Hoops

Went 45 for 75 (60%) from 15, 17, 19 feet the other day. And 24 of the 45 (53%) were DSP NBN musical snappers. All told, the best day I have had from those distances since I started this nonsense in August '04. At that time, the 75 included 13-footers that I abandoned long ago. And as with back then, I again shoot before I lift, so am not as tired.

Just thought you'd like to know all that.

***

Pics of new red Jetta will appear anon. Will be going to camp with the Girls and Boys at Tahoe next week, though, so don't hold your breath.

Y-MCA (la ta da la ta da da . . . .)

Today is my anniversary date: I joined the Huntsville YMCA a year ago today. Had a message on my account congratulating me on lifting over 1,000,000 lbs. since I joined and amassing over 14,000 fitness points for lifting and shooting hoop.

Last week I went to my first Tai-chi class there on my doctor's advice: leg strength and balance for aging dudes (Old Asian Dudes fall much less than Old Euro and Yankee Dudes, attributable to Ancient Asian Martial Arts forms, which T/C is, apparently, but in slow motion--very slow motion). So I eliminated my three leg lift exercises and will replace them with T/C twice a week for 45 minutes/visit. Will continue with the hoops and upper body stuff (vanity, pure vanity).

This will put me at the Y almost every day; I'm really getting my $50/month worth!

Time to learn Part Wild Horse Mane, Crane Spread Wing, Brush Knee, Pray Guitar, Drive Monkey Away, Wave Hand in Croud, Fair Lady Work with Shuttle, Fan Penetrate Back!!! And Push, Parry, Strike, Pull!!!

HA-I-I-I-I-I-I-YUH!!!!

Europe

Wow, that was fun.

We were a great quartet on the road through France (Alsace), Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. We majored in Munich and I think the other three are glad we did: had to major in something during the 12 days, might as well be Munich, thought I. Biggest hit there was the Viktualien Markt behind the Marienplatz: all manner of exotic food stalls and a biergarten. Well . . . Hofbraühaus was fun for all, too (I've managed to outgrow my innate snobbishness, but I did take them to a less well known beer hall first. Just to make sure . . . ). Only problem was that Erin and I seemed to be the only ones who knew words and tune to "Ein prosit . ." which the band played every twenty minutes--too damned many touring furrigners . . .

Biggest surprise to start with was an upgrade on the car from a Beemer 5 Series wagon to the Beemer X5 SUV with inline 6 turbo-diesel and an incredible navigation system. It held all of our luggage with even a little room to see out the back window and was very comfortable, even in the back seat. And did that sucker scoot: Gene got it up to 220 kph with pedal room left, but it seemed that every time I drove it there was either rain or a lot of construction so I only got to get it to 180. Sigh. Such travails.

Oh. And we did eat, drink and make merry, the highlight of which was a great Italian restaurant in Munich where we could watch the cook and sous chef work and listen to them holler at the waiters, the customers (all of whom seemed to be Italian) and each other. The chef/owner forced some very smooth grappa down my gullet for free during one of his smoke breaks at an outside table: he and his son-in-law thought I was the best American they'd ever met because I could speak both German and Italian. They may be right. The Colwitz's and I went through three bottles of wine and a dessert shot of grappa each. I had the worst hangover of the bunch the next morning. Groan. I'm back to asceticism, thank goodness.

So that's the important stuff to us guys: cars and food. Gene even liked the Munich beer and now he knows where Wisconsin got its brats. The unimportant lady piffle wasn't bad, either--city tours, quaint walled cities, experiencing the best social democracies outside of Scandinavia, museums, shopping for Bohemian crystal in CZ, and Munich's smooth, fast rapid transit. The highlight of the tour was High Mass on Pentecost Sunday at St. Stephens in Vienna. The resident Cardinal officiated, the chorus and professional orchestra did Haydn's Harmonie Messe (damned well, by the way), the air was suffused with smells and bells and the place was SRO (Pentecost is a big deal in Europe). All in all a real cultural thrill for the three Catholic Colwitz's and even for this lapsed Lutheran. Also in Vienna, it was great seeing USC Chamber Choir alums Melanie Heyn and Gabe Wyner, who have been there quite a while studying opera and voice; they showed us around the inner city and we had fun at dinner together talking about their studies and their lives as ex-pats in Deutscher Land.

For me, the most fun was using my German daily after over twenty years. It came back fairly quickly and I was never mistaken for American; if nothing else, my pronunciation is very good, guided as it is by my musician's ear. Gloat.

So cities, in order: Colmar, Bern, Geneva (with a short side trip to Montreux--Lord, what a beautiful location), Munich (including Dachau concentration camp), Salzburg, Vienna, Cesky Krumlov, Munich again, Dinkelsbühl (and Rothenburg), Frankfurt. Total of four nights in Munich, two each in Geneva and Vienna, one night each elsewhere, except Bern, which was just a morning stop-over from Colmar to Geneva. Hotels ranged from one 4-star (Vienna) to a cutesy B and B (Dinkelsbühl). The rest were great except for the second Munich one, which sucked despite the three stars it seemed to have earned somehow.

***

For more pics, see Viking Goddess's album at picasa.google.com. Since arriving home, Erin has been busy acquiring leadership of a fine community chorus here in town (three cheers for her), and running rehearsals for an opera and a musical most nights. I've been busy acquiring her birthday present: a new 2008 Wolfsburg Edition VW Jetta. Red. With the two-liter GTI turbo motor (200 bhp). Got ground effects all around, plus a lip spoiler on the trunk lid. Snakey little thing. Premium, 10-speaker sound system with Sirius radio, too. Only problem is some hail dimples on all horizontal surfaces from the last big winter storm, but that lowered the price mucho plenty. We'll leave them there for the time being, until we have enough money to get paintless dent removal. We donated Erin's nine-year-old Mitsubishi with 170k miles to our local NPR station for the tax deduction.

Bis nächstes Mal: wiedersehen.

Maiden Voyage

So am in Wisconsin at the moment, in transit to Chicago for our flight on Saturday to the German-speaking countries, and two days ago Erin's parents Patti and Gene decided to what-the-hell-come-along. This will be their first trip abroad and we all are very excited. I will be the German speaking guide for them as well as historian-in-residence. This is going to be great fun, especially since I have been everywhere Erin wants to go, most notably my city-away-from-home, Munich. Will also visit German friends Klaus and Annette--who I met forty years ago--in Geneva, where they have lived for some decades now.

Have rented either an E-Class Mercedes wagon or a BMW 5 Series wagon. Won't know which until we arrive in Frankfurt. Either is fine but I'm hoping for the Beemer: that in-line six dohc fuel-injected engine can't be beat; couple it with a six-speed manual tranny and that spells fun in any language. Only ca. 185 horse but we can easily reach 120 on the autobahn, even with all that luggage and four passengers. Them suckers only begin to hunker down and get serious at 90.

Zowie!

Erin's must-see list includes Munich and Dachau, Salzburg, Vienna, and Germany's Romantic Road (three preserved walled medieval cities). Can do, but we'll have to hustle. Sigh. Poor us. Will spend our first night in Colmar, Alsace, where Patti can get her first taste of real Alsatian Riesling. Will meet Klaus early the next morning in Bern--where he will give us a city tour--then on to his home in Geneva, where Annette will give us a city tour. Then we go north and east for ten more days for more fun and food.

Yum!

Will let you know how it went some time after we return to Bama on 8 June.

Mayday . . .

. . . is the military call for help in serious circumstances, such as a ship or plane going down, or a ground unit surrounded, outnumbered and under fire . . .

. . . is also a holiday celebrating spring, fertility, the disappearance of snow, and being alive in all of Europe. Maypoles are erected (no pun intended) in all villages, no matter how small, and young girls in ethnic costume grab ribbons attached to the immense phallic symbol and dance around it singing. I wish we celebrated it here but it is considered too Euro and socialist for us. Also too sexy ('Hurray, hurray for the first of May; outdoor ******** begins today!'). Why did it have to be renegade Puritans who settled this continent? Why couldn't we have had a few Catholics or Druids or somesuch come over here and start over in a lusty manner? No American Mayday is one of the main sources of our societal problems, I kid you not. Maybe a Yankee Mayday would help a few of us erect some formidable poles, put down a few of our guns, park our pickups, dance around and have some fun. . . I'm serious . . .

***

Cleaned, polished and waxed the 4Runner last weekend for only the second time in three years. Looks fantastic. It is now sitting outside under another southern deluge, getting the week's dust blasted off by the downpour. I let God wash my car whenever possible and around here it's often possible. She doesn't do rims, though, dang it.

Answer

OK, so:

It's from a psychological profile of Adolf Hitler done by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WWII. The OSS (Wild Bill Donovan's Boys and Girls--Julia Childs was one of them) is the wartime forerunner of the CIA. The quote I used is drawn directly from a page of Mein Kampf, almost verbatim. I was struck dumb by the similarity to the tactics used for eight years by the Axis of Evil: Bush-Cheney-Rove. When I read it to Erin and asked her who it was, that was her first guess. (Actually, Bush is not bright enough to qualify as evil; he was a failed college twit easily lead astray by the other two, but you get my point).

I think that they learned a lot from Paul Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister and the founder of modern mass propaganda. It was from him that George Orwell and Aldous Huxley got their main ideas for 1984 and Brave New World, respectively. I found the quote in the blog whilst googling Goebbels and ran across The Big Lie, Hitler's idea that people will question and forgive small lies but will most probably believe the Big One, especially if repeated often enough, which is what Goebbels did (as did Bush: Iraq, yellow cake; Cheney: WMD, 9/11 = Al Qaeda; Rove: the Kerry smears, and as do Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Tantaros/Malkin, Fixed News, Ingraham, et.al.: anything about Obama and the Democrats and their work-- 'never concede that there may be some good in your enemy'.

I mean, hell, even Hitler had two good ideas: the freeway and the Volkswagen. Is that what the TeaBaggers mean when they compare Obama to Hitler? Must be. 'Twould be laughable were it not so pathetic ('Note his elegant use of the subjunctive! Isn't he something, though?!').

One of my favorite lines from Huxley: 1,720,426 repetitions = One Truth. Sad but, I fear, true.

I came across the quote during my reading of The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell. Almost all of the characters in it are real Nazis from the period with major roles in the Holocaust, so I spent a long time with Wikipedia looking them up. The novel's protaganist is 'one sick puppy' who is with the SD/SS involved with killing squads in the Ukraine and is later involved with Auschwitz and Mauthausen. He is unrepentant.

I stayed with the book (almost 1000 pages) because of my interest in WWII, not because of style or plot, both of which are turgid (one paragraph ran four pages) and/or ridiculous. The French (original language) loved the book, naturally, while the Brits and Yanks gave it either an A or an F. For me it was fascinating as history (and very accurate), but as literature it sucked. Jonathan's daddy, Robert, is a far better writer (in the spy/espionage genre) and I have read all of his books. So in this case, as one reviewer put it, 'the apple falls galaxies from the tree.'

My recommendation: unless you are retired and interested in WWII history, give this one a pass.

Thanks to the three who responded, even though two cheated and got the answer through
Google! Tsk, tsk.

Hope spring is being good to y'all wherever you are.

Quiz

"His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."


^{Hey, gang. Anyone have an idea who the above refers to? I'll give you the Answer and the source only if you either email me or make a guess in the comment section of the blog. You gonna be amazed. Then again, maybe not.}