GPS-ing in France

The GPS checked the satellite and knows it is in France now. Oh la la, it may start speaking French to Glen. "Fallait pas tourner ici, andouille." ( You should not have turned here, dummy.)Heureusement il a sa traductrice (he has his translator with him). We are on the road for Wolfersweiler this morning.

To Wolfersweiler and Frankenstein

Frankenstein Chateau

Some Novingers emigrated from the Wolfersweiler/Frankenstein area in Saarland, Germany, to the United States in the early 1700s. Glen has been wanting to visit this area, which has gone back and forth between what are now France and Germany. This should be interesting. We shall see what awaits us.

Tasty Food

We love the tasty, healthy food at Casa de Luz, which we have frequented since the early '90s. Walk through the bower to the co-op restaurant. A very Austin experience.

Sweet Spring

On a lovely Spring morning, we picked strawberries at Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls. We ate strawberries, strawberries and ice cream, strawberries on pancakes...and more strawberries. They were fresh and delicious, but not as sweet this year. We had good moisture but the weather may have been too cool. The picking and the eating were a treat, in any case.

Animal Review

I am an NPR fan. I laugh out loud at "Wait, wait, don't tell me..." This can be embarrassing when I am in my car in a parking lot by myself and can't get out in the middle of an episode because I am visibly doubled over with laughter. I didn't hear the review on Animal Review, but I laughed out loud at the blog. If you are feeling blue, read Animal Review.

Happy Valentine's Day

In Memoriam: Al Wutscher

"And the true spirit shall return
to the burning flame from whence it came,

a portion of the eternal." -Shelley

We lost my brother-in-law, Al, today.

I hold him and Nan in my heart.

Happy 2010

Love that hike.

Happy Holidays

Greetings from Glen & Tracy Novinger

Expletive Alternatives

I think that there is little in any Romance language to match the rawness, strength and crudeness of anglo-saxon obscenities in English, and the use of these expletives has become quite common. In many conversations and in the entertainment media, every other word in a sentence in American English now seems to be f--- or some variation thereof, relieved occasionally by some other unrefined cousin of four letters. Perhaps this usage indicates a paucity of vocabulary. It certainly does not convey complexity of thought.


The English language has a rich heritage and for your entertainment I submit the following examples of fine insults, before the current tendency to distill expression to simple-minded four-letter words:

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, "If you
were my husband I would put poison in your tea." He said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."
"That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "on whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend.... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill. "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx

"Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it." - Shakespeare, Macbeth

Don't you love these?