moving day (part the first) or needful things

The day is approaching, and although it has been on the horizon for some time I felt like there was more time always, or my new job to start that will have me migrating during the work week.

I will still get to come home on the weekends, but this arrangement is going to be intolerably strange I think in the beginning. I am, however, pleased with the little apartment we found near enough to everything to make driving unnecessary—I was never suited to driving in larger German cities in the first place and it would take some time to build up confidence and courage to not leave the car on the outskirts somewhere—which H and I started delivering some effects to recently. It came fully furnished, which is a bonus in itself—being able to avoid duplications for a temporary arrangement, and done so with a nice and personal touch.

As I spent a few hours alone in the room, however, thinking “hello, walls” my mind raced over a hundred artefacts that could it in this or that nook and corner. One can never think of everything, but it’s amazing how quickly one can build up and visualize the missing inventory, like when returning home after an extended vacation and the dimensions and relations of familiar things seem somehow exaggerated and being out-of-place is easier to spot. In any case, despite whatever was left out (that I could bring on my next trip), I had a rather large world globe from the early 1950s, a peripatetic library of books to read, and an antique butter-churn in a jar, which I consider far superior than any trifling convenience left out.

One item overlooked, probably more by my own carelessness than anything else, was the key to my postbox, which was also not labeled. Searching for the likely slot, I saw that I had a quite special fellow-occupant (Whom I hope to never meet and spoil the illusion) and that He does not have time for junk mail either. It will be a change, certainly, and although I walk already quite a bit, I could detect the difference in culture along urban streets already, like one is transported a bit more when accompanied by stately homes and enterprise, but I think everything will be OK.

war on _________

Towards the end of last summer, there was somewhat of a landmark study from a Norwegian institute into the developmental effects of marijuana smoking in adolescents, which suggested that routine usage was detrimental to cognitive abilities in later life—measured by changes in the intelligence quotient of subjects. The research was expansive, endorsed by peers and seemed to proffer a sensible outcome—that the brains of teenagers are still plastic and going through important and formative stages that make young people acutely sensitive to the effects of getting stoned.

I am sure the timing was beyond reproach, but the story made the headlines just ahead of some US states voting on decriminalizing marijuana possession, whose decisions were arrayed with a host of mock-worthy, exaggerated public service announcements (propaganda) on reefer-madness. By no means was the project without merit, but the researchers are recanting on their earlier verdict, having realized that when selecting participants to follow and evaluate one significant denominator was overlooked: they neglected to factor in background in terms of affluence and poverty. Growing up in an environment with the stresses of being impoverished and fewer opportunities for intellectual encouragement and stimulation has, patently, grave effects for cognitive skills. Readjusting to this baseline, the study seems to confirm only negligible deleterious effects in terms of intelligence, but without endorsement that getting high is the best way to spend one’s crucial years, since wealth and security suggested that one would be less likely to develop a habit in the first place. Regardless of the flaws, the research does clearly show that policy should be focused much more on the tragic hardships of poverty rather than arbitrary illicitness.

peppermint twist

PEZ, I learned, is an Austrian confection whose name is taken from the initial, middle and last letters of the German word Pfefferminz—the original flavour of these tiny candy bricks.

Emanating from a line of accomplished physicians in Vienna who turned their sights to improving the leavening process for baked goods, the candies were discovered while perfecting the chemistry of baking powder. The dispensers, now iconic and numbering among one thousand five hundred different characters, were designed to have the dimensions and feel of cigarette lighter and proffer a quick succession of mints as an alternative to smoking, which the founders considered a nasty habit. PEZ was promoted as a means to stifle the appetite, just like smoking, and a way to bait one’s acquaintances, hoping to bum a cigarette, with a surprise that was also hygienic (one didn’t need to handle the candy to offer it to another). When the idea failed to expand beyond Europe, PEZ was transformed into a commodity for young people, which has a lasting-power as collectibles and in many different incarnations for adults, too.

voyage, voyage

Wikitravel, a partner site but not truly a sister project of Wikipedia universe, is an excellent resource but is not something fully integrated. Now, however, the Wikimedia Foundation is launching its own travelogue portal, Wikivoyage.

It is still under development but looks to be a very exciting repository of adventure, exploration and impressions, fully cross-referenced and ripe for exponential expansion with encyclopedic resources to draw from. In the doldrums of work and winter, vacation is a tantalizing idea but seems too far away and not especially encroaching, on the approach right now, but that is sure to change soon.  What grand tour can you contribute?