aca, ada, abracabra

It is the Anti-Deficiency Act of 1882, as amended, that puts the American government in the precarious situation of dismissing some one-third, deemed non-essential—which has the interesting ring of the imagination of Douglas Adams (not a statesman)—of its workforce without compensation. The government will still discharge its duty to protect, duty to warn with a skeleton crew, who themselves will not see their salary until such time as Congress has set a budget, being legally bound against the incursion of further debts that it cannot vouch for. The last time a full government shut-down happened, notwithstanding many intermediate close-calls and political staring-contests, was in the winter of 1995 and 1996 and I remember being quite frustrated that the National Galleries were closed to visitors and I came expressly to see a special Rembrandt exhibit.
I was content, however, at the time with making snow-angels on the Capitol. There were dread inconveniences (a weak word) to public services and those employees embargoed, and this time we can only project the impact of disrupting the paper-push of bureaucracy the hardship of individuals just now starting to recover from the last rounds of an administrative-, as opposed to an emergency-, furlough, though the predictions of doom and despair did not come to fruition at-large and the output of the federal government is largely invisible and looks expendable until one is personally affected by the loss of a cog or two. Though the causes reach back much further and the US government has expanded into something unwieldy and self-serving—surely to be redressed by follow-on show-downs like the looming matter of America's debt burden that will make this intransigence seem like theatre, the major bone of contention that is keeping the legislative branch staunchly divided is over another Act, the Affordable Care Act (a new idea only to America, though, with most of the rest of the world having put universal health-coverage in place long ago), and not in costs, immediate nor long-term, but rather in perception and principle. The devil's advocate seems to keep company with a business-lobby not renowned for its fair labour-practices to begin with, and considering that all of the really awful and onerous laws that the US has implemented and unleashed upon the rest of the world (lately, at least, if not always) have been done so at the beck-and-call of this same cartel, perhaps it would be wise to consider careful what these groups through inflexible fear-mongering might be trying to un-write.

truncation or mot-valise

In German common-parlance, there's a whole array of pet-names, abbreviations, whose practice does not seem to have an analogue in other languages—outside of jargon, where trying to make acronyms pronounceable reigns, portmanteaux or celebrity nicknames.
To name a few: there is Abo for Abonnement, a French borrowing for subscription, Azubi for Auszubildener, an apprentice, the plural Elis for the ever dual Eltern for parents, Deo for deodorant, Bio for biological or organic, and earlier Ami for Americans and Stasi for Staatssicherheitsdienst. I was exposed to a new example recently—or so I thought. Miliz, it turns out, is the full and proper term for militants or a militia. I recall once watching sail boats out on the bay with some friends when a stranger asked if he could borrow our binocs. Of course, I obliged but wondered ever since where by what leave he got dropping the rest of the word.

bad soden am taunus

In the afternoon, I visited the nearby town of Bad Soden am Taunus. Well outfitted and known for its thermal springs since Roman times, today it is a quiet bedroom community for neighbouring metropolis of Frankfurt am Main but there was quite a bit to see and to test.  Dozens of beautiful villas, pensions for guests taking the waters, surrounded the town's core and the ensemble of stately structures like this spa with outdoor theatre and other buildings divided among three adjacent parks. To cater to an impressive guest list—some of whom are depicted on this unique fountain, also a thermal well, with poseable metal statues with kung-fu grip, but possibly not Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father who worked there before taking his family to the Netherlands or the fictional Kitty who was Anna Karenina's niece who sought a cure here (as Tolstoy did)--the town was the first to have electric street lamps and other advanced infrastructure in the then Duchy of Nassau.

There was a trail that bounced from fountain to fountain and I had a drink at a few: the warm water tasted strongly of sulphur and salty and each well had a protocol, reading like the labels on medicine about its healthful benefits, although all recommended only small amounts as there is quite a heavy concentration of iron-oxides dissolved in the source. A popular, almost with cult status, lozenge is manufactured with this special water. There was also a nice surprise with a happy, colourful apartment block designed by renowned Austrian architect Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser.
The flats, which also host a parking garage where I would have tried to park had I known, are just outside of the Quellepark and are pictured in the background, behind the gazebo sheltered what is designated as Fountain Number One, the Solbrunnen with the town's neoclassic personification and mascot, Sodenia.  I am learning there are quite a few more things to discover and we will definitely be returning to this area.

appeasement, rapprochement

Though not exactly compelled to resign their posts—excepting by expectation and precedent, five senior ministers of the German cabinet, belonging to the junior, business-orientated coalition party, fell on their swords and took a hiatus from politics in a ballot that oversaw the ouster of the FDP (Freie Demokratik Partei) and overwhelming support for the incumbent—but not necessarily the status quo also.

Germany's leader is the sole-survivor of the financial crisis that overthrew all the other large-holder governments of Europe, and though the election results results suggest a clear victory for conservative policies (demonstrating those fickle hissy-fits of campaigning, like assuaged fears for privacy) and tough-love for malingerers that may not be exactly the case.  The regime of the CSU/CDU (Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern/Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) have not merely eliminated a gad-fly to cater to in the FDP, which was the force majeure behind the notion that Greece should be exiled from the monetary union, but likely gained another “pest” in the Green Party, the Left and the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) to check direction and present challenges that could transform into mutual and far-reaching opportunities.

savage garden

These flowers with up-turned petals that hide their plant-business below are a variety of Alpen-glöckchen (Soldanella, little coins in Latin but I guess in English, they're known as snowbells) remind me of the piranha plants of Super Mario Brothers. They unfortunately are rather delicate and fussy things and tend not to do well in captivity. Another long-term inmate is blooming upside-down, whose made of sturdier stuff, more adapted to neglect and smothering, with an ugly little flower unfolding. This Zanzibar Gem (Zamioculcas zamiifolia—also called the ZZ Plant, a Zamie or eine Glücksfeder) or most-fittingly the Eternity Plant.
Though not a tuber, like a potato or a tulip, it forms bulbous reservoirs of water at its base that can (within reason) be either stored for drier times or squished, transmuted into leaf-form in response to the environment—or the watering-can. H had had one for years that I fawned over and over-watered but I am glad we have an understudy doing well. Not that I mind these untraditional flowers one bit, but I had the notion that house-plants that require a certain maturity before blooming, unlike the weird probing cactus, the baobab trees and the giant schefflera that has been proudly sprouting these little giraffe horns every year since would only do it once and take a rest from such activities.

photo-bomb or underwater

In the proud tradition of Cake Wrecks, which received a restraining order probably like this tumble-blog to cease and desist for poking fun at laziness and sloppiness, there is a fascinating collect of horrendous real estate photographs. Seeing these choice examples, some of which are not too far away from unenticing and rather inexplicable advertisements that we've encountered ourselves.
These disasters, with funny commentary included, do not just come from severely distressed markets or places with such a housing-storage that the mere whisper would draw interest but rather from contributors and readers of classifieds all over the world, and it makes me wonder if the down-swing in the housing-market isn't also due too bad presentation. There were too many awful and awkward pictures to list, causing genuine curiosity about what was hoped to convey by framing these images, and one should browse through the gallery in order to check the reputation of your scout and agent.