I've been ordering Döner wrong this whole time?!
I was thinking of you. I stumble upon inspirational gems for my Saturday bereavement support group from all sorts of places. This weekend, after playing Satoshi & Makoto’s White Wall to settle everyone into their seats, I opened up the group by prefacing, This might sound like an odd question, but show of hands: who is a fan of the NBA? Five out of 14 folks popped up their hands, with a bunch of smiles and curious looks darting around the room. “I thought this was grief group!” a regular laughed out loud. Group goers have been asking me to share more about myself (“you know so much about us and we want more of your story!”), so I proceeded to share how I grew up in San Francisco, and that while I went to a Golden State Warriors game once when the team was still in Oakland, I went to the Coliseum to cheer on Yao Ming when he was playing for the Houston Rockets. I then segued to play a couple snippets from Steve Kerr’s interview with The New Yorker’s Charles Bethea. We discussed what fulfillment and joy looked like in the before times versus the after times, the time when their loved one was still on Earth versus the time now without their loved one’s physical presence. “Our plans were my plans, so without my person here, I need to decide who I am and what I want to do now. It’s not easy, but I’m getting there.”
What even is dative versus accusative? My typical order at a Berlin Döner shop like Rüyam Gemüse Kebab or Zaddy’s is a Falafel im Brot (falafel in flatbread) mit alles (with everything). I first learnt how to place this very simple but highly anxiety-provoking order in German by listening to the Turkish guys behind the counter speaking very rapidly and trying to mimic them, and then eventually memorising the Döner-dance sequence. But OH-EMM-GEEEEEE in my ongoing relentless quest to enhance my listening comprehension, I was reminded this week during Episode 634: Döner mit alles by Easy German that mit is a dative preposition that requires the dative case. BUT alles is accusative. So the grammatically correct way to say it is so and so blah blah mit allem, because allem is accusative. What a knowledge drop I did not see coming! I, along with a bajillion other Döner lovers, though, will cling tight to our beloved Döner shop Deutsch and stick with mit alles ‘til the end of time.
I got a shoutout! I reckon it is quite cool when your Podcasts app recommends a show that you actually find quite interesting, and then your fondness and appreciation of that show grows over time and you become a fan. I discovered The Europeans podcast sometime last year but only learned last week when I went to contribute to their tip jar on Patreon that the show’s hosts, Dominic Kraemer and Katy Lee, have been doing this since 2017! They are based in Amsterdam and Paris, respectively, and they cover really interesting under-the-mainstream-radar news nuggets from across the continent. If you have a listen to their latest episode titled Venice has a Russia and Israel problem, you’ll be asking yourself what the feck? when you learn about Meta’s recent censorship of certain LGBTQ+ social media accounts (wait, you banned Gert Jonkers' Butt Magazine on IG?), and how migrant workers are the unseen powerhouse that make the largest greenhouse in the most arid part of southern Spain possible. Dominic and Katy are kicking off their inaugural book club next episode, but I’ve yet to finish Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico so will probably be a week late to it all.
UFC 328 fight of the night goes to… Joshua Van versus Tatsuro Taira for the flyweight championship. I watched the TV while squatting behind the couch for most of the fight with my hands over my mouth because I didn’t want to scare the dogs or the neighbours with my yelps and very un-pretty yelling (defend that takedown! what a sprawl! Scheiße, his hands are hella fast!). The best part of the win came after Joshua’s hand was raised, when his family joined him in the octagon: his mom wearing a contemporary woven Chin Burmese dress, and the little boy who smiled a big happy smile before waving a nice little, “hello!” directly at the camera.
Puppy energy in the pack. Our friends Amy and Jeff have a five-year-old Alaskan Malamute mix named Twilly, and she’s been sleeping over at ours while they’ve been soaking up time in Taiwan and South Korea. Spending time with Twilly has enlightened me to the fact that certain breed mixes really have specific characteristics and quirks, because I see Korah in her: they both like to snarl and show their teefs and pick on Phoebe whenever food or snacks are around (or when absolutely nothing is going on), and they also are very particular about where they potty in the yard and how much time they are given to go for a pee and a poo (“do not rush me, please”). That’s the thing with adopting senior doggos, you know. We always wonder what our girls were like when they were young pups. And seeing Twilly, we like to imagine Korah was as vivacious and snarky and playful as her. “Four or five dogs is probably your sweet spot,” Vik laughed while shaking his head. “Three dogs is too easy and boring for you. You want more activity. More chaos.”
Have a rip roarin’ week ahead, peeps! Sampai j(h)umpa.
xx tiff