Letter from France Germany August 1992

Monday, August 3, 1992

 

Folks,

 

Well, am back in Berlin enjoying the last bit of summer vacation. It's hot. Not as muggy as many parts of the US, and hot. Based on my lips, ChapStick stock must be up. The dry heat brings out insects whose names I don’t know in several languages. Using some linguistic, kamikaze effort to teach me their names, these airborn creepy-crawlies stick to my lips as I bicycle around town. Coming home through the green forest a few days ago I finally espied the wild pigs that everyone has been talking about. Now I worry about swine flew sticking to my lips. Should I have gotten apple flavor instead of cherry lip balm? Do Germans have luaus? Or does it change with umlauts?

 

Another vacation spent in North America. As usual, the United States looks and feels much like a giant shopping mall. The huge price differences between electronic items kept me busy scoping out answering machines and tape recorders. Most prized of all is the new laptop computer. Knowing that I carry more computing power in my backpack than most third world countries helps alleviate being treated as a second-class citizen. With a bit of luck—and some persistence-this machine machine and I will attempt to write several more books. Should my publishers ever decide to make royalty payments in a timely fashion, the Powerbook 140 may eventually pay for itself (plus all coming upgrades and/or replacements). If not, it is still a very sexy toy.

 

Was pondering how to get all this taxable electronic gear into Germany, and was fantasizing stories about how it was all going right back out of the country to assist former Soviet-bloc countries—including receipts in Serbo-Croatish, bills of lading in Polish, and cancelled checks in, well, Czech. Strangely enough, sometimes the best part of international travel isl when the airline lose your luggage. Strolling through customs in Berlin without having to lug any of the items to declare was a pleasant lagniappe, indeed, doubly so when it was all delivered the next day—duty-free—to the door.

 

An interesting read is The Vietnam Wars by Marilyn B. Young. Published last year, the book recounts how wrong—and how often—the US was wrong to have fought.

 

take care, Tödd

 

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