The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by meredith tarr:

A day late, but no less heartfelt, I raise my mug of tea.

On 11/9/89 I was a sophomore in college. I had just declared my German major and was applying to programs to spend my junior year in Germany. I was glued to the tv in my dorm all that night in utter astonishment at what was happening.

I remember it wasn't too far into 1990 before I saw a globe that had the new Eastern European map on it, and how fascinating that was to see.

I traveled to Berlin while there were panels of the Wall still standing, and the people there weren't quite used to the concept of being able to travel freely between East and West Berlin yet. I took the U-Bahn from a stop in the West to a stop in the East, and the train passed through several "ghost stations" en route, including one directly underneath Checkpoint Charlie. It was positively eerie. I remember how you knew you were in East Berlin because the architecture suddenly got very severe and boring, and the air smelled strongly of coal.

On Unification Day I passed up a chance to go to Berlin for the celebrations because I had no money and was afraid of the crowds. Instead, I went to the party in the basement Kneipe of one of the buildings in the Studentenstadt where I lived. There was a small tv on the bar, surrounded by all the American students actually watching the coverage from Berlin and celebrating the historic moment. All the Germans in the room totally ignored what was going on, they just sat in groups huddled over their beers bitching about how much their taxes were about to go up.

In the spring I took a day trip to Prague via bus with two friends, simply because we could. We each exchanged DM5 for an obscene amount of Czechoslovakian money that we couldn't possibly spend in one day. We would've been fine if we had just exchanged a total of 5 Mark. We ate our way across Prague, concluding with dinner at a 5-star restaurant before it was time to get on the bus back to Munich. We still had money left over.

I can't believe it's been only 20 years.

Leah #95: unless you're crowd-averse, I think the best NYC Halloween thing to do would be to go to the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, on 6th Avenue around 7pm (but get there much earlier to get a prime viewing spot).

guthrie #101, the sunrise each morning was beyond stunning, and it was so peaceful to watch the cruise ships come and go. Call me weird, but I loved it. :)

How timely. I have absolutely fallen in love with Edinburgh over the past few months, after having spent 10 days there in August for Fringe. We got to go back just 10 days ago for a follow-up gig, and we weren't even in town for 24 hours and that made me sad.

For Fringe I rented us an apartment in one of the brand-new developments right along the waterfront in Leith, and I'll never forget how awesome it was to wake up in the morning and see the Firth of Forth through the window.

I realize we totally lucked out weather-wise both times we were there, and the winter would kill me (SAD, anyone?), but still, I can't wait to go back. We're hoping to mount another Fringe show next summer.

You have just described the "mashed potato pizza" served from BAR's brick oven in downtown New Haven.

I just took the Staten Island Ferry there and back for fun two days ago ... I was just thinking about how different things looked when Henry Hudson first sailed through there.

Ahh, Swiss train trips. I will never, ever forget the trip I took from Munich to St. Moritz for Christmas during my junior year abroad (I was lucky enough to have a friend whose family had more money than God to spend the holidays with that year). The mountains just kept getting more and more stunning, and we kept getting higher and higher and I simultaneously was compelled and terrified to look out the window, as the view looking up was glorious, but the view looking *down* was enough to make your heart stop.

There are no guardrails on train tracks.

This discussion also brings to mind the secondary injury that befell a friend of one of my best friends. He went on a roller coaster and suffered whiplash during the ride, but other than a stiff neck for a couple days he was fine. Until a couple weeks later when he suddenly had a stroke. (Did I mention he wasn't yet 40 years old?)

Apparently the whiplash had caused some bleeding in one of the blood vessels at the base of his skull that led to a clot which eventually broke off and ended up in his brain.

vian #22: yes, yes.

I work for a small indie record label in NYC. In 2005 we were putting together a compilation CD of emerging artists that we intended to use as a promo item at music industry events and to send to certain types of radio stations. A month before the CD was due to be manufactured, Hurricane Katrina happened.

We sat down and said "we should do something. We can't just sit here and *not* do something. Hey, we have this compilation coming out next month, what if we went back to all the artists on it and asked their permission to sell the CD at retail and have all of the proceeds go go Habitat for Humanity in Louisiana?" And that's exactly what we did. Only one artist refused to participate, so we dropped their track and moved on. (To their credit, they have since admitted what a stupid thing that was.)

Never once in any of the conversations we had about making this a fundraiser did we say anything even approaching "ooooh, look, we can cash in on this tragedy!" We never intended to sell this item, so when we did decide to send it to retail it was so that 100% of the proceeds could go to the charity.

We have since turned this into an annual series, and have raised funds and awareness for World Hunger Year and National Eating Disorders Association (which looks kinda funny when listed serially like that, I know :}). We are in the process of picking our charity for volume 4 now. But I can state with 100% honesty and conviction that this isn't a sleazy publicity grab for our label. It's absolutely and totally a way to give back in some small way. We wouldn't sell the CDs if it weren't for that.

The only credit card I use regularly is my LL Bean affinity Visa. It was originally an MBNA card, which then got eaten by BoA. Interestingly, LL Bean, which prides itself on being the gold standard of customer service, switched providers to a different bank last year. I was all too happy to get out from under BoA's thumb -- the above is only one illustration of just how evil they are.

As luck would have it, I am in France for a conference this week. The American delegation is hosting an Inauguration party this evening, as it conveniently coincides with the usual cocktail hour anyway. :) We expect the turnout to be huge -- *everyone*, regardless of nationality is incredibly excited about today.

The sad thing is, I find myself *expecting* the election to be stolen. That is, if the polls don't turn out to have been utterly munged by the Bradley Effect. :/

Oooh, how timely! I'll be in Bennington this Friday into Saturday. Never been there before, so the diner tip is much appreciated. Thanks!!

Oy. If I had all that stuff going on with me, I bet I'd be pissed off, too. :/

When my dad spent 10 days in the ICU, I saw parts of his personality I'd never seen before. The nurses called it "ICU psychosis", and said it's a very common thing. You're in a place where there is absolutely no sense of time -- no day, no night, no weekends, just people constantly bugging you every 5 minutes and machines beeping incessantly and things stuck into you and all you want is for people to leave you the hell alone so you can get some REST, dammit.

Continuing to send all good vibes toward Soren and Velma...

In my experience, ICU-based hospitalists have absolutely no clue how to deal with anyone other than unresponsive patients. Their bedside manners are nonexistent. :P

Continuing to send all good vibes toward Scraps and Velma...

That is one of those "only in New York" moments, for sure.

I'm amazed this didn't happen last Friday, though -- that's just about the only traffic-jam-inducing thing (up to and including the helicopter crash) that I didn't run into trying to get from New Haven to Midtown to Pennsylvania that day! My route took me right through Union Square, too. I guess at least one minor deity was smiling down upon me.

Watching the papal death watch today seems like a pretty stunning reminder of what the Church's actual position on death is, that it's nothing to be hastened, but that it's also something perfectly natural, and not to be feared.

Precisely. Which is why this article left me puzzled. If the Pope really did express a wish for life support to be maintained as long as possible, wouldn't that be defying the will of God?

There's preserving life, and then there's denying death. The line may be thin, but it does exist. The Catholics (the tradition in which I was raised) believe in the kingdom of Heaven -- why, then, would the Pope want to be kept away from there any longer than necessary?

To those who wonder what definition of "love" the Schindlers were using, I submit this.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

(*waves* long time reader, first time commenter, blah blah blah :)

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