correctly.

Richard Law UTC 2018-07-14 10:02

Words: 1,000; reading time: 4 minutes

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's herbarium 1772

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-07-13 10:53

Words: 487; reading time: 2 minutes

Germany: where are we? Where are we going?

Nowhere. Fast. Does it matter? No.

Richard Law UTC 2018-07-10 09:57

Words: 1,152; reading time: 5 minutes

Franz Schubert below stairs

July-November 1818: 200 years ago in Hungary.

Richard Law UTC 2018-07-08 16:22

Words: 19,038; reading time: 1 hour 26 minutes

Updated on 2019-05-08

Scrapbook for June

UTC 2018-06-01 02:01

Words: 1,123; reading time: 5 minutes

The Kaiserbrunnen in Konstanz

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-06-28 09:44

Words: 4,287; reading time: 19 minutes

5 July 1948: 70 years of the NHS soup kitchen

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-06-25 07:44

Words: 4,242; reading time: 19 minutes

Updated on 2018-10-13

Folk Devils and Moral Panics

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-06-22 11:22

Words: 1,503; reading time: 6 minutes

All at sea with Seehofer

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-06-20 13:23

Words: 1,892; reading time: 8 minutes

20 June 1914: blasting and blessing

Whipping up an artistic storm as the thunderclouds gather.

Richard Law UTC 2018-06-18 17:33

Words: 5,086; reading time: 23 minutes

Hitler: demon, dummy or smooth operator?

Oh no, not him again…

Richard Law UTC 2018-06-12 09:14

Words: 1,147; reading time: 5 minutes

The Swiss, bless 'em!

Sense and senselessness, all in one weekend.

Richard Law UTC 2018-06-11 13:03

Words: 512; reading time: 2 minutes

Image of the month for June

Henriette Browne, A Girl Writing.

UTC 2018-06-10 11:07

Words: 959; reading time: 4 minutes

3 June 1828: Fugue at midnight

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-06-03 11:22

Words: 5,324; reading time: 24 minutes

Updated on 2018-06-27

Leftist bias at Google?

Surely not! Seek and ye shall find…

Richard Law UTC 2018-06-02 09:12

Words: 116; reading time: 1 minute

Scrapbook for May

UTC 2018-05-01 02:01

Words: 1,416; reading time: 6 minutes

23 May 1618: the Second Defenestration of Prague

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-30 08:12

Words: 2,975; reading time: 13 minutes

Tommy Robinson: jailbird

That'll learn him. We certainly hope so.

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-28 10:14

Words: 5,048; reading time: 22 minutes

Updated on 2018-06-14

Richard North: still bouncing off the walls

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-27 10:12

Words: 910; reading time: 4 minutes

German transgender gender

No laughing matter.

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-26 16:03

Words: 4,777; reading time: 21 minutes

Updated on 2018-06-11

Serious advice for all men

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-23 08:23

Words: 1,406; reading time: 6 minutes

Updated on 2018-06-06

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.

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-22 10:49

Words: 1,322; reading time: 6 minutes

British Republic Day

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-21 11:12

Words: 1,194; reading time: 5 minutes

Updated on 2018-07-18

Staring into the cultural abyss

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-20 08:14

Words: 1,388; reading time: 6 minutes

Updated on 2018-05-21

Brexit and Ireland

Let the UK have a fresh start with Ireland.

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-18 16:46

Words: 759; reading time: 3 minutes

Updated on 2018-07-13

Suicide by cop in Gaza

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-17 11:09

Words: 601; reading time: 2 minutes

Updated on 2018-05-17

Diana's revenge

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-16 16:20

Words: 617; reading time: 2 minutes

Winston Churchill: animal lover

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

Werner Vogt UTC 2018-05-16 16:13

Words: 1,801; reading time: 8 minutes

Behind the copyright ramparts

Doing dead artists no favours at all.

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-11 09:03

Words: 1,193; reading time: 5 minutes

Our battery-powered Smart Grid

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-09 15:03

Words: 912; reading time: 4 minutes

The New Hambacher Fest 2018

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-08 14:35

Words: 2,789; reading time: 12 minutes

Updated on 2018-05-10

5 May 1818: Marxmas

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-02 06:03

Words: 5,175; reading time: 23 minutes

Updated on 2018-05-05

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

Not as simple as it sounds.

Richard Law UTC 2018-05-01 06:34

Words: 5,348; reading time: 24 minutes

Scrapbook for April

UTC 2018-04-01 02:01

Words: 669; reading time: 3 minutes

The case of Alfie Evans

Awful. In every respect.

Richard Law UTC 2018-04-29 13:02

Words: 1,090; reading time: 4 minutes

The hydrogen fuel cell takes flight

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-04-27 13:03

Words: 2,202; reading time: 10 minutes

Updated on 2018-04-28

20 April 1945: Hitler's last birthday

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-04-20 06:32

Words: 13,387; reading time: 60 minutes

The poisoning of the Skripals

An opera buffa of Wagnerian length, lacking all humour.

Richard Law UTC 2018-04-06 13:03

Words: 660; reading time: 3 minutes

On the French road to nowhere

And currently getting nowhere fast, too.

Richard Law UTC 2018-04-05 14:16

Words: 973; reading time: 4 minutes

Updated on 2019-07-30

Balsamico, Swiss style

Cheap and cheerful – a good Helvetian compromise.

Richard Law UTC 2018-04-05 07:12

Words: 344; reading time: 1 minute

3 April 2018: Happy birthday, Balsamico!

Twenty years and still going strong.

Richard Law UTC 2018-04-03 09:12

Words: 1,897; reading time: 8 minutes

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.

Richard Law UTC 2018-04-01 07:22

Words: 2,249; reading time: 10 minutes

Scrapbook for March

UTC 2018-03-01 02:01

Words: 1,139; reading time: 5 minutes

State of the Climate 2017

The ten points you need to know.

Richard Law UTC 2018-03-28 10:23

Words: 629; reading time: 2 minutes

Figures of Speech discussion group closed

Silence is golden, it seems.

Richard Law UTC 2018-03-23 19:05

Words: 76; reading time: 1 minute

26 March 1828: Schubert's only concert

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-03-22 09:54

Words: 3,998; reading time: 18 minutes

21 March 1918: Operation Michael

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-03-20 07:22

Words: 1,714; reading time: 7 minutes

The key question in abstract art

What on earth does it mean?

Richard Law UTC 2018-03-19 07:21

Words: 1,000; reading time: 4 minutes

Going to the dogs

The decline and fall of Andermatt, Switzerland.

Richard Law UTC 2018-03-11 14:32

Words: 2,343; reading time: 10 minutes

Updated on 2019-09-28

The Sound of Martial Music

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-03-06 07:03

Words: 10,056; reading time: 45 minutes

Updated on 2018-03-24

Judgement of Solomon required

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-03-01 10:18

Words: 1,139; reading time: 5 minutes

To Charlotte While Shaving

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-03-01 07:24

Words: 440; reading time: 2 minutes

Scrapbook for February

UTC 2018-02-01 02:01

Words: 1,699; reading time: 7 minutes

'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.

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-27 10:43

Words: 1,966; reading time: 8 minutes

22 February 1943: the White Rose

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-24 15:33

Words: 950; reading time: 4 minutes

The PostAuto car crash

The unpleasant whiff of subsidy corruption in Switzerland.

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-24 10:12

Words: 1,275; reading time: 5 minutes

Updated on 2019-07-28

Mass shootings in the USA

No quick fix, no easy solution.

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-23 10:49

Words: 861; reading time: 3 minutes

Kippered Kirsty: a lesson to us all

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-21 10:12

Words: 1,077; reading time: 4 minutes

Updated on 2018-02-24

Midnight, 21 February 1818

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-21 00:01

Words: 6,383; reading time: 29 minutes

Martin… er… who?

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-10 10:14

Words: 515; reading time: 2 minutes

Updated on 2018-02-10

It's a hard life at the FBI

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-08 13:01

Words: 580; reading time: 2 minutes

Updated on 2018-02-25

Watergate through the looking glass

No smoking gun but a lot of mirrors.

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-05 10:07

Words: 840; reading time: 3 minutes

Desperately hating Donald

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-02 22:19

Words: 4,993; reading time: 22 minutes

Updated on 2018-02-07

Pulling the plug on the Swiss broadcaster

An interesting referendum coming up on 4 March in Switzerland.

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-01 07:23

Words: 751; reading time: 3 minutes

Updated on 2018-03-04

The real Elizabeth Layton

Wartime clouds of smoke in 10 Downing Street.

Werner Vogt UTC 2018-02-01 08:14

Words: 1,876; reading time: 8 minutes

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?

Richard Law UTC 2018-02-01 07:34

Words: 3,658; reading time: 16 minutes

Updated on 2018-02-24

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.

UTC 2018-01-01 01:02

Words: 454; reading time: 2 minutes

Scrapbook for January

UTC 2018-01-01 02:01

Words: 1,438; reading time: 6 minutes

Franz Schubert's 31st birthday

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-30 08:32

Words: 1,313; reading time: 5 minutes

January 1818: Franz Schubert dodges the draft

Saved for musical posterity by three quarters of an inch.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-24 17:15

Words: 1,087; reading time: 4 minutes

Updated on 2018-02-14

21 January: Saint Meinrad's Day

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-21 08:12

Words: 1,127; reading time: 5 minutes

Hotting things up in the USA

A guide to making measurements fit the theory.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-19 15:20

Words: 797; reading time: 3 minutes

Swiss Government-sponsored CAGW alarmism

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-18 10:22

Words: 4,922; reading time: 22 minutes

Updated on 2018-01-30

Gary Oldman shines in Darkest Hour

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

Werner Vogt UTC 2018-01-16 07:19

Words: 916; reading time: 4 minutes

The Base and the Superstructure

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

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-14 14:37

Words: 5,557; reading time: 25 minutes

Updated on 2018-01-14

W.H. Auden's poem The Witnesses

Poetry for the social media age.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-10 14:56

Words: 967; reading time: 4 minutes

What Theresa did next

Our puzzled readers write.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-09 10:14

Words: 134; reading time: 1 minute

Hole in the wall

The one in the north wall of the Eiger.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-06 15:55

Words: 546; reading time: 2 minutes

Mistrust of strangers

Too late for Mia Valentin.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-05 08:23

Words: 2,757; reading time: 12 minutes

Updated on 2018-09-18

New Year's greetings from the fuzz

The police in Cologne spreading happiness around.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-02 16:40

Words: 612; reading time: 2 minutes

Two Swiss railway station waiting-room murals

Witnessing the collapse of civilisation. Perhaps.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-02 10:17

Words: 2,469; reading time: 11 minutes

Were the Nazis left-wing extremists?

Yes.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-01 07:03

Words: 1,682; reading time: 7 minutes

New Year's Greetings from the Oxford Sausage, 1772

Student humour 245 years ago. No safe spaces here.

Richard Law UTC 2018-01-01 07:12

Words: 63; reading time: 1 minute