terra incognito

Gizmodo (via the Presurfer) features a gallery of historic maps of the Americas made before the idea (knowledge of geography being what it is, rightly or wrongly) of the shapes of the continents and coast had fully cemented in the heads of European explorers.
It took centuries, for example, to disabuse cartographers from the conception that California was not some disembodied island already, and some are effacingly honest, like the chart called, “Map of New-England, Being the First That Ever Was Here Cut, and Done by the Best Pattern That Could Be Had, Which Being in Some Places Defective, It Made the Other Less Exact: Yet Doth It Sufficiently Shew the Scituation of the Country, and Conveniently” and shewing a part of Pennsylvania and a part of Long Iſland.

the rowdy girls

After granting clemency to one certain former oligarch imprisoned in a Siberian gulag, an amnesty law led to the pardoning of thousands of inmates in Russia, including a girl-band and environmental activists. Their crimes?

To be specific, according to German news sources, Rowdytum—rowdiness, and was on the law books until just recently. I suppose that the message is still status-non-gratis, since I guess those freed prisoners would not challenge the authorities after serving their commuted sentences and going through that experience, and I am not sure if the term хулиганство has other connotations, but the German mixed-designation does sound much better than its literal alternatives, like disturbing the peace, yobbishness or chavtastic. Though far from ideal, I'd suggest judicious use of criticism as many governments fancy their worst example peerless and tolerable at the same time without savouring the irony. I admit, however, I had never heard the word used until this latest iteration of jubilee. I knew the usage, though, as the German version of Die Simpsons refers to the characters Nelson Muntz, Jimbo Jones, Kearney Zzyzwick and Dolph Starbeam collectively as die Rowdys.

black-tie, white-hat or smoking

I got (and hopefully gave too) quite a brilliant stash of fancy and unique gifts this year and one of the many creative ones I got was this vest from my parents. It's tailored like a formal garment but has the addition of a hoodie to make it truly functional. Though leagues better, it reminds me of those tee-shirts from an earlier age printed like a neck-tie and a dress shirt, and would indeed make a waist-coat to complete a tuxedo ensemble. It German, such a specific suit and dress-code is referred to as a Smoking, rather than a tux (named after the exclusive Hudson, New York neighbourhood Tuxedo Park) after the English-term smoking-jacket—which is a bit misleading since I think of a smoking-jacket as lounge-wear, a bathrobe or something that Hugh Hefner has made his signature outfit.
 Just before the holidays, H and I went to party that was headlined with a local cover-band who called themselves No Smoking—not Rauchen verboten! but rather we realised later that [wir tragen] kein Smokings, which was a little confused in itself as the band was dressed with mismatched black jackets and white shirts, and I think even one member wore one of those tee-shirts with a bow-tie and vest.

second christmas, christmas seconds

For Boxing Day or Zweite Weihnachtsferien, as it is known in the German Sprachraum, I just wanted to share some outdoors scenes of Christmas markets and decor from over the years that I came across. Most of the photographs are from Germany but the gallery begins with a few from festive Prague.  We hope everyone had a merry little Christmas time.

repatriation or silver and gold

 Germany Central Bank has announced that it is their intention to return some thirty-seven tonnes—the metric ton, which is always an important distinction, like among pounds (#, £), poids and Pfunde (℔), of gold bars stored in facilities in New York and Paris. When approached, authorities at the Bundesbank would not go so far to express any misgivings in the faith—in terms of security or integrity, for the host countries storing the diversified treasury, and possibly the conditions that prompted holding specie elsewhere simply do not exist any longer.  No word on how this mission is to be executed either and whether there will be specially-appointed gold-bearers.
Still it seems hard to accept otherwise—that there is not some element of distrust or, on the other hand, wanting to divest oneself of liability on the part of the holding-groups, in action, until one considers that this move, massive as it is, and representing over one billion euro of bullion is still only about one-tenth of one percent of Germany's foreign gold reserves, squirreled away in hundreds of other vaults—presenting an actuarial and logistics nightmare, with projections to store half of the horde in-country within the next six years.