So I challenge you, Bugle Nation, to pay attention to building exits over the next few days. See if my defense of self holds true: It’s not that I’m slow, it is that I have been culturally trained to push a door open when exiting.

We spent all day Sunday marveling at the fierce, steady winds and violent gusts that battered our apartment. We didn’t know if it was just an ordinary spring storm, experienced from a fourth-floor apartment, or something else. Since we didn’t venture out, the worst we saw were up-ended satellite dishes, some flying tree branches, and a few trashcans blown over. From our perspective, it was as threatening as a bad summertime storm in Chicago, without the lashing rain or thunder, but also with damaging winds for a much longer period.

We woke up this morning to a news report on Radio ARA that named the storm “Xynthia” and listed dozens of closed roads all over Luxembourg.

Roads were blocked in over 50 different places over the week-end as the storm depression Xynthia brought gale force winds to Luxembourg. The rescue services were called out on over 750 occasions as the storm wreaked havoc in the Grand Duchy. Flights from Findel Airport were also disrupted by the high winds, which were at times very close to hurricane levels, topping out at 110 km/h. 15 hikers who had ignored warnings to stay indoors had to be rescued from the woods. 4 people have been injured by flying debris. And the Sûre river in Diekirch has risen above critical levels.

Now we know that the storm was quite serious indeed, especially in western France.

From news sources:

• BBC report, photo gallery
• BBC’s collection of reports on the ground
• Overview from Boston Globe
• German coverage

For fans of weather images:

• Large still image of Xynthia
• Video of Xynthia’s approach on YouTube
• Time-lapse of Xynthia over Europe

The damage and loss of life doesn’t approach the recent disasters in Chile, Madeira and Haiti. We’re mentioning the storm for its local interest alone.

• A very large PDF (more than 50 megabytes), also visible as a slideshow at the link
• A small PDF (with lower graphics quality)
• A photoset of the book’s pages on Flickr (best to watch as a slideshow)

We also made a teacher’s guide (PDF) with more information about most of the photos.

Finally, we’re building a photoset on Flickr with more photos than we could include in the booklet. The BCGCU 3000 is still balky, so check in later this weekend to see more photos and better descriptions.

We spent most of our time trying to find good signs at the borders, so we have an odd collection of “sights” around the Luxembourg area. We didn’t go to many of the pretty or historically meaningful attractions, but that actually made the tour very interesting for us. Anyway, it’s difficult to make even Little Switzerland look good on a gray and rainy day in February.

In the meantime, perhaps you could entertain yourself with a long-dormant contest: Captions! (Hint, hint.)

Thank you, dear readers, for your patience.

We’d like to share some of our photos and a few observations. Hopefully, we’ll be able to give it the full Bugle treatment before long!

The first sign that we’d arrived in Diekirch were pedestrians in coordinated costumes. But the parade’s been underway for an hour… hey, guys, hurry up!

We found the parade route with no problem. Our first sight was a marching band. Okay, looks good.

The first float featured a homemade confetti shooter. Nicely done, gentlemen. We would learn that confetti is one of the pillars of the Diekirch Cavalcade.

I shouted, “Anita, look! It’s Obelix and Asterix!” She broke my heart this Valentine’s Day by responding, “Who?”

I can’t read it, but I’m pretty sure this group had something to say about the plans to close the Diekirch brewery.

Now you’re seeing more of the spirit of the Cavalcade.

Most floats focused on one clear joke or commentary on recent events. Voici, the swine-flu pandemic.

From what we could tell, every float must be (1) pulled by a large farm tractor, and (2) equipped with a keg.

The evidence points to this: each and every DJ residing within 20km of Diekirch is compelled to lend sound equipment to a float, and serve as keg-master during the Cavalcade.

One great feature of the Cavalcade is that about half the spectators are dressed in crazy costumes.

Maybe the culture gap is much wider than I thought, but it looked to me like the dominant theme of the spectators’ costumes was, “Well, this looks bizarre and make no sense at all. I am fabulous!”

The donkey is the mascot of the city of Diekirch, so gussied-up donkeys figured prominently in many floats.

Really, there’s not much more to say, but plenty to see. We’ll work on a more thorough report when the sun stops shining here.

TRAFFIC WARNING
Drivers are being urged to avoid travelling this week-end if at all possible. The start of the half-term holidays means heavy traffic as families head off for winter-sports breaks. The ACL says people should leave on Friday morning if they can or wait for Sunday. The combination of heavy traffic and difficult driving conditions, could make for extremely long journeys, especially for those headed for the Alps.

Other traffic-related news

LONG COMMUTES
The average commuting time for people working in Luxembourg is 37 minutes. A study of 13 different European countries by the Regus Group puts the Grand Duchy ahead of all the others when it comes to long journeys to and from work. The study revealed that 15% of commuters here were sick of spending so long travelling and would actively consider changing jobs to avoid it.

ROAD SAFETY VIGILANTES
Three men beat up a motorist on the A13 motorway late on Saturday. They forced him to stop near Bascharage by overtaking him and blocking him. They then wrenched his car door open and pulled him out, beating him up and leaving him on the verge. The victim told the police they seemed to be upset about something wrong with his brake lights. The police have not been able to trace the attackers.

The Bugle would like to take this opportunity to remind all motorists to check their lights: brake, indicator, headlights and fog lamps.

Less traffic-related news

KNIFE ATTACK
A knife-wielding robber attacked a delivery truck driver in the early hours of Saturday morning in Esch. He climbed into the cab of the vehicle and tried, but failed to steal the driver’s coat before fleeing. The driver got out and gave chase, but the robber turned back and stabbed him in the stomach. The attacker is described as being young, tall, of African heritage and dressed like a rapper.

Paraphrasing Mr Weedon on Radio ARA: Which rapper? Was he without a shirt, like 50 Cent, or wearing gold chains? Track suit bottoms, or Jay-Z Armani? Maybe the police could use some high-tech tools to clarify the issue.

DOG RESCUE
The fire service rescued a stranded dog at the week-end. It had got stuck half way down a cliff in the Rollingergrund, and had ended up taking refuge in a small cave. Walkers noticed at and called the fire service, who were able to reach the dog with their ladders. The dog was unharmed by its ordeal.

No kidding: Will almost got stuck half-way down a cliff in Rollingergrund recently. That’s a photo from his autumn stroll over hill and dale.

CASH MACHINE CON
Tricksters are out and about again in the capital, this time targeting people at cash machines. They tell people that they have left a 20 Euro note in a machine that they had just used. Then they advise them to check their account in case the machine had issued more money than requested, and while the victim is distracted, they steal the card and claim the machine has retained it.

MYSTERY ABDUCTION
A young man was abducted near the station in the capital yesterday morning. He was walking with his girlfriend when a car stopped to talk to him. One of the passengers then got out and bundled him into the car, which sped off. His girlfriend ran to the nearby police station, and they put out an international alert for the car, which was registered in France. Belgian police picked it up around an hour later near Athus. The victim was freed without harm, and the two kidnappers arrested. Police say they can’t yet completely explain the background for the kidnapping.

As usual, our main source for news is ARA City Radio’s useful website. That’s mostly because Will doesn’t get around to translating the French sources in time for these updates. Let’s go, Will!

Next, Will managed to connect Australia and some of south east Asia to the main section.

Some puzzle work escaped the all-seeing eye of the camera. As you can see, Europe, most of Asia and Africa came together too quickly for Will to grab a snapshot.

We must admit that the puzzle has some “cheats” because each piece has a number and an arrow pointing to a neighboring piece. We do believe that the oceans would be nearly impossible without these aids. Here is a view of the inside of the puzzle.

We were able to get most of the land masses connected, giving us what we briefly called “the Pac-Man world”:

At this point, the puzzleball was sturdy enough that we used the stand to hold it up.

Will’s own challenge was the Pacific Ocean. So while I finished the little bits here and there, Will filled out the Pacific.

And then it was time. We had the Pacific ready to attach to the rest of the puzzle.

We thought it would be easy! We were wrong.

We will spare you the 45 photos and 10 minutes of video. It was a lot more difficult than I expected to get it all in there. Finally, between the two of us, we got it together.

We love our puzzleball! It is really sturdy once you get it together. I appreciate having a globe in the house, as it give you a much different perspective of county/continent sizes. Most maps don’t do the southern hemisphere justice.

Hearty recommendations for the puzzleball from this house. Ravensburger had a ton of designs — not just globes. Perhaps you and your sweetie could have a Valentines day challenge!

Filed under “Overkill”

HELICOPTER NAILS SHOPLIFTER
The police helicopter was in action in Ingeldorf on Saturday afternoon. It was hunting down a man who’d stolen a shell suit from a local shop. He had run off after staff noticed him trying to smuggle the stolen gear out of the shop in a black bag. He was eventually tracked down hiding behind a hedge in a barnyard, and is facing charges of shoplifting.

The follow-up story, filed under “CYA”

WE WILL NEVER KNOW
The Police say their helicopter was not called to track down a man who stole a shell suit in Ingeldorf at the week-end. Reports in the media caused uproar at the cost of using a helicopter for such a small theft. According to the police, the helicopter was in the area anyway on other business so they deployed it at only a marginal cost. The police did not however reveal why they had the helicopter out in the area in the first place.

And, in other news:

PECHERTEN SUPPORT NEW LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS
The trade union representing traffic wardens, or Pecherten as they are known here, says its members could play a vital broader role in policing. The government has wanted to extend their powers to cover minor criminality such as vandalism for some time. But the council of state recently rejected the government’s proposals. Pecherten representatives from the FGFC public sector workers union yesterday urged the government to continue to push the legislation through. They pointed to the success of legislation extending the powers of traffic wardens in Switzerland, freeing up the police to deal with more serious crime.

FIRE IN THE PALACE
The was a fire in the Royal Palace yesterday afternoon [2 February]. Part of the building had to be evacuated while the fire brigade tackled the blaze. The cause of it was a broken washing machine in the basement of the building. The fire caused little damage but heavy clouds of smoke meant the fire brigade had to use breathing apparatus to get into the cellar.

FARM FIRE AT CHRISTNACH
A huge fire at a farm in Christnach has destroyed a barn full of hay and several surrounding buildings. Over 40 firemen and women were needed to get it under control. [Bugle: Outside Luxembourg-Ville, Luxembourgish firefighters are volunteers.] No one was hurt in the blaze. The fire started early yesterday afternoon, and the cause of it is as yet not known.

WHEN COWS ATTACK…..
And in a bad week for farmers, a woman had to be treated for injuries to her chest and shoulder caused by one of her cows. The 600kg beast panicked and ran over the top of her as she was trying to back it into a stall. The cow took leave of its senses at around midnight on Wednesday in Eshdorf.

Here’s the best description we can find, courtesy ARA City Radio here in Luxembourg and prepared by the ever-entertaining and informative Mark Weedon:

It’s the feast of St Blaise today or Candelmas. There’s a local tradition that children go out with lanterns this evening and sing songs on doorsteps. The point is that they are wishing you good health for the rest of the year and you are supposed to reciprocate with sweets or money. Modern children are likely to be rather disappointed if you hand out bacon and peas, which is actually what their asking for in the song.

I remember celebrating the Feast of St Blaise in my Catholic grammar school: It was always cold, and we lined up on the playground so that the parish priest could cross two candles across our necks. As I recall, it was to keep us from choking. Weedon said, on air this morning, that Candelmas is more about sore throats. St Blaise must be the Saint of Necks in General.

If your curiosity is not sated:

• A general account of Candelmas
• The Catholic Encyclopedia on Candelmas
• The always-useful Wikipedia on Feb 2, the Presentation of Jesus

If children show up at our door tonight, you’ll be the first to know!

I came to Luxembourg with a dim memory of taking advanced French in high-school, and a few hours of practice during trips to Paris and Nice. It wasn’t long before I was reading signs and speaking easily with shopkeepers. (Lest I forget: There were a few incidents where I asked Anita to ask a question in English due to my fear of stumbling through a conversation in French.)

Now, when I want to express myself in French, I can find most of the words I need without effort. I don’t compose a sentence in English in my mind and then translate it into French. Occasionally, I struggle to find the word I want, especially for abstract ideas. According to most metrics, I’m an independent speaker (with working proficiency, i.e. probably B1 per CEFR).

And I’m not counting unusual or technical terms, even ones that French children would know. For example, I recently went looking to buy a coat-stand. So, I looked up the word before I set out. As it turned out, the stores don’t use the term I learned: they were labeled portemanteau rather than cintre. (Fans of English etymology should find that pretty funny.)

I don’t know the precise words for animals, types of trucks, or other things that a young child would probably learn from picture-books.

Here’s the challenge at hand: I make grammatical errors frequently. When I want to speak French well, it feels like there are dozens of rules to keep straight. Those rules seem like obstacles to expressing myself.

Here’s where golf comes in. In terms of how it feels, it is very close to the way that I feel when I stand before a golf ball when playing with in a foursome much better than myself. I need to do so many things right — and remind myself to do them right — in order to hit the ball well.

• keep your wrists straight
• swing smoothly
• don’t reach with your hands
• don’t lift your head
• and so on

And when I swing, I fail to do one or two of those things. That’s the nature of the game.

Right now, speaking French feels like swinging a golf club. In each sentence (of some complexity), there are so many little rules (and exceptions) that may or may not apply. I know those rules and exceptions pretty well. When writing French (slowly), I can apply them with few errors.

But when I’m just trying to tell a story, those rules are like good advice for my golf swing: they don’t come all together and I make a mistake. A mistake that, strictly speaking, I “know better” than to make.

There are several techniques for getting over this hump in learning French. It won’t be easy.

What’s tempting is to adopt my attitude to golf. Years ago, I decided that I didn’t want to spend the time and money to become a golf enthusiast. I could see the pleasure in swinging the club well more frequently, but I could also see how much effort it would take to get to that point.

So I stopped at a different level: the point at which I could strike the ball — with irons but not woods — well enough to keep from being an annoying companion to better golfers.

In general, I hit the ball straight, so there’s rarely a need to search for my ball in the rough. In general, I hit the ball a distance which is unimpressive but not pitiful. (Well, nearly pitiful, given my frame.) As long as I don’t touch my woods, I don’t get too frustrated. (With the usual exception of one or two nightmarish holes per eighteen — I am human, after all.)

I feel like I am at the analogous point in my knowledge of French at this point. I can tell a story in French, and get the point across. I commit many grammatical errors that make me sound a bit stupid. Occasionally, I make errors that render a sentence unclear to the listener. My interlocutor needs to speak slowly for me. I ask for clarification from time to time, when a fluent person would not need to.

It’s tempting to declare victory and quit the field. I don’t think I will, because this is a great opportunity since, unlike golf, I have the time and resources to do it right. But it is tempting to move on to something new — something fascinating and probably easier.

At several social functions during our recent visit to the US, my spouse Will told a somewhat humorous story involving the shooting of a movie in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. I would like to address my remarks on those occasions.

In the course of his story, Will sometimes speculated that the movie being shot may have been Leap Year and cited evidence to support that guess. In most cases, I ridiculed this conjecture, claiming that the timing was impossible.

Recently, ads promoting Leap Year have appeared on local television. In response, I indulged my curiosity regarding the movie and its making.

I discovered that Will’s adventure in County Wicklow did, indeed correspond with some dates that filming occured in Ireland, generally. Thus, it is at least possible that Will’s hypothesis was correct.

I regret any impression of implausibility that I may have generated regarding that hypothesis. I also have deep regret for having deprived Will’s listeners of the pleasure of a story untainted by my commentary.

In all good faith,
Anita

I thought you might enjoy seeing the progress after the first evening of solid puzzleball work.

Antarctica came together pretty quickly. (Truth in puzzling – the half-dozen bottom-most pieces came attached to the black circle.)

Will worked on Australia

Zooming in….

My goal was South America. I did okay.

By the end of the night, we had made a real dent in the “bottom” of the world and were able to connect with South America

Sing with me! “I’ve got a lot of the world, in my hands. I’ve got some of the world, in my hands”

Stay tuned for further exciting updates! Marvel at our ability to complete a puzzle! Wonder at the patience we have to work together on the project!

At Bethel University, history professor Chris Gehrz produced a podcast called Radio Modern Europe for his course, HIS354 Modern Europe. The format is clever, using multiple means of presenting the material: short lectures, of course, but also breaking news bits, simulated interviews with historical figures, and even recipes.

The easiest way to access Gehrz’s podcasts is through iTunes, by looking up “Modern Europe History” in the iTunes U section of the iTunes Store and finding the Bethel University option. (Or simply clicking here, which hopefully will launch iTunes and send it directly to the correct place.) Don’t worry, the series doesn’t cost anything: Just click on “Subscribe” or “Get Tracks”.

If you don’t want to use iTunes, you may be able to get the tracks from a sort of RSS feed, linked here. But using that link may take some hacking around.

I just finished the third of 11 tracks, “Liberalism and Socialism”, so I can’t write a proper review of the entire series. But it’s good enough to recommend that you follow along with me. Gehrz presents what I would consider the mainstream version of European history. That’s no defect in the podcast, given its assumption that the listener knows little about Europe. (And I should mention that the audio tracks are not the only source of information for the intended audience: students who spend much more time on a full college course.) A novice like myself should start with the orthodox view, after all.

In some sections, Gehrz refers to slideshow presentations available through Blackboard, which is a kind of private Lotus Notes (or bulletin board) for colleges. It’s too bad we can’t follow along with his students, but the podcast lessons work pretty well by themselves, if you’d just like an idea of how Europe became the place we know today.

As it often happens with these things, the actual purchase of the globe was constantly delayed. The globe store had limited hours; I didn’t like the colors that I saw; and so on. Globes are expensive so I wanted my globe to be perfect.

Christmas 2009 arrived and I had not yet gotten around to buying a globe. Will was fed up with my antics and decided to take matters into his own hands. He reached into the interweb and, once again, found something to hold me until I find that perfect globe.

So I am now the proud owner of a Ravensburger Puzzleball. What he didn’t know was I had nearly bought the same thing a few weeks earlier! I saw it in a store in Luxembourg, but they only had the Puzzleball in German or French — and English names is one of my (many) requirements.

We opened it last night and started it. We had fun looking at the pieces, testing our geographic knowledge. (We don’t know much about islands and oceans.) We also found:

Chicago

Luxembourg (Look carefully!)

Ireland (and some of the British Isles)

I envisioned a quiet evening after work that would end with a nice little globe. I’ll admit that I didn’t realize how time-consuming the Puzzleball may turn out to be. There is a lot of ocean out there, kids.

We plan to keep you informed of our progress. I managed most of South America last night, but now we need to tackle the ocean around Antarctica before we can go any farther. Personally, I can’t wait to get to Russia as it will cover a lot of ground!

(Insert obligatory “I can see Russia from my house” joke here.)

After much thought, we decided to try a new policy regarding comments. We will now hide comments as we deem necessary. We won’t have explicit standards for acceptability, but if you followed the comment threads through 2009, you’ll know what to expect.

One more thing: You don’t need to use your real name in the comments, but do pick one name and stick with it. We do appreciate a good pun now and again, but one or two of our regular commenters have gotten carried away.

We’ll try the new policy for about three months, so feel free to make suggestions as we go — being constructive and respectful, of course. If you think that your contributions are being unfairly expurgated, please contact our moderators via the Bugle contact form.

Tous nos meilleurs voeux pour la nouvelle année!

Subject Name: Will Bakker

Date and Time: 6 Dec 2009, 13:08

Conditions: Subject did not fast, but had a St Nicholas’s Day breakfast of a “bonhomme” and citrus fruit. Also, he consumed two cups of coffee within three hours of the test.

Preparation Step 1: Fresh bottle of Bovril was opened for this test. Contents had slightly higher viscosity than dark maple syrup. Color was surprisingly dark brown, near black. Scent was mild, more beefy than yeasty.

Preparation Step 2: Filtered tap water boiled in standard kitchen kettle. Two teaspoons of Bovril pseudo-liquid moved into Test Mug. Each teaspoon measure of the Bovril pseudo-liquid was very difficult to pour into the Test Mug. Technician used all reasonable force and ultimately failed to accurately measure the amount of Bovril transferred to the Test Mug.

Preparation Step 3: Boiling water poured upon the gelatinous blobs of Bovril which clung to the sides and bottom of the Test Mug. Given its earlier intransigence, it dissolved relatively easily.

Preparation Step 4: The Test Mug and its contents were left to cool for five minutes. Used teaspoon placed in cleansing apparatus. Safety check completed: All Bovril pseudo-liquid confined to cleansing apparatus, Test Mug, and original container.

Observations at time of preparation: Contents of Test Mug now thin and very dark brown, with a bit more gray color than a cup of beef broth of similar depth. Scent changed significantly by addition of boiling water. Now, quite yeasty and very little beef odor. Subject mentions that it recalls the smell of the Guinness brewery of St James Gate. Test Mug appears unaffected by contents: no observations of melting, fizzing, or other alteration. Subject appears greatly affected, presenting facial expressions of hesitation and disgust.

>> END PAGE 1

SMOKING BAN TO BE EXTENDED
Health minister Mars di Bartolomeo says he’s considering extending the national smoking ban from restaurants to include bars and discos also. He said the government wanted to afford better protection to non-smokers who worked there. Mr Bartolomeo said the legislation would be brought into force next year and that objections would be ignored. He added that since a smoking ban in restaurants and workplaces was introduced in 2004, the number of smokers in the country had declined.

THIEF LOCKS HIMSELF UP
A young thief managed to lock himself in the supermarket he was robbing on Monday evening. The incident took place in the German town of Irrel, just over the border from Rosport. Having got into the supermarket through the main door, he allowed it to close behind him. He was then unable to open the inner entrance door and became stuck in the lobby of the store. Vigilant residents noticed him stuck there and called the police, who arrested him.

POLISH TRUCKS TAKEN
Thieves made off with two trucks from the Aire de Berchem on Monday night. The trucks, which came from Poland, were loaded with computers and monitors. Both drivers were in the shop at the service station when their trucks disappeared. They were both last seen headed for France. It’s the second time in recent months that a pair of Polish trucks have been taken from a Luxembourg service area.

Later in the week……

SMOKING BAN REACTION
There has been a strong reaction to health minister Mars di Bartolomeo’s bombshell announcement on Monday that the government intends to ban smoking in bars and discos. Local newspapers reported record levels of below the line comment on their websites as readers debated the effect of a smoking ban. The association of bar and restaurant owners said the smoking was yet another burden on their business which are already struggling. But Mr di Bartolomeo remains combative saying the smoking ban was hardly unexpected and that he wouldn’t be doing his job as health minister if he didn’t try to protect the health of employees, regardless of the economic consequences.

DUAL NATIONALITY
Over four thousand people have applied for dual nationality since the law was changed at the start of the year to allow it. Just over 3000 have been granted Luxembourgish citizenship while still retaining that of their former homeland. One third of the applications have come from citizens of Portugal. Many of the applicants come from neighbouring countries. And citizens of the nations of the former Yugoslavia make up the other main significant group of applicants.

ESCH OPENS FOOTBRIDGE
Esch sur Alzette’s stylish new footbridge is finally open to the public. It was inaugurated on Tuesday, a couple of months behind schedule. The 3½ million euro project allows pedestrians and cyclists to cross the railway tracks from the town to reach the Galgebierg park. Its 100m long and has a striking avante garde design, incorporating a useful roof. Esch residents have not had a direct link to the Galgebierg by foot for 4 decades, and its hoped the new bridge can brighten the atmosphere around Esch Railway station.

BORDER CONTROL
There was a co-ordinated border control throughout the night of Wednesday into Thursday this week. Police and customs officers from France, Luxembourg and Belgium all took part. The object of the action was to try and trap cross border burglars. But in the event, they picked up a series of drunk drivers, confiscated one telescopic cosh, some cannabis and hashish, and a bag of magic mushrooms. There has been an increase in the number of burglaries recently, particularly in the south of the Grand Duchy.

CHRISTMAS MARKETS
The Christmas markets open in Luxembourg city today [Thursday]. The largest is in the Place d’Armes and will be open from 10 o’clock in the morning until 8 o’clock at night. The smaller St Nicolas market will also be open on the Place de Paris at the same time. Details of all the fun and games for the festive season laid on by the council are on the website winterlights.lu -– although if you’re at work might want to turn the sound off on your computer because the site is ridiculously noisy.

Although Trier’s market is just 30 years old, and sometimes described as small, we were impressed. If you can’t be there in person, you can enjoy the market online, with a special Christmas-market-video-game (a Weihnachtsmarktspiel), or a page of promotional media. If you need to distract the kids, there’s a coloring book, too! (It’s a little weak, but do those little rugrats really deserve better?)

By contrast, Dresden’s Christmas market is now 575 years old. (Dresden is 680km away, about 6.5 hours by car. Maybe we’ll go next year.)


By Friday, Luxembourg City’s market was underway. It’s not as large or as well-decorated as Trier’s market, but we look forward to returning regularly.

At both markets, Will found glühwein (also known as hot red wine, or mulled wine). It was typically sold in decorative mugs, which could be returned for a deposit, or kept as souvenirs. We found the best mugs in each market, and we’re quite happy to share them with you:

Please note the lovely crest on the toe of the Luxembourgish boot.

You can look forward to more photos in the near future, and maybe some deep thoughts about the mix of secular and religious during the European holiday season. In the meantime, we present to you a brief video of the gigantic Christmas carousel pyramid in Trier.

Ireland scored that goal in the 35th minute, and played an outstanding game for all of regulation. After two matches of 90 minutes each, the score was 1-1. So they played into extra time.

In the 13th minute of extra time, the superstar Thierry Henry got a fast-moving ball under control and passed it to William Gallas. Gallas scored and the entire Irish team turned to the referee and called for a “hand ball” foul. No foul was called, the goal stood, and France beat Ireland to qualify for the World Cup.

Somehow, the fact that Henry admits the handball makes it worse.

I don’t know what the Irish fans did that night in France, but I do know that the main flight this morning from Charles de Gaulle airport to Dublin was delayed by more than three hours.

Out of fellow-feeling for our Irish friends, and a bit of sadness ourselves, we decided to watch the Irish morning television show and see what the newspapers had to say online.

Anita observed that the television personalities appeared to pass through four stages of grief:

1. The first stage, obviously, was anger. They was robbed! A blind referee in a system biased toward the big countries! We played our hearts out and we was robbed!
2. The second stage was depression. They were lucky to get this far, with the sad bunch of players that Trap had to choose from. We’ll never see the likes of this team in our lifetimes, and now it’s all over.
3. The third stage was self-blame. We shouldn’t have let it go to extra time in the first place. If we’d played, in Dublin, like we did in Paris, like we can play, then there’d be no extra time. In fact, we should have won our division outright, and it should have been Italy versus France in the playoff.*
4. The fourth stage was rationalization. With the economy as it is, this is actually a blessing. We can’t actually afford to go to South Africa, so it’s good we lost.**

The newspapers brought out their most lurid prose for their sports coverage today, as you can imagine. The Bugle Staff are busy collecting the choicest turns of phrase for your pain, or pleasure, or both.

A note at press time: The latest news is that Ireland has lodged an official complaint with FIFA, calling for a replay of the second match.

* – Yes, this is actually what one soccer commentator said, on RTE, this morning.
** – Yes, this is also a close paraphrase to what was said on RTE.

Click on the photo to see its true glory, full-size at Flickr. I’ll have to return at night soon.