h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have the great luck of having a very mixed semester, we have 45 people and at least 20-25 nationalities! Makes for great discussions... Some are pro-American politics, some against. But we all get along. In fact, I did a project with a Russian and a Chinese, and my mother was saying that kind of thing would have been unthinkable when she was studying, they just wouldn't have gotten in... In the states I often heard the silly argument that we should keep our mouths shut "having lost the war", but now they all seem to forget our non-aggression vow so easily I'm afraid that after the elections, we'll have CDU, and then we'll most likely join the war too...

Yes, international groups are the best! That's why I loved teaching English and German, especially in Germany, where we had lots of students from all over the globe.

I used to teach English to the German air force. Once, I asked a really delightful colonel, who used to give me rides home, what he would do in case of Soviet attack.

He said, deadpan: Resign, of course.

I looked shocked. He was descended from generations of Prussian military men.

He said: We will have failed. According to the Constitution, it is our job to prevent war.

What a wonderful person. And the Bundeswehr had as its symbol a hedgehog - defence, not offence.

I worry about that old CDU, too.

Sounds like a sensible man!
But now we'Re getting people here, too, who say everyone should have a gun to shoot terrorists on sight And I'm afraid the CDU will consider that! I'd normally never vote SPD, either, but I may have to, as every vote not for them is effectively a vote for the CDU. Equal opportunities for women by all means, but I hope neither Angela Merkel nor Condoleeza Rice ever make it up that far...

FYOMTGE (=From Your Mouth to God's Ear)!

I remember the day the Greens got in, and how they rode their bicycles to the Langen Eugen...and set their forsythias on their desks. We were all so proud! And we laughed at the stuffy bureaucrats, who couldn't stand it that they didn't wear suits and ties.

But, you're right, you have to get behind what will work. Not doing that has cost this country far too much. And they'll never get it back.

Voting can only be limiting the damage at the moment... And I certainly don't want a two-party system!

Amen, you don't. That's what we did dumb, about 200 years ago.

I'm sure that someday you can look back on all of this and tell your grandchildren you have no idea how everyone could have been that deluded...

Or at least, my great-great nieces and nephews.

I think that's what usually happens.

http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/warpoetry/1800/1800_1.html

A poem I like.

Tht is a good one! But why the odd names?

here's another one for you, Kipling again, I'm afraid...

http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/outlaws.html

Actually reminds me of my flatmate

Really good. You know, this morning,, the Companion and I were talking about the Great War. I've just read a great novel, 'Charlotte Grey', by Sebastian Faulks, and now she's reading it. It's about people in WWII, but their reaction to the war has a lot to do with the experiences of WWI. You'd like this book, I think, though you'd probably want it in German, because the author's a fan of Proust, so he writes in dense prose. (At least, I always find dense prose easier to take in my own language.)

It's good, though, and unbelievably tolerant and honest.

Well, it led us to talking about another poet I like, Alfred Noyes, and how he foretold the coming of the Great War. Are you a fan of his? (He was so popular he could live off his poetry at the time, but he's obscure now.)

Here's a site for Alfred Noyes:

http://www.poemhunter.com/alfred-noyes/poet-6643/

His most famous poem (once learned by all schoolchildren) is 'The Highwayman'.

Don't think I've read him, no... But prose in English is no problem, I probably speak it as well as German, if not better. For poets I like Kipling, of course, and Thomas Gray, and some of Edgar Allen Poe, and for the less serious stuff also Kipling and Shel Silverstein. German poets I like best are Wilhelm Bush and Christian Morgenstern.

and try this one, while I'm browsing the Kipling site:
http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/gods_of_copybook_headings.html

That one's great!

I didn't mean to impugn your English, just to warn you about the prose style. I like mine a little breezier, but this one's worth it.

Do try Noyes, I think if you like Kipling you'll like him. He wrote whole books of poetry on one theme, telling a story. I love 'Watchers of the Skies', about the astronomers.

I'll try it! but only after Uni's over, I'm afraid... I just can't get into anything mildly intellectual at the moment!

How are you doing today?

Not too bady, considering I got almost no sleep last night. Probably a reaction from too much sleep earlier in the week. And I got up early.

Still, if you don't feel too well, putting up entries is good therapy.

You seem to write a whole lot of them! I've not yet done a single one

But now you're a collaborator in two projects, okay, not edited guide, but a good start.

Maybe you should start your first Guide entry by collaborating with somebody who shares the same field of knowledge.

Three, actually, I'm also on the English-German False Friends... I'll sit down in vacation and have a look at how to do GuideML, and think of one or two subjects I want to do. Maybe Benjamin Bannecker is a good one to start with, it's easy to find information there.