Flames leapt into the sky across Germany when the Nazis gave a foretaste of the Holocaust in the vicious pogrom against the Jewish community. By the time the rampage had ended, thousands of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues had been burned down or looted by thugs as police and fire brigades looked on.
[…]
More than 400 people were beaten to death, shot or driven to suicide, records show. More than 30,000 were rounded up and packed off to concentration camps.
A museum has apparently just opened to commemorate Germans who helped hide others from Nazi persecution. Meanwhile, a new generation of Nazi sympathizers in Germany has emerged:
Figures disclosed by the government on Tuesday showed there were nearly 800 anti-Semitic crimes committed during the first nine months of this year, resulting in injuries to 27 people.
I just ate some Kartoffelpuffer, also known as latkes, or draniki, or even Placki kartoflane (Platski). Fried food is not my favorite, but I have to admit there is something deeply comforting about hot potato pancakes. Perhaps it is the habit of eating them with family and friends, or the time of year when they are most often served. Speaking of things that have strange translations in other languages, I recently noticed that the Polish word for laxative is Srodek przeczyszczajacy. Perhaps the theory is that if you can say it clearly then you don’t need it. Not sure how that came to mind…oh, right I was talking about latkes.
There seems to be an abundance of thinking about latkes in the world. I have noticed some argue potatoes are only a recent development — a New World ingredient. This suggests latkes as a concept much broader than the potato pancake. Yet I know of no modern latke without potatoes. You? Moreover, this same article argues that Holofernes, a general of Nebuchadnezzar, was beheaded by Judith after a meal of latkes. Really? A general was put to sleep by latkes? I think the regular story of a general who drank too much and let his guard down is more likely. It is not just history that comes up in the latke texts. I also found philosophy. The famous debates have seen latkes used as a vehicle of metaphysics:
Whatever there are, some of them are latkes. (Free metaphysics.)
In every possible world there is a latke, though perhaps not the same latke. (Modal semantics.)
Necessarily, there is an x such that x is the square root of 2, and there is another x which is a latke. (Technical modal mathematical logic.)
All this thinking about potato pancakes is interesting, but to be honest I really just like to eat them. Nothing like a good Kartoffelpuffer with a seasonal Bock — Weihenstephaner Korbinian to go with wild-boar sausage and a side of sauerkraut, Spätzle and of course potato pancakes…yum.
Rob Brezsny has many funny things to say, and they are often enlightening as well. I like this bit:
Roshi’s wisdom reminded me of an anecdote told by Henry Kissinger, an American politician who was Secretary of State in the 1970s. Kissinger once asked Chinese premier Zhou Enlai what he thought of the French Revolution, which had happened two centuries earlier. “Too soon to tell,” Chou answered.
If only we could apply this logic in the SIEM or even incident market. I was just given a few weeks to investigate a serious incident…can it be done? Where is Inspector Poirot when you need him? Those TV detectives always seem to resolve things within one episode or two at the most.
According to Greek mythology, Hades, ruler of the Underworld, fell in love with the nymph Menthe. Persephone, Hades’s wife, became wildly jealous and began to trample Menthe. Hades rushed forward and transformed Menthe into a shrub to keep her near him always. Persephone was appeased, thinking that Menthe would be trampled for eternity beneath the feet of passersby, but Hades gave Menthe a wonderfully sweet fragrance he could cherish each time he passed by.
Him and everyone else. It seems Hades was satisfied even though others trampled on his love as he could still cherish her through smell.
a blog about the poetry of information security, since 1995