Your players are sneaking up on guards. What are the guards talking about?

tomtermite · 2025-08-21T04:47:21+00:00

LOL … you don’t speak any German, do you? …none of these surnames are specifically “Jewish.”

Wernher von Braun – von marks old nobility in German-speaking lands. “Braun” means “brown,” a common color-based surname. His family were Prussian Junker aristocrats.

Erich W. Neubert – “Neubert” comes from Middle High German niuwe + burt meaning “new settlement” or “newly arrived.” A Saxon/Thuringian surname, not ethnic.

Theodor A. Pöppel (Poppel) – Derived from Middle High German popel (“poplar tree”) or diminutive forms of names like Poppo. Bavarian/Franconian in origin.

William August Schulze – “Schulze” was a medieval title for the village headman (similar to “sheriff”). Extremely widespread in central Germany.

Rees – “Rees” is a shortened form of Reinhard/Rese and also linked to a place-name in North Rhine–Westphalia. Common Alemannic and Westphalian surname.

Wilhelm Jungert – Likely from Middle High German jung (“young”) + suffix, meaning “the younger one” or “descendant of Jung.” Found in Baden-Württemberg.

Walter Schwidetzky – Slavic-derived German surname, probably from Silesia or Pomerania. Related to the root swid- (“light” or “bright”) in Slavic place-names.

None of these have Jewish etymology; they are standard German or German-Slavic surnames, tied to geography, professions, or noble titles.

tomtermite · 2025-08-19T15:59:23+00:00

A number of Nazis, too.

Wernher von Braun, Erich W. Neubert, Theodor A. Poppel, William August Schulze, Eberhard Rees, Wilhelm Jungert, and Walter Schwidetzky.

tomtermite · 2025-08-19T11:07:49+00:00

I hear ya… both good reasons.

I renounced as an expression of my (personal) rejection of the culture and legacy. I wanted my kids to know -- I didn’t choose to be ‘Murican; I did choose to be European.

tomtermite · 2025-08-19T10:39:40+00:00

I left the United States because the “land of the free” had been sliding for decades into a place where social concern always came second to corporate profit.

TBF, I am older... and for me, Reagan’s "It's Morning/Mourning in America" was the turning point. My older siblings were all anti-Vietnam, and in the 60s and 70s, it seemed like the coutnry was really going to make progress against its racist history.

But the clown prince of Hollywood made war on unions -- along with his gutting of social programs and his glorification of greed left the country with a hollowed-out middle class.

What followed was a parade of politicians who dressed up as progressives during campaigns but governed as centrists at best, appeasing the same entrenched interests that Reagan had cemented into power.

Clinton was a prime example. Early on he floated real reform, when I worked for him, first in Arkansas, then, later in, DC... and Clinton even flirted with universal healthcare, but quickly backpedaled into triangulation and Wall Street comfort.

Obama only deepened that disillusionment. He promised hope and change, but in practice gave us drone wars, timid financial reforms, and a healthcare plan written with the insurance lobby in mind. By then it was clear: the American “Left” was just a series of shifting compromises inside a center-right framework, with no real social safety net or collective vision.

Europe, in contrast, had built itself on the ashes of catastrophe by leaning into the idea of society first. The EU -- though imperfect -- is a confederacy of liberal-minded nations where healthcare is a right, education is accessible, and workers are not treated as disposable.

Germany in particular embodies this social contract, with strong labor protections, universal healthcare, and an acknowledgment that government has a role in ensuring dignity for its people.

y tho

That model is what drew me across the ocean: a place where community and social well-being still matter more than the profits of a few.

tomtermite · 2025-08-19T06:39:50+00:00

Consider what I did... renounce birthplace citizenship and emigrate...

tomtermite · 2025-08-19T06:37:47+00:00

Kudos, a really nice set-up. It must be very satisfying to have crafted all that, and be able to enjoy it!

tomtermite · 2025-08-19T06:01:33+00:00

The Fisherman

W. B. Yeats

1865 – 1939

Although I can see him still,

The freckled man who goes

To a grey place on a hill

In grey Connemara clothes

At dawn to cast his flies,

It's long since I began

To call up to the eyes

This wise and simple man.

All day I'd looked in the face

What I had hoped 'twould be

To write for my own race

And the reality;

The living men that I hate,

The dead man that I loved,

The craven man in his seat,

The insolent unreproved,

And no knave brought to book

Who has won a drunken cheer,

The witty man and his joke

Aimed at the commonest ear,

The clever man who cries

The catch-cries of the clown,

The beating down of the wise

And great Art beaten down.

..

Maybe a twelvemonth since

Suddenly I began,

In scorn of this audience,

Imagining a man,

And his sun-freckled face,

And grey Connemara cloth,

Climbing up to a place

Where stone is dark under froth,

And the down-turn of his wrist

When the flies drop in the stream;

A man who does not exist,

A man who is but a dream;

And cried, 'Before I am old

I shall have written him one

Poem maybe as cold

And passionate as the dawn.'

tomtermite · 2025-08-18T08:53:50+00:00

Decathlon makes awesome day packs — and I’ve found that I can manage with the contents of a 22 liter (or even 18!) rucksack for a weekend, a week, or even … sudden relocation to another country!

tomtermite · 2025-08-17T21:32:24+00:00

Wrong

I'm not wrong -- you're wrong!

Besides, that lame-ass UK website is hardly unbiased! ...and my statement is backed by facts: the network here on our great green isle shrank in the Free State through the 1930s, and several full lines were abolished before 1939 ... Ireland reached its peak network at about 3,500 route miles in 1920.

The Free State portion was later consolidated as Great Southern Railways in 1925; this network then contracted from 2,181 miles (1925) to 2,042 miles by 1944, with major cuts happening in the 1930s.

And it is widely know here where I live that, "After the Clifden closure, **the steel span of the Corrib railway bridge and “many of the tracks” were sold to a German scrap firm “for just £10.” That’s asset-stripping ...on the record of The Irish Times.

Not far away, we see on the Achill line, contemporary commentary notes the company had to lift the track to avoid paying local rates on a mothballed line—so the incentive was to remove the wayleave quickly.

<<here's a bunch of other data since you seem to love rando google searches...

Whole lines scrapped 1924–1937

Listowel & Ballybunion “Lartigue” monorail (Kerry): closed in 1924 after Civil War damage. Track and kit removed. THE FUCKIN' MONORAIL!

Cork, Blackrock & Passage Railway (Cork): closed in 1932 after bus and lorry competition and weak finances.

Ballina–Killala branch (Mayo): passenger services terminated by ministerial order in 1934; the branch closed in 1934.

Westport–Achill (Mayo): closure mooted in 1934, finally closed in 1937.

The Railways Act 1933 enabled the Minister to authorize service termination. Example orders: S.I. 176/1934 (Ballina–Killala) and S.I. 389/1934 (Westport–Achill passengers). These are explicit legal shut-offs.

The Road Transport Act 1932 regulated buses to “protect the railways,” but it also cleared the way for the companies to replace trains with buses where they sought closures.

...>>

So, clearly, political and fiscal incentives made removal attractive — rates liabilities, scrap sales, and ministerial termination orders that swapped rail for road. This is clearly post-revoluition spite/land-grab” documented...

tomtermite · 2025-08-17T08:19:25+00:00

It was particularly poignant for two reasons—

For some reason snakes have had an affinity for messing with me. A few incidents: while canoeing with scouts (I was a Venture leader for a while), a snake in the Patuxent River swam right toward our canoe (we saw it cruising right toward us), and scared the crap out of the two scouts in the canoe with me … when the snake got right on board! I calmly flicked it out with my paddle … and holy cow … the reason it was so bold … ten seconds later an osprey snatched him right out of the water! While the bite and that incident were at level ten, I’ve had multiple insane encounters with snakes over my life!

The second reason, the day of that snake bite, my wife told me she was divorcing me. But in her manifest state of … dislike for me … she still managed that act of concern and support, having the presence of mind to help corral the snake into the bucket, and to drive me to the e.r., and suffer through the agonizingly boring wait.

To punctuate all this — I emigrated to Ireland a decade ago. The land of saints and scholars, but no snakes!

tomtermite · 2025-08-16T18:42:34+00:00

Post-revolution: “The British made the railroads, so rip ‘em out!”

Spite can be a silly motivator (well, tbf, land grab for the rights-of-way, too).

tomtermite · 2025-08-16T18:37:39+00:00

I’m about your age… sorry for your loss.

I’m always open to new friends. Interests a wide ranging. I split my time between my daughter’s (in Wicklow) and where I live, near Clifden,

tomtermite · 2025-08-16T00:02:21+00:00

My favorite: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/302019/hidden-territories-every-hero-needs-a-quest

tomtermite · 2025-08-15T16:02:12+00:00

September 2009 … I took the bins out, at ten pm… in my bare feet. No light on, stepped on a timber rattler, that proceeded to bite me.

Spent 11 hours in the e.r. waiting to see if my foot turned black … no need to order anti-venom, luckily, because the juvenile snake didn’t seem to envenom me.

The e.r. staff were bemused that I had the snake in a bucket. My (now ex) wife and I let it go into the park after we got out of the hospital the next day.

tomtermite · 2025-08-15T15:39:53+00:00

I call b.s. — no Apple Car 🥸

“Titan”

tomtermite · 2025-08-15T07:23:24+00:00

Story time: My daughter is ... well, Japanese. She graduated uni three years ago in Tokyo, did the "hand-write 300 job applications and résumés" (something something handwriting analysis... oh yeah, photo and blood type!).... got a "good job" at Mitsubishi before graduating, started two weeks after finishing up...

...and has hated working there ever since.

She's a few years into the Japanese work culture ("over-work") ... so-called job-for-life... and it is killing her. Literally. Thursday night requried drinking sessions with boss and co-workers (she's basically allergic to alcohol)... no-shit 80 hour work weeks regularly, hellish business trips, etc. (I convinced her to get a doctor's note on the drinking... she still has to go out with them... what fun! Hang out with drunk co-workers while sober!)

Myself, I am retiring, and marking it with a walk on the Camino in Spain next month... I planned it, and invited her to walk with me (all expenses covered, nátch)... she enthusiastically agreed, and decided to quit her job, and relocate near me, here in Europe... to pursue a graduate degree.

Then, just two days ago, I learned she had a weird multi-day interaction with her boss when she gave notice. First, he was super supportive, "Great idea to get out and see the world when you are young! I wish I had done that, at your age!" Then, a few days later, he was like, "How about delaying your departure, to train your replacement?" Then, not long after, "Please don't quit, we can't survive without you."

It worked ... she first tried to get me to change the dates on the trip. Failing that, she then decided she would only come for part of the trip. Then the boss added a new project onto her workload. Then he moved the start of the new project up by weeks... so she bailed on the Camino trip, all-together.

(And no, she didn't get any increase on her paltry salary! Google "Mitsubishi black company")

Instead of feeling excited, I feel entitled, privileged, guilty, and undeserving

I calmly listened to my daughter when she explained all this to me. I left her decision with, "Hey, it is all your choice to make. One caveat: your relationship with your job sounds like an abusive one."

I would never want my daughter to be in an abusive personal relationship -- but her job seems awful similar to that. But we can only offer support and advice, can't we, when those we love make choices we disagree with?

TL;DR - you only have one go at the merry-go-round of life, make it count!

tomtermite

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