It is still winter, after all!

I was beginning to wonder whether I would see snow "up close and personal" at all this winter.  Unlike the winter of 2010-11, when there were heavy snowfalls on both sides of the Atlantic in December and January, this year, snow has been sparse in areas where I have been.  In mid-December, I was able to see snow on the slopes of the nearby Jura Mountains just before I left for the US,

while the plain areas near the lake looked as if Spring would be right around the corner.

The closest we got to snow over the holidays was during a performance of "White Christmas" at Toby's Dinner Theater when artificial "snowflakes" began falling during the last ensemble scene.  The whole time that I was in Maryland, there was never more than the merest whisper of snow.  Even then, nothing stayed on the ground for long.   Both in Maryland and here, there has been plenty of moisture, but the temperatures have stayed resolutely above freezing except in the mountains where all the ski areas are ecstatically welcoming ski tourists.  But that all changed last night, when snow began falling around midnight.  This morning, I woke up to this

and this.

I decided that the snow was much better viewed from inside,

especially because it was also much warmer inside.

While I am very glad that I didn't miss snow entirely this winter,

I am still happiest of all that I did not have to go anywhere today!  

Princess Jelly Bean's Second Christmas

Christmas is always such great fun when there are little ones to celebrate with.  We adults sometimes get more carried away than the kids do because we remember what a special time of year it was back in the Dark Ages when we ourselves were much, much younger.  Of course, when we were growing up, presents were rare generally.  Christmas was one of the few occasions when we actually had more than one gift to open.

The year 2010 marked the first Christmas for my little grand-niece, Princess Jelly Bean.  But being just over a month old, she slept through most of the celebrations, even though she was, by far, the Stellar Attraction for all family members and visitors.  In 2011, however, even though she was still the Main Attraction, she was able to notice more about what was happening around her - and she apparently enjoyed events thoroughly, beginning with Christmas sugar cookies that she "helped" to bake.

Then she "helped" again, this time with Christmas lights, delightedly imagining herself as "The Littlest Angel."

When it actually came to gifts, after she had unwrapped them, she seemed at a bit of a loss.  Where did all that fascinating paper go?

Aha, Santa left a kitchen corner, where she can explore, bake

and play with satisfactorily noisy pans!  Wow!

A girl's just gotta have fun!

But the problem with all this extra activity is that it takes its toll -

both on Princess Jelly Bean and on Sweet Momma T. 

Butterfly Musings

When my lovely Princess Butterfly turned five earlier this month, she celebrated with various activities.  Then she was also able to spend some time with Proud Dad Big S.  Both love to visit the local Discovery Museum where there is always something new to learn.

Princess Butterfly is very like her male cousins, Princes Tyger and Lightning.  She too loves to understand how things work.  Fortunately for her, the Museum provides many hands-on opportunities to make such discoveries.  But the Butterfly's hands-on technique may be just a tad more gentle than those of her male cousins.

Princess Butterfly's femininity also explains another phenomenon that she enjoys very much - getting her little face painted.  While little boys are not averse to face-painting so long as it makes them look like a Super-Hero, a wild animal, or some kind of "monster,"

Princess Butterfly likes designs of any kind.

And she can also sit still much longer than her boy cousins can!

Computers!!!!

Computers have become such an integral and ubiquitous part of modern daily life that it is very difficult to remember what life was like before we were able to "surf" the web to find answers about or opinions on even the most esoteric of issues, to communicate with - even to view live - far-away family and friends practically instantaneously through applications or features like "Chat" or "Skype," to send news updates or photographs to several people at once, etc., etc., etc. ....

There is a saying, non-attributed so far as I can find on the Web, that computers are great, except when they aren't.  While that can be true of many things that we consider to be "modern conveniences" or "gizmos," there is another saying, also non-attributed, that applies very much to computers:  "To err is human.  To really screw up requires a computer."

Obviously, when one puts error-prone humans such as myself, in proximity to or using a computer, the potential for massive screw-ups is nearly indescribable and practically infinite.  Early in the life of my laptop, for instance, I managed somehow either to unplug it or force a shut-down while it was in the middle of one of its interminable updates, causing the whole system to crash.  Until HWMBO, my guru in these matters, with near-sainthood status in his patience with those of us who are technologically challenged, was able to reload all software completely, the laptop was unusable.  Of course, even though HWMBO reloaded everything and I have never managed to repeat that particular - and major - no-no, some data, mail and photos were irretrievably lost.  I have since learned to back-up my work and, fingers crossed, will manage never to lose important items again.

But a couple days ago, I managed somehow to mess up my Google Chrome.  I have been using Chrome as my principal internet browser over Internet Explorer (somehow, I could never quite warm up to either Firefox or Bing) for much of the past six weeks.  What happened is that somehow - and I can't imagine what happened except that some errant fingers, unfortunately mine, must have done something untoward - my Google Chrome webpage was coming up askew.  I could only see the minimize feature and could not navigate sideways or vertically, so that Chrome was practically unusable.

One lesson that I have learned in this electronic age - and from HWMBO - is that if you have a computer-related problem, there is usually a solution for it somewhere on the Web.  There appears to be no computer-related problem that is unique.  If I have it, there are others who also do.

But finding such a solution presupposes that you describe the problem correctly or ask the right question(s).   Yesterday, I was not using the proper key words and no solution that fit my situation could be found, or at least I could not find one in my search results.  But this morning, when I was apparently thinking more clearly, I manage to phrase the problem as "Chrome web page off center," which proved to be the "Open Sesame" to solutions for this particular problem.

The problem is easily solved.  As described by Malacath,

Press ALT+SPACEWhen a drop down menu comes up select 'move' then move the window with the cursor keys.  

So now I'm back in business!  Thanks, Malacath, whoever and wherever you are!

Princess Butterfly at Five

Earlier this month, my very special Princess Butterfly had a "milestone" birthday: No 5!

While it is still difficult for me to grasp that it has been five years since she progressed from her birth date

to her first year milestone

to her second year, here with Sweet Momma M,

to her third year, shades posted perkily over her cap brim,

to her fourth year,

and now, finally to her FIFTH year, waiting to open her birthday gifts,

the fact is that this particular milestone has now come and gone.  Princess Butterfly - not one for stillness - is rapidly moving on to the next.

May she always find life to be as gentle and as good!

Happy Birthday, No 1 Son!

It was 46 years ago today that my first son, father to Princes Tyger and Lightning, was born.  It was a snowy day in my home town where I was, like my own mother who went home to her parents during WWII, staying with my parents while awaiting his birth.

In those days, we had neither foreknowledge of baby gender nor was our timing calculated as well as it is today, so I was actually expecting the arrival of Little Question Mark a bit later.  This was especially true because I had just had a doctor visit the day before and the doctor had told me that we had another six weeks to wait.  So, when I didn't feel well that morning, I thought that I had the flu, which was going around.  After it became evident that LQM was bound and determined to make his way into the world, we hastened to the hospital and at 3:27 pm, I realized that LQM was in actuality a little boy.  Here he is with his little brother, who came along the following year!

Now he has a family - including two little boys - of his own.

Happy Birthday, Proud Dad Big T!

Scandinavian "Noir"

One of my good women friends hereabouts and I have become avid fans of a couple of excellent TV series that are filmed in Denmark and that feature strong - and believable - female characters.  Both series have been showing here courtesy of BBC4.  Thanks to a no-cost cable channel upgrade in 2011, I now receive BBC4 on a regular basis, for which I am exceedingly grateful.

Interestingly, neither series is dubbed.  Both are subtitled.  But the subtitles do not seem to scare anyone around here away.  I notice that local DVD stores cannot seem to keep enough copies on the shelf.

The first series, a thriller with the English title "The Killing" (the Danish is more properly translated as "The Crime," I'm told) is also a phenomenal success on the European continent.  It was also shown locally on Canal+, a French language premium channel, where it was subtitled in French.  Apparently it is also subtitled in many other European languages, depending on the country and network of distribution.  For US networks, who find American audiences generally averse to subtitles in a regular series, the series idea and characters were lifted completely, replaced with US actors, and relocated to the Pacific Northwest, one of my favorite geographic areas in the world.  But the US series just doesn't have the same effect; nor does it work as well.  In part because I already knew the plot from the Danish version, in part because a key part of the Danish plot features the Danish political system - a wholly different creature than that in the US - I found myself unable to keep interested when the US series was shown here on Swiss TV and would routinely abandon an episode part-way through because it felt "flat."

Of course, the US version may also have felt flat because the actors in the Danish version are nothing less than outstanding, all superb professionals with lots of prior theater experience.  The principal investigator, Sarah Lund, is a single-minded woman who brushes off the overt chauvinism of her male colleagues to focus laser-like on the gist of the crime at hand, often to the professional detriment of herself or her colleagues.  In the first season, for example, her partner is killed while involved in a premises search that had not actually been authorized.  Even though she ultimately solves the crime, she is demoted and reassigned.  Fortunately for us, her loyal fans, she is brought back to headquarters in Series II when a complex new set of at first seemingly unrelated crimes occurs.

So far, we have lived through two seasons' worth of "The Killing" and have literally hung on every moment, telephoning each other the day following the episodes (they are shown late at night) and reliving them.  I haven't been this emotionally "involved" in a TV series since the Rod Serling versions of "The Twilight Zone" in the 1960s.  The TZ is one of my all-time favorite series, although an entirely different genre.  We know that we have at least a third season of "The Killing" to look forward to and we can hardly wait.

Once Season II of "The Killing" had finished in December (I missed the last two episodes but my true friend taped them for me so that I was able to view them last week - the wait was worth it!), a new Danish series began showing in January.  Called "Borgen," it is a political drama rather than a thriller, with the main character a recently-elected woman Danish Prime Minister, Birgitte Nyborg.  It has the same tight professional feel of "The Killng," which is not surprising as it has the same producers and some of the same actors.   Prime Minister Nyborg not only faces issues that are relevant to contemporary Denmark, but also to contemporary Europe and the world.  Part of the magic of the series is to show the compromises that she must make, both as a woman who is a wife and mother, and as the Prime Minister in a world still dominated by men.  Even though I missed the first couple episodes (and am looking forward to catching up on them either this week or next), I did see last weekend's programs and find "Borgen" equally as fascinating, and as addictive, as "The Killing."

I am not alone, according to the Daily Mail.  Both series have received and are continuing to receive high acclaim, as well as international awards and nominations.  Best of all, there is a lot less gratuitous violence and a lot more cerebral stimulation than in many regular network shows.

I have a tiny tad of Danish heritage somewhere in my genes and I am truly proud!

The Tricentenary of a Revolutionary

In addition to being the Chinese Year of the Dragon as well as a Presidential election year for both France and the United States, 2012 is also the year when the three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Genevan-born philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau is being celebrated hereabouts.  Festivities to commemorate Rousseau began in Geneva last week and will continue throughout the rest of the year, not merely being limited to the commemoration of his birth.

This is quite a remarkable change from earlier centennial years, 1912 being the most recent example, when many Genevans still viewed Rousseau with embarrassment if not actual outrage, partly because his writing mirrored uncomfortable social, economic and political truths and partly because there was still a certain amount of pre-WWI social squeamishness and decorum in Switzerland at the time.  Between Rousseau and Geneva there existed a love-hate relationship that moved definitively into a "hate" phase in 1762 after publication of two of his best-known and most influential works:  Du Contrat social (The Social Contract) and Emile ou de l'Education (Emile or About Education).

Both works were published in France where Rousseau was living at the time.  In those pre-French Revolution days, both were rapidly condemned by the French civil and religious authorities.  Condemnation has almost always been an effective way to gain avid readership, especially if the condemned works contain unpleasant social truths that disgruntle or threaten a privileged few.  This was the case with Rousseau's writings.  In fact, these 18th-century condemnations were so powerful that Rousseau and his writings were added to the Catholic Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Prohibited Books) where they remained until 1966, when the Index was abolished by Pope Paul VI.

During my undergraduate World Literature courses, which took place at a Catholic college before 1966, our instructor skipped Rousseau, along with another well-known local writer of "obscene" works: Voltaire.  Before 1966, Catholics were not allowed to read books that were listed in the Index.  Although I can't recall whether the penalty for doing so was mortal sin or excommunication, it was a Big One.  Rousseau's works, among others, were subjected to deliberate censorship.  For my part, this particular censorship has been remedied many times over since that time, I am happy to say.  Ironically, I now find myself geographically in a literary 18th-century "hotbed" of "obscenity" and find the situation fascinating.  What is particularly interesting is that many of these works are as powerful and as meaningful today as they were in the 18th century, as demonstrated by the Arab Spring movements of 2011 and the ongoing global "Occupy" movements.  These ideas are timeless and that is why authorities, especially repressive authorities, found - and still find - them frightening.

Censorship can also make life very unpleasant for those authors whose works are condemned and that was the case for Rousseau.  Believing it prudent to flee from France in the circumstances, he took refuge in Geneva.  But it took Genevan authorities a mere ten days after the French to censor Rousseau's works and to burn several of his books publicly before the City Hall.  The authorities also threatened to arrest Rousseau if he remained on Genevan territory, so he fled first to Neuchatel, then to an island on Lake Bienne, under Prussian control at the time.  Totally disillusioned by his home town's rejection, Rousseau renounced his Genevan citizenship in 1765.  He lived as an exile from then on, finally dying in France in 1778.  In 1794, his ashes were transferred to the Pantheon in Paris and he is recognized as one whose ideas inspired the French Revolution.

Rousseau was born in Geneva on 28 June 1712 and spent his early youth in the Saint-Gervais Quarter, not far from where HWMBO and I first lived when we moved to Switzerland.  As an adolescent, he was taken under the wing of a remarkable woman, Mme de Warens, who lived in nearby Annecy and was several years his senior.  She guided much of his education and also became his lover later on.  According to Rousseau, she was the great love of his life.  After moving to Paris in 1742, Rousseau frequented several French philosophers and even wrote articles that appeared in Diderot's Encyclopédie (also featured in the Index). 


I believe that Rousseau would be gratified by the many events that will take place in Geneva in 2012 to celebrate his three-hundredth anniversary.  Certainly he would be impressed by the budget consecrated to them: CHF 3.2 million - more that he earned in his entire life.

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon!

This is a tentative restart to SD after its latest hiatus and today will hopefully bode well for its more consistent appearance if for no reason other than to demonstrate some writing discipline on my part. 


Asian nations in particular are currently celebrating the Chinese lunar New Year wherein 2012 is the Year of the Dragon.  The Year of the Dragon occurs once every 12 years.  Being born in a Dragon Year is considered to be fortuitous and Chinese tradition holds that those born in dragon years tend to be brave, innovative and highly driven, often making it to the top of their profession.  The whole Dragon year is supposed to bring prosperity to all who live in China, as explained graphically in this YouTube representation. 


The Guardian has an excellent and colorful photo display of celebrations in various locales.  Fireworks displays are abundant.  This is fitting because fireworks were invented in China and their earliest documentation dates back to the 7th century, when they were used to accompany many festivities.   Unfortunately, this year, the fireworks displays may also be accompanied by some hazardous health news, as described in this Guardian article. 


Even though China has itself literally become a global commercial and industrial dragon, this status has come at a price, with such activities generating staggering levels of air pollution.  The Chinese Government has recently begun to respond to public demands for transparency by publishing hourly readings of PM2.5, which are the tiny particulates released by car exhausts and factory chimneys.  These particulates raise the risks of lung diseases, heart problems and dementia.  Some international environmental monitors are skeptical of the recent Government measurements published - which are classified as "healthy" in Europe and the US - describing themselves as a "bit suspicious" when monitors other than the Chinese Government show higher levels of air pollution in the same locations.


Pollution readings in major Chinese cities everywhere likely surged as a result of the fireworks displays last night.  Many environmental activists are arguing for cities to have a single spectacular fireworks display, as does Hong Kong, rather than allowing individuals to shoot off their own, compounding the pollution, as well as the rubbish, problems.  But tradition is always hard to displace or modify.  And setting off fireworks is a tradition that is celebrated worldwide for various festivities.  Some activists are appealing for alternatives such as electric firecrackers, etc., in order to incorporate tradition with advance technologies.


Because the tradition of fireworks has been around since the 7th century and nearly all children want to experience some facet of it, it will be a particularly difficult tradition to modify, let alone remove.  But with the world's population increasing by trillions, some modification must be considered.  Otherwise, our celebrations will only continue to poison our own living space. 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Kings' Day!

In spite of all the best of intentions, New Year's resolutions and everything else, SD has lately been a casualty to nothing other than sheer unadulterated fainéance.  While it is true that many things were happening at once, or very quickly, from Thanksgiving to mid-December, it is also true that since then there have been excellent opportunities to sit down and share something with anyone who may still have any interest in reading about them. It is also true that several seasonal moments were experienced and captured on film expressly for the purpose of including them here.  Alas, none made it, at least not yet.  They may yet appear, with appropriate mention of tardiness.

For the time being, I am happy to report that we are well and happy, that our family members are thriving and that, while there are occasional small glitches and blips in this journey we call life, they are not the stuff of nightmares.  And thank all the Powers That Be for that!  We did lose some good friends and family members in 2011, more reminders of our own mortality.  Such losses perennially raise questions about the apparent whimsy of selecting certain good human beings - needed on this earth more than ever these days - for the Journey to the Great Beyond while others remain here to do more than mischief.  Those questions can never be answered satisfactorily, especially for the loved ones who are left behind.  But we have learned that acceptance can occur once the grieving is over, even though there will always be holes that will never be filled.

So please do not give up on SD just yet.  Right now, I'm on the West Side of The Pond, preparing to spend a few days assisting with the care of my young grandsons while their Sweet Momma is on a required business trip to the West Coast.  There may thus be a few more "spotty" attempts at writing.  Later this month, however, I hope to return to a more consistent routine.

So, HWMBO and I send our belated warmest wishes for the Christmas, New Year and Kings' Day holidays and hope that it takes much less time for all to remember to write "2012" than it did to remember "2011."