Day 941 Sunday August 4, 2019
458 Days until the 2020 election and 540 days until the Inauguration
So hum, where to begin? I went on a tour of Nuremberg yesterday. I saw the giant parade grounds where Hitler held his huge rallies. Very impressive area, most interesting were the bleachers. They were dirt, sculpted into rising hummocks. The large rectangular structures on either side which gave the place a sense of being a fortress were really toilets, very practical. If you’re going to have a few hundred thousand people in a space you better have somewhere for them to pee!
We also went to a museum dedicated to describing Hitler’s rise to power and downfall. It was housed in a structure that was made to look like the Coliseum in Rome, but larger. It was never finished on the inside. Only the outside 180 degree curved wall was done. Inside of that area is the museum. Using an audio headset you can walk up to pictures, hit a number and listen to the various pictures and descriptions. Hitler and his party were very adept at making large displays and seeming to reveal great power. It was an appeal to emotion rather than logic and fact. The parallels to that time and to what is going on in our country, and around the western world if not the entire world, is staggeringly similar. It should all be cause for concern.
The last stop on the tour was the courtroom where the famous Nuremberg trials took place. It’s not a large room. It’s large for a courtroom, and quite impressive, but when you consider the pictures of the trial and what went on there, it seems too small. They did expand the space by expanding the back wall so that more of the press could fit in. Other innovations included the American system of cross examination and for the first time they used simultaneous translation into four languages: German, French English, and Russian were used. This brought an immediacy to the proceedings, and a benefit to cross-examination. There was no jury, rather it was a head judge flanked by two other judges and two citizen jurors. However, the allies (four votes) got to decide the fate of those being tried. Not sure how that worked. But the criminality, the monstrousness of their crimes, and having seen Anne Frank’s house a few days ago, makes one realize how precious our system of governance is. A system now under attack by the same sort of forces that allowed Hitler to come to power.
We can not be silent. We must speak out. We must confront.
Now onto what I really wanted to talk about. The theme of the day.
Yesterday the dining room had a bottle of wine for sale for forty Euros (about fifty dollars). The description was one I’ve never seen before on a bottle of wine: “somewhat okay.” It made me want to try it. I discovered one couple had bought a bottle (they’re on the unlimited liquor plan. I was forbidden from signing up.) They left a half a bottle’s worth on the table, and I was offered some by the other guests. It was not “somewhat okay.” It was more like “not that okay.”
Then I offered my arm to one of our fellow passengers. She’s a little unsteady and she said, as we began to ascend the stairway, “Are you better than a handrail?”
Now that is a question I have never had been asked before. It does raise interesting philosophic questions and potential answers. I wondered what would our tour leader, a born and bred Brit, answer. This made me realize that the British and American male answers would no doubt be quite different. Setting aside the potentially salacious and undoubtedly uncouth responses, I thought that as an American I’d no doubt respond, “Of course!” (as in “Of course, I’m better than a hand rail!”) However, I thought the English response would be more nuanced and thoughtful. I pictured a rich internal debate preceeding any verbalization. this would be akin to the great grocery store checkout quandary – “paper or plastic?” I would expect the British thought process to repeat the question rephrased as “Am I better than a handrail?” Followed by long moments of silent contemplation where the question would be repeated as it was mulled over, and then some attempts at answers. To wit: “Well, I suppose I’m better than a handrail if by that you mean …” Or perhaps a defining of the parameters, “If one considers the characteristics of a handrail and then those that one could offer, well, I guess it depends on what you want doesn’t it?”
There could also be the ironic answering of this question, something I feel at the moment unable to give it justice.
However, the theme of the day has emerged – Somewhat Okay.
And the question, the puzzler, of the day is – “Are you better than a handrail?”
It is worth considering.
In other news, the second Democratic debate has finished. Some candidate delivered some real zingers, some did not. I forget, or never heard who did what. Trump’s latest pick for a high office has withdrawn. And Donald said or tweeted something really stupid. (In other words, I don’t really have any information, this is all coming off the old political spinal column.)
In the world of fantasy, I’ve been wondering what kind of havoc one could raise by flipping the door handle signs, the ones that have “Do Not Disturb” on one side and “Clean the Room Now” on the other. I could see the staff not cleaning a bunch of rooms and walking in on some rather unusual antics in the other. (Given the average age of the clientele I would assume most antics would be snoring or rinsing out underwear.)
458 Days until the 2020 election and 540 days until the Inauguration
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