Welcome to this year’s edition of my Christmas newsletter!
Image courtesy of Picryl under a Creative Commons license.
Greetings from Stockholm, where I am receiving the Nobel Prize for chemistry. I thought invite you, but only people with IQs above 185 are allowed. I have been very busy the past year. I not only conquered my fear of… READ MORE
That cat will need all of his nine lives
Image courtesy of Del Stone Jr.
Today’s cat itinerary: 5 a.m. – Sit outside the big guy’s door and meow frantically as if to shout, “The house is on fire!” When he’s standing in front of you, wild-eyed and hair sticking out at crazy angles and… READ MORE
Mladen and Del review ‘Trucks’
Image courtesy of Credo Entertainment Group and USA Pictures.
“Trucks” stars Timothy Busfield as Ray, Brenda Blake as Hope, Brendan Fletcher as Logan, Amy Stewart as Abby, and others. Directed by Chris Thomson. Rated PG-13 with a 95-minute run time. See it on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Apple TV and… READ MORE
Trip to Germany: Did air raid sirens pass for church bells in the old DDR?
Christine and Rainer's factory has seen better days after decades of misuse and neglect by Soviet occupiers. Image by Del Stone Jr.
Their names are Christine and Rainer, and they live in what used to be the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. Now things are better. They own a small factory, across the street from their house, which produces rubber parts…. READ MORE
Trip to Germany: A tidy little murder factory
Dachau is a testament to the German sense of order and efficiency. The camp is a huge box surrounded by a moat and two rows of fencing. Guard towers overlook the perimeter. The interior consists of an administration building and quarters for the guards, plus row upon row of box-like plywood structures to house the inmates. Image by Del Stone Jr.
It was hot the day we came to Dachau. The air was thin and unbreathable, the sun boring through the haze with a strange determination. Absolutely nothing should be right with a place where hundreds of thousands of people were… READ MORE
Trip to Germany: Amid great beauty lie the seeds of a horrible ugliness
This is a look back at the restaurant that occupies Eagle's Nest, Adolf Hitler's mountaintop retreat in Bavaria during World War II. Image by Del Stone Jr.
A river runs through the little town of Bertchesgaden, Germany – a clear, blue ribbon of foam, as pretty as a river can be. The river tumbles down from mountains that ring the village like a crown reaching into the… READ MORE
Trip to Germany: Berlin carries you from the past into the future
Germans refer to Berlin as the world's biggest construction project. Image courtesy of Del Stone Jr.
The drive from Leipzig to Berlin, in what was once East Germany, carries you from the past into the future. The past begins on the autobahn, which in some places still uses the cobblestone-like ext and entry ramps of the… READ MORE
Trip to Germany: The country is surprisingly clean and well thought-out
Greenery is abundant, even in German cities. Image courtesy of Del Stone Jr.
When I got back from my trip to Europe, Staff Writer Bruce Rolfsen asked me, “How many columns are you gonna milk this trip for?” I answered, “Oh, about 14.” He laughed. I laughed. As I mentally laid out Column… READ MORE
Trip to Germany: The scariest part was the airplane ride
The author snapped this photo of the Delta jetliner he flew aboard to Germany. In the column he referred to it as a DC-10 but in all probability it was an MD-11. Image courtesy of Del Stone Jr.
A large group of my friends – large enough to physically overpower me – escorted me to the airport for my recent trip to Europe. They know I’m a weenie about flying (as if I hadn’t collapsed into their arms… READ MORE
Trip to Germany: It’s not the flying I’m afraid of. It’s the crashing
Planes wait at skyways at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport in this 1997 photo. Image courtesy of Del Stone Jr.
It was not a good day to fly. To the north, an evil brew of clouds simmered. They’d been cooking in the August sun for hours, and now rain threatened to spill over. But more than rain bubbled in those… READ MORE