Noah Schnapp reading this Stranger Things review and thinking, "huh".

Until this tunnel was built in 1990, you could ride the FART train right through the middle of Locarno, Switzerland, riding on regular city streets with traffic, pedestrians, and, of course, other FART buses. With an Interrail pass, you can even FART your way to Italy and back.

"The Jan. 6 era turns five years old on Tuesday. The anniversary will always be a mournful one for America. Americans must summon the collective will to bring this era to an end and make certain that the violence, lawlessness and injustice of January 6 do not endure." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/o...

Holy moly the Stranger Things finale landed it. Wowza.

How to start a new year, Southern style.

It's TIIIIIIME

Watching the ZDF New Year's broadcast from Hamburg HafenCity (and not Berlin Brandenburger Tor, for the first time in many years) and feel a bit like a traitor haha. (Though honestly for the city to fund a TV show when they have massively cut back on funding for the arts was just a political no-go).

Why this admittedly humorous sketch from 1963 about Miss Sophie's 90th birthday dinner, served by her increasingly besotted butler James, became required New Year's viewing in German-speaking countries (and Scandinavia!) remains an eternal mystery. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui9N...

Submitted for your consideration: the best New Years Eve themed movie ever. www.youtube.com/watch?v=epJK...

Off we go--the Jungs on my street are just getting started. This will go on until 4 in the morning.

The nationwide New Years Eve broadcast in Germany looks exactly like you think it would look like.

Baby it's cold outside...

Woke up on the last day of a horrible year to a beautiful snowfall. Wishing all and sundry a prosperous and better 2026! May it be a truly new year.

Oh my that's good. That's very, very, very good.

English speakers: diacritics matter! I was already copied on a post wishing folks a Happy New Year and a Feliz Ano Nuevo. I mean bless their hearts, they were trying...

Black-eyed peas and greens on New Year's Day is an old Southern tradition only slightly harder to pull off in Germany. Never can seem to find it in the regular stores, but the Turkish markets (Eurogida, at least here in Berlin) always have them (and I don't want to brave the chaos tomorrow morning).

Yet another bogie on an easy word, and I fell for the red herring in Connections. And Strands was impossible without serious pop culture knowledge. Done with 2025! Wordle 1,655 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨 🟨⬜🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #933 🟨🟦🟪🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 Strands #667 “2025 Top Twenty” 💡🔵💡🔵 🔵💡🔵🟡 🔵

Interesting!

Another change for 2026: Bulgaria is phasing out the lev. In the month of January, both currencies will be accepted, but after February 1, the lev will no longer be valid for purchases and will be withdrawn. Banks of course will continue to accept lev in exchange for euro. www.dw.com/en/bulgaria-...

This is just a staggering list. I had honestly forgotten that several of the names here had passed away this year. edition.cnn.com/2025/01/13/w...

2026 is going to be a year of decisions, with big national elections in Hungary that may see the end of Orbán's total lock on power, ditto for Netanyahu in Israel, and of course, the U.S. Congressional elections, where a Democratic win will put a massive brake on the last two years of the Trump era.

So sad--saw today in our building bulletin board one of my neighbors passed away just before Christmas. I didn't know him other than seeing him on the stairs bringing up his laundry or occasionally crossing paths on the walk to the grocery store, as recently as last month. He was elderly but active.

Now those are some eagle eyes. The location is in the interior of the Harrow Club, a youth sports organization just a few steps up the road from the Rickroll Bridge (a viaduct for the Hammersmith & City line) on Freston Road (Tube: Latimer Road). It isn't in the Borough of Harrow, despite the name.

Sufferin' Succotash! Germany's annual celebration of that wily cat Sylvester involves, ironically, terrorizing house pets with amateur fireworks displays until all hours of the night. Here in Berlin, they are setting up for the traditional NYE bash at Brandenburger Tor. www.rbb24.de/panorama/bei...

I just had to get this out of my system but didn't have enough characters, so forgive the cross-posting:

My worthless take on why S5 is letting so many viewers down--the whole show was based on the dramatic tension between fantastical events taking place in the context of an otherwise *entirely ordinary and believable* world. Every Oz, even a demonic one, needs a Kansas. Except they blew up Kansas too.

"Over on IMDB, Episode 7 of Stranger Things (“The Bridge”) Season 5 is currently the lowest-rated episode of the entire series. It’s second, in fact, only to Season 2’s almost universally-hated “Lost Sister” episode." www.yahoo.com/entertainmen...

This is genius--a former South Park writer presciently snapped up the rights to "trumpkennedycenter.org" months ago, and is turning into exactly what you think a South Park writer would turn it into. www.trumpkennedycenter.org

As my holiday rewatch continues, I also discovered the reason why Bates was always given his own side plots with limited interactions with the other cast members (the prison storyline etc) was because of the actor's behavioral and alcohol issues upsetting the production and creating tensions on set.

I was today years old when I learned that the reason why Cora in Downton Abbey is always shown having breakfast in bed is that it was longstanding tradition in the British aristocracy that married ladies, understandably tired from the exertions of their wifely duties, were allowed a morning lie-in.

The quiet time of year is a fun time to indulge in some offbeat theories--like, is Diana in fact buried in the Spencer family vault in the village church, and the whole "island burial" story was a diversion to keep crowds from overwhelming the tiny village and chapel? www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEMJ...

"A year into Trump’s immigration crackdown, construction firms in Louisiana are scrambling to find carpenters. Hospitals in West Virginia lost doctors and nurses. A soccer league in Memphis cannot field enough teams because immigrant children have stopped showing up." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/b...

Unsurprisingly, Stellvertreter des Führers JD Bowmann is in the lead to succeed the Leader in the event he chooses to relinquish the office in 2029. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Our friendly Berlin sanitation agency is doing a "Best of 2025" of their quippy taglines on trash bins and garbage trucks. Here my favorite (and yes, the German "quer" and English "queer" are in fact etymologically related, "queer" originally meaning something like "askance/crosswise/angled").

Agree 💯with this. "What a tragic end to a once-great TV show. I don’t think the finale can redeem this season, even if it’s good. While all the previous seasons are worth a rewatch (though only Season 1 remains genuinely great) I doubt I’ll ever watch Season 5 again." www.forbes.com/sites/erikka...

"I’ve done these “best year ever” columns annually, irritating Eeyores. But now I just can’t. The year 2025 was a setback for humanity — and unfortunately, the United States is the reason for the retreat." Explore this free gift article from The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/o...

Flashback for Dec. 27, 2025 28 points 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Play here: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Connections Puzzle #930 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨

Wordle 1,652 4/6 ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 WordleBot Skill 92/99 Luck 56/99

Chez Picard

"There’s no question that millions will watch the finale. When we do, I think it will be less because we’re really invested in a resolution unlikely to shock or delight, and more as a way of sinking back into the comfort it gave us during a cataclysmic moment from which our culture never recovered."

Dr Negation Particle A Perspective on a Mortality No Time for Adjuncts

The Berlin-Wroclaw "Culture Train" ends its near ten-year run this weekend. Low ridership and a faster connection via additional EuroCity services (now even a night train) made the route no longer justifiable. www.rbb24.de/panorama/bei...

As Haussmann was to Paris, so was Hobrecht (born 31 Dec 1825) to Berlin: the urban planner whose ideas are still very much visible in the city we see today: buildings no taller than the width of the street, back courtyards letting in light, and a pattern of green spaces. www.rbb24.de/kultur/beitr...

Well one thing that happened this holiday season is that I discovered there is a gay hockey player TV series. Not sure if we get it here in Germany (other than doing the VPN thing).

Annual reminder that the Twelve Days of Christmas *start* on Christmas Day, they don't end on it. Though a nearly two-week revel was increasingly incompatible with post-agricultural rhythms, so the holiday was reduced over time. Christmas ends on Twelfth Night, the day before Epiphany on January 6.

Oh the weather outside is frightful (-7C=17F)

The fun part about German Christmas is that it is multiple days. We're wrapping up Christmas Day 1, and tomorrow is Christmas Day 2. So if you didn't yet get what you wanted for Christmas (a degrading sexual domination relationship with Alexander Skarsgård, for instance) there is still a chance!