Last night we stopped and had dinner in Hermann, Missouri to celebrate my completion of the Duolingo German course a couple of weeks ago. Theoretically, Octoberfest is going on, but unless you want to drink beer (which we didn't), there wasn’t much to do. A “Dark Stories” tour was sold out for the next few weekends.
We ate at the restaurant at the Stone Hill Winery, which was much better than the place locals recommended (which proposed to serve prime rib on a styrofoam tray (!!!)).
We should be home tomorrow.
What’s up out there?
Good that you raised a glass to Oktoberfest.
In the UK
Yesterday several overly-entitled young people decided it would be a jolly gape to release crickets at the LGB Alliance conference as the LGBA famously does not centre trans people but are concerned with sexual orientation. The outbreak was contained and the conference continued to its conclusion with just one session being slightly curtailed (that of Jamie Reed's). 4 out of the 6 were detained (and then released into parental custody after the police took their details). I do hope they are 1. charged for the deep clean the venue will have to do. 2. charged with violating various Public Health laws and 3. charged with an aggravated hate crime offence as they deliberately targeted a protected characteristic, namely same-sex orientation. Crickets from Stonewall on the hate crime btw. So much for advocating for gay rights... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/11/suspected-trans-protesters-release-hundreds-crickets/ or https://archive.ph/u6F3V
I thought good for the BBC News broadcaster Clive Myrie who called a pro-Pally protestor an effing idiot after the protestor yelled at him and then stamped off. Myrie apologized for his language (but not the sentiment). https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/11/watch-clive-myrie-calls-pro-palestine-protesters-idiot/ or https://archive.ph/VChv8
Dominic Sandbrook (one of the Rest is HIstory presenters) has a good essay in the Times about the historical problems with No 10 Downing Street. Johnson called it ressembling a crack den in his just released memoirs. But what did other recent PMs, including Maggie T think about it? https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/many-pms-have-detested-downing-street-t0zjm0tvc or https://archive.ph/tTfNI
And Joanna Williams has a good essay in the Times about schools teaching children morals. She is nearly there but ignores the freedom of belief aspect (how can you be free to impart your philosophical beliefs if the state imposes them on them on your children? Art 8 and 9 of the European Human Rights convention, 1st Amendment establishment clause in the US) https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/hey-teacher-leave-those-kids-alone-and-let-parents-do-the-parenting-5tm90vdvp or https://archive.ph/VUDiO
Cheers from Dallas! My college roommate’s gf had German ancestry and took German-I love its compound nouns. Your stops in small town America sound like a great way to see the places many folks flyover or bypass. I’ve had some good friends from Missouri and have been to St Louis, Branson, Kansas City and took the train from Springfield to near Lake of the Ozarks. From Louis and Clark to the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott decision, as the birthplace of arguably our greatest 19th Century author Mark Twain and a couple consequential 20th Century Presidents (Truman and Ike), its place in the story of our country has often been pivotal.
I’m up ridiculously early preparing for a full Saturday of fair going and football. I’ll be taking notes on the absurdly unhealthy oneupmanship (personship? How do I correct for sexist language on that one?) of the foods here at the Texas State Fair in hopes of maybe a crafting a guest post that can reignite some comment controversy among this consistently compelling concatenation of consciousnesses. If a bread recipe can do it, imagine the fun of deep friend Mars bars with jalapeño and caramel? Have a nice weekend and of course safe travels.