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Pandemic Polemic
May you live in interesting times. Not, it seems, an “old Chinese curse,” but a curse no less. The article linked above has a good quote from an 1898 speech delivered by Joseph Chamberlain, father of Neville Chamberlain: I think that you will all agree that we are living in most interesting times. (Hear, hear.) I never […]
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We’re an American Pant!
As I started to write this, I searched for my previous post on the topic, and turns out I’ve not only written twice before but I already used a variant of the pun in the title. Sigh. Old habits… Anyway, what brought me back to the writing desk is that my two current pairs of […]
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The Bug Hunt
A few years ago, someone’s project came up on my Twitter Feed (or elsewhere — it’s been a while, and I don’t remember with certainty) that caught my interest. This happens with an alarming frequency, but most of the time I can stifle the interest sufficiently to avoid ordering all the parts. Our house is […]
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Geneva Wrapup
All in all, we had a great trip to Geneva. This is (for us) a once-in-a-lifetime type of family vacation. We were immensely grateful to have Emma there as our guide and interpreter. It’s very clear that it’s possible to get around without any knowledge of French (or German or Italian, the two other common […]
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Travel Day 2
Travel Day 2 means time to go home, of course, which is sad in a way, but in other ways we were ready. We woke early, finished packing and cleaning, then headed off to a local boulangerie for breakfast, something we hadn’t done on the trip previously. Emma met us there, and we had a […]
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Montreux
Yesterday we took the train to Montreux. No Jazz Festival at the moment, but we spent a good part of the day exploring Château de Chillon. This is an amazing castle dating back to the 11th century. We walked all through the 47 tour stations, taking in bedrooms, dining halls, dungeons, latrines, etc. The views […]
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Shopping ConCERN
Today we met Emma at Gare Cornavin, bought tickets, and hopped on a tram headed to CERN. We did not have tickets for a tour, but have heard mixed reviews on the tour anyway. So we were able to go into the Globe, which is their visitors center. There was a theater with a brief […]
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Old Town Geneva
Today, we met Emma at Bel Air, and walked from there past all the high-end watch and designer stores. We went into a couple, but it was hard to feel comfortable looking at $10,000+ watches, with well dressed security guards all around, etc. We spent more time in the Swatch store, where we bought Tyler […]
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Return from Which Mountain?
From Villars, of course! In the morning, we had much better views of the Alps, which are incredibly breathtaking! We spent a leisurely morning having breakfast and packing up at the chalet, then we took the local shuttle bus into town mostly to do some shopping for souvenirs. After wearying of shopping, we stopped at […]
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Villars
Today, we ventured into the Alps! We took a train from Geneva at 7:30, changed trains twice, and arrived in Villars by 10:00. We explored the town a bit, dropped our luggage at our chalet, then had some lunch at Cookie Deli. After lunch, we rented some ski equipment for the kids, bought lift tickets, […]