It was the Saturday before Christmas

… and the mice were stirring as though their little lives depended on it. One would think that people had been saving up all year for this season, for the chance to spend a buttload of money in a very short time. The city is full to bursting, dozens if not hundreds of buses have brought tourists and shoppers from all over southern Germany, Switzerland and even Austria to see our famous Weihnachtsmarkt (two more days! plenty of bargains left!!)

I am going to a gospel concert with Slim this evening, then a dinner party on Monday, then to the Black Forest for a few days with G's family, so any posting or e-mailing that I don't do tomorrow will not be done until the 27th.

Dear readers, I hope that you will enjoy a peaceful and happy holiday, in the place and style that most appeals. May the deity of your choice bless you in the manner of your choice.

On the road again

This is just a quick (fifteen minute) "goodbye and God bless" in case I can't get online in Hamburg—which might well be the case. Ageing Yuppie himself won't be in the office, so the hours may be different to the last time we worked together, but on past precedent* it's entirely possible that this will be a forty-two-hour four-day working week. And in that case, dear Readers, there will be no blogging.

Even if the work isn't so horribly intense, there may still be no blogging if the apartment where I'm staying doesn't have wireless Internet. We shall see. At the very least, there will be posting from New York after the thirteenth (God and terrorists willing). In the meantime, take care of yourselves and be kind to children, small animals and each other.

* Well it would hardly be a future precedent, now, would it?

Updated just before midnight Houston, we have no problem at all. There is wireless internet coming out of my ears here, a round dozen routers to choose from. So there could be bloggings, my dears, and if the work schedule permits there might. I shall do my very best.

Hot

The next day was broiling, almost the last, certainly the warmest, of the summer. As my train emerged from the tunnel into sunlight, only the hot whistles of the National Biscuit Company broke the simmering hush at noon...

"Hot!" said the conductor to familiar faces. "Some weather! ... Hot! ... Hot! ... Hot! ... Is it hot enough for you? Is it hot? Is it? ..."

My commutation ticket came back to me with a dark stain from his hand. That anyone should care in this heat whose flushed lips he kissed, whose head made damp the pyjama pocket over his heart!

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

It took me an unusually long time to find that quote, in the end I had to look at every page of the book until I spotted it. The difficulty lay in my pictorial memory for words: I remembered that the episode was in the first inch of so of a left-hand page about three-fifths of the way through, and so I searched in my usual manner by fixing my eyes on that position and flipping the pages with my thumb. I didn't find the quote, because I had mis-remembered how it sat on the page. The start of the quote, the paragraph that begins "The next day..." is actually in the lower middle of the previous, right-hand, page; the position I'd remembered is of the line "That anyone should care..." which is why I couldn't find it. After flipping back and forth twice I happened to recognize the end of the quote where I'd been searching for its beginning, and so found it.

As you may have inferred from that preamble, it is hot. The temperature is currently over thirty degrees in the valley; the sun is beating mercilessly down on the dusty streets, and the humidity is high. Nasty weather. I treated myself to an iced coffee on the shady terrace of the Kunstmuseum while walking downtown (officially doing some shopping; in truth wasting time in idleness and frivolity).

In other news the Lioness wrote

you know what Judaism is abt at its core?, it's abt truth, it's abt being able to take a good look at ourselves, it's abt making decisions and OWNING THEM, fucking owning all of them, the good ones and especially the bad ones, everything else is cowardice, no amount of davening or Torah will help us if we're not willing to face the crud in our bellybuttons and the rottenness in our wake

Well said; but it's actually a defining practice of maturity not just of Judaism. Substitute your own practices for "davening" and your own belief-carriers for "Torah" and it applies to any religion worthy of the name. "My mess, my fault" one might well say.

In other, other news I am about to shower for the second time today, before meeting Princess for dinner al fresco. I hate this weather.

Return of Son of Twenty-Five

The competition has now closed, thanks for playing.

Yet another music quiz, to keep you busy until I can get back online.

For new players: the object is to name the band/singer and the song of which these are the first lines. The rules are simple: Googling the lyrics when you haven't a clue is cheating, that should be obvious. Googling the title of a song when you can't remember the name of the band, or the name of the album when you can't remember the title of the song, is OK; however if by doing so you discover that you were wrong, then honour would require that you not submit the answer that you found.

Off you go:

1. Cold wind blowing over your private parts
The Tragically Hip, "Lionized" - S'toon

2. Drive! Drive! My baby drove up in a [title]
The Clash, "Brand new Cadillac" - S'toon

3. Hearts are worn in these dark ages
Sarah McLaughlan, "World on fire" - S'toon

4. Here comes Johnny Yen again, with the liquour and drugs and the flesh machine.
Iggy Pop, "Lust for life" - Alan

5. High, higher than the sun, you shoot me from a gun
U2, "Elevation" - Sis

6. (spoken) I am not frightened of dying.
Pink Floyd, "The great gig in the sky"
Hang your heads in shame that nobody got this one! I shall have to post it as a Friday Favourite for your musical edification.

7. I could feel at the time there was no way of knowing
Roxy Music, "More than this" - Anxious

8. I, I'm so in love with you
Frankie goes to Hollywood, "Power of love" - Lioness
Al Green, "Let's stay together"

9. I'm wheels, I'm moving wheels, I'm a 1952 Studebaker coupe
Adrian Belew, "Neal and Jack and me" - rb

10. If I was beautiful, if I had the time
Moby, "Signs of love" - Pacian

11. Oh, it's so funny to be seeing you after so long, girl
Elvis Costello, "Alison" - Alan

12. Now, when I was just a little boy, standin' to my Daddy's knee,
Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Born on the Bayou" - Alan

13. Please allow me to introduce myself
Rolling Stones, "Sympathy for the devil" - Alan

14. Take me out tonight, where there's music and there's people who are young and alive.
The Smiths, "There is a light that never goes out" - Alan

15. The lights are on but you're not home
Robert Palmer, "Addicted to love" - Anxious

16. The wine's all drunk and so am I.
Peter Gabriel, "Waiting for the big one"

17. There's no hold, the moving has come through
David Bowie, "Night flite"

18. This is the day of the expanding man
Steely Dan, "Deacon blues" - Peggy

19. Through the windows of a rented limousine, I saw your pretty blue eyes.
Led Zeppelin, "Sick again"

20. We'll be fighting in the streets with our children at our feet
The Who, "Won't get fooled again" - Alan

21. (spoken) What we've got here is: failure to communicate.
Guns'n'Roses, "Civil war"

22. When I think of those East End lights, muggy nights
Elton John, "Someone saved my life tonight"

23. When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone
REM, "Everybody hurts" - Anxious

24. (spoken) Will it get some wind for the sailboat?
Philip Glass, "Knee play 1" from the opera "Einstein on the Beach"

25. You say that we've got nothing in common
Deep Blue Something, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - S'toon


And since this is a musical post, here is tomorrow's Friday Favourite: a hot'n'bouncy number from a little-known great CD. This will be the last Friday Favourite for a while, for reasons that should be obvious.

That's all for now my dears, the next post (God and terrorists willing) will be from Spain. Until then, be kind to yourselves and each other.