( Forewarned is forearmed and four-armed is a crippled octopus )

Neither suffering, nor premature death, nor the profanation of his corpse by the fanatics of the glorious French Revolution, nor 365 years affected him. I used to think the portraits of him were flattering lies, until I saw his real face. They did him justice :)


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I´m translating into Spanish, for a Czech publisher, some of Franz Kafka´s short tales (which first appeared under the title "The Rural Physician"), which are full of surreal elements, dreamlike situations which don´t make sense, and symbols which I´m guessing have a deeper meaning very probably based on Kafka´s own, rich Jewish-German heritage ( Read more... )

Gallon of gas costs 3.21 $ in the USA (Source: CNN. Worksafe.)

So... what´s their problem, exactly? Because:

1 gallon [US, liquid] = 3.8 liter
3.8 x 1.27 Euro/liter = 4.826 Euro/gallon
4.826 Euro/gallon = 7.04607 USD/gallon here ( Read more... )

A very happy birthday to juliebeth!

*hands baby Lipizzaner horse in a silver box*
And a very happy birthday to trusea

*hands a young and whole Archie Kennedy on a golden platter*

Because swiv asked for pics of today:

"Mmm, rotting leaf brunch!":

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It´s snowing, it´s snowing wheeeee! (And Mum got a free ticket for tonight in the Musikverein (yes, where the New Year´s Concert takes place every year): Zubin Mehta conducts the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in a programme with Mozart, Verdi and Tchaikovsky) and she´s too sick to go so guess who´s the lucky bastard?


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Jewish Film Festival in Vienna
(Official programme, venues and dates).

I´m thankful for any recommendations, since I´m not into mainstream movies and this is a rare chance to fill some of my absolute ignorance in this field!

( The movies, in alphabetical order: )

Concert went fabulously; the live recording should prove even better than last year´s :)
And the wee bat got herself a singing teacher, la de da. No pressure, just see how far we can go!

Now the pics: the abbey at our arrival, gloriously autumn-y,


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Some Christian pastors embrace Scientology (Source: CNN. Worksafe.)

And these "pastors" work with addicts?! o.O Haven´t they heard of the disastrous effects of Narconon´s (i.e. Scientology´s) pseudo-therapy programme?

And then they wonder Christianity has a bad rep... these guys shouldn´t preach religion, they ought to be attending a de-dumbing ( Read more... )