The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Sus:

I welled up just reading your post, Abi. I was 14 when that wall came down. All I remember of that night are the scenes still shown on tvs around the world today.

I was working last night, but tonight I will drink a toast to the memory of those who died trying to get to the other side, to the folks in Leipzig who just wouldn't stop marching, and to all those good people in Berlin who made the final push.

And to my dad, whose grandmother and aunts decided to move to the West a week before the borders closed for 40 years.

Thanks for this post.

/re-lurk

Heh. I've just re-read Good Omens and the immediate expectation I had of the translation was something like ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. Lucius made this jar for Amaka. Buggre all this for a Larke. I amme sick to mye Hart of potterye...

*wild applause* Thank you, Jim, for putting this up here. Bookmarked, and will be used relentlessy to refute the 'autism, whaaaaa!' proponents.

I had both chicken pox and mumps as a child, and if I could go back in time and make them vaccinate me against those beforehand, I would.

Kimberley @22: I've learned that tetanus is every ten years, too. (In Germany, and in the UK.) Confusing.

Paul @ 46

Ah. Cheers. :) I'm not re-posting that link, though. It's dangerous for people, even if the braaaaaiiiins-reliant community might appreciate the, er, fall-out. Hur hur.

#25 Er...okay?

Mary Dell @15

No, no, noooo! You mustn't link to that fic! Someone might accidentally click on it, and then there'll be asploded brains all over the place. My eyes are still bleeding.

I love reading all these comments. They've helped me remember my gateway SFF moment:

I was 13 and in hospital, recovering from having my appendix removed. I'd never been in hospital before and my parents, bless them, worried that I might hate it. So they went to the Intershop (shops in the GDR where you could buy *gasp* Western stuffs) and bought me pineapple juice (you had to have been there to understand the awesome), and my dad scoured his bookshelves in case I got bored.

He showed up with a whole suitcase full of books, including Jules Verne's Two years' vacation and, more importantly, From the earth to the moon. There was another book whose name and author I've forgotten, but it took place on a distant planet (TM) with talking trees - I never looked back.

Thanks, dad!

I will never forget that the guy who gave me my first job in England 5 years ago only picked up my application because the recruiter whom I'd sent it to was on holiday that very day.

My gratefulness lasted for 2 whole years, upon which I decided that I'd paid off his kindness (for helping me get a foot on the ground) and left the horrors of that agency far behind me.

5 years. Where'd they go?

Thank you so much, Teresa, for doing all this work! A bookmark for years to come.

Wh--Wha? *wibble* Is that pic for real? It gave me such a start; closely followed by (a short-lived) elation at the thought that McCain's finally cracked... But I see that I'm wrong. Shame.

Earl Cooley III @ 127 the heparin contamination scandal

My blushes! I'd never even heard of this. (cue Wikipedia: Oh wow. I've gaps to fill.)

I was speaking more from personal experience. It's evil in that it's painful stuff? Especially when you get heparin injections every day for weeks, and it just won't get any less painful. That's why I don't like it, and that's why I'm hoping Teresa won't have to continue with it. :)

*goes to read up on heparin scandal*

Hurrah! I'm glad you're home. Get well soon. Thanks, Patrick, for the updates. The lurkers support you in comments...

Heparin is evil. I hope it stayed at the hospital!

Seconding everyone above. Rolling +20 health. Best wishes, Teresa. Get well soon!

Today is the 35th birthday of my friend Pete, whose mother was told he wouldn't live long past 12 years of age when he was 5. Every year on this day, I am grateful.

Also, happy birthday Xopher! :)

wintermute @11: Not just American tourists, also this expat German, who, under the 'fluence of the movies, wasn't sure about the British emergency number until she read abi's fine thread opener just now.

112 used to be reserved for fire brigade emergency calls, back at home. Wikipedia says it still is. And at the same time the Eurpean emergency number for EVERYTING. Is that odd? Won't that be confusing?

Debbie @ 179

That's it! I'd forgotten. A well-known thing it was, then, not something we made up. Still, it makes me laugh and laugh. Thank you so much for bringing that back to me!

*bows deeply* Once again, ML manages to utterly intrigue and make me feel very stupid at the same time. 3 hard years of Latin and what have I got? Nothing.

But I'd like to ask this learned gathering something if you don't mind? Back in the day, when Cicero became too tedious, we used to amuse ourselves with making up sentences. My favourite was "Caesar rocked up on his bike." (Or is this some ancient meme? I can't remember.). Of course this was an approximation, the actual latin I think involved the words Caesar+arrive 3rd person sing perfect active+wheel...

My dictionaries are in my parents' attic... Can anyone translate this for me? I'd be so happy.

Humbly,
Sus of Small Brain

Kathryn,

Heh. Crazy it will be. Crowds there will be. Condolences :P

Mind you, I think not even those southern types will have the entire month off to party, so the crowds will possibly be more prevalent at the weekend. And Munich is supposed to be quite nice! Will you have time for a short skiing trip into the lower Alps? Much recommended if I remember correctly.

If I ever have the time and money to go to BurningMan I'm SO there.

meredith @ 98

*shudder* Did they make you put banana juice in it? Did they? I tell you, nothing is more disturbing than when, during your first week of working in a pub, your first Weissbier drinker walks in and asks for a Paulaner with banana juice. Brrrrr.

Kathryn @ 26

My gut reaction was to scream Nooooooo and talk you out of going altogether. Southern Germany is the place NOT to be around the narrische Zeit. Thus speaketh the girl from the North East, where we are much more sensible.

But then it occurred to me that you might enjoy this kind of thing - takes all sorts, they tell me ;) - so if you insist on exposing yourself to Teh Crazy, and taking your wardrobe limits into account, how about this?

1 - It's a brewery, score.*
2 - They only let in folks dressed in white! Score?

I warn you again, though. They go mental, the southern types, at Faschingszeit.

Right. Having now prepared you sufficiently, I consider my duty done. (Because once one accepts Teh Crazy, there is sooooo much fun to be had. But be prepared, and bring tape to stick lower jaw in place. Also, there will be much Blasmusik. Ouch.)

Have fun! I hope it snows for you. They get the best (read: most) snow in all of Germany down there.

* BTW, Bavarian beer can be, er, challenging if you're a hardened lager drinker. I'm just saying.

Gabriele #333 Maybe your parents wanted to avoid that sort of trouble.

Oh, I'm sure they did. Had I declared in class that the Stasi was nasty because they wouldn't allow us to visit our relatives in the West, my parents would have been in serious trouble. Dissent was kinda frowned upon.

Yourself again @ 339 Nothing wrong with Trabbis! ;) Except where they were made of cardboard and about as big as a shoebox. Heh. Ossie. I've not been called that in a long time.

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