Monday, November 28, 2005
Der Thanksgiving Truthahn
Last week I celebrated Thanksgiving in Berlin. My friends from Kiel came from all over Germany to celebrate together, and lots of my new friends from Berlin came too. We had about 15 people in my room (we moved my bed). It was very traditional -- Leslie (above) came all the way from Augsburg to help cook out 7.4 kilo turkey which turned out incredibly well. We went through lots of wine and a few cases of excellent German beer (Flensburger, Erdinger Weiss and Berliner, for the curious). For dessert we had the best apple pie I've had (perhaps ever -- thanks, Zacc!). I've included a picture to give a sense of the size of the pie, and the size of our stove.
It was great to have so many friends around. Despite the distance, it was pretty damn traditional. My dad sent a football, and we played in the park across the street until the sun went down at 4:15 in the afternoon; we managed the holy trinity of Thanksgiving, turkey, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes; and extra people kept showing up and, like some sort of Thanksgiving miracle, the turkey magically provided enough food for everyone. Leftovers were gone by the next afternoon.
One clarification -- in German, a Truthahn is a male turkey. Ours was a comparatively smaller female turkey, or Pute. But since I know a few bad words in Spanish, "die Pute" always seems vaguely inappropriate. Nonetheless, I placed an order for a fresh Pute a week ahead of time and the folks at the butcher shop down the street made things happen. I carried my Pute home on my bike, adding Thanksgiving turkey to my long list of things that will fit in a courier bag.
Air Archaeology
To my surprise, my brief piece on aerial photographer Georg Gerster's archaeological work was on the cover of the December issue of Smithsonian. I wrote it this summer before leaving work, so it was exciting to see it in print.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
The New Republic
Yesterday was a good day. I had my first article published with The New Republic. I say “with,” not “in,” because it was on their excellent website and not in the print edition. But it is a start, and the web is the wave of the future anyway.
The piece was my take on the difference between France and Germany’s immigrant situations. In an excellent development, my housemate James had a piece on the same general topic run on the same website on the same day. The 1746 Kilbourne connection lives on.
The piece was my take on the difference between France and Germany’s immigrant situations. In an excellent development, my housemate James had a piece on the same general topic run on the same website on the same day. The 1746 Kilbourne connection lives on.
