Monthly Archives: July 2009

Deutsch sprechen

My measure of success in a foreign language is being able to get through transactions at stores – stores where you have to talk, not supermarkets – without the other person switching to English. I’m achieving this in German, so, … Continue reading

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sweet woodruff

Yeah, this is the life. This afternoon after German class and a walking tour of one of the cooler neighborhoods in Berlin, three other Burns fellows and I stopped in at a biergarten. Hey, we were talking about journalism and … Continue reading

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prefixes are my nemesis

This is the homework assignment I just wrote for tomorrow’s German class: Die Frau sitzt neben dem Telefon. Sie erwartet einen Anruf. Wann Als sie das Haus verlassen hatverlies, brannte es. Gibt es jetzt noch ein Haus? Wird sie heimgehen … Continue reading

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flying is not that fun anymore

The most annoying thing about Europe is the trouble it takes to get here. My flying experience, I must say, was really not that nice. The first flight, from Dulles to Newark, was in a turboprop, and it started out … Continue reading

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bering sea ice

Check it out: I wrote about ice in the Bering Sea for the website of Deadliest Catch,  the Discovery Channel show about crab fishing in the Bering Sea. There’s been a lot more ice than usual the last couple of … Continue reading

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silky sifaka

A historic moment: for the first time, one of the stories I wrote for National Geographic is available online! It’s about a species of lemur called the silky sifaka. “Silky sifaka” is fun to say. Hear some of the silky … Continue reading

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a fine collection

My friend Joanna has started a cool blog over at the Montgomery County (Md.) Historical Society – every week she takes a different object from their collection and writes about it, like this late-19th-century butter mold. Here’s an excerpt: Making … Continue reading

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deutschland, here I come

Before leaving for six weeks in the Bering Sea this spring, I blogged kind of a lot about my preparations. I mean, I had to take steel-toed boots and a survival suit and stuff. Preparing for 10 weeks in Germany … Continue reading

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[expletive deleted]

Hey, guess what – swearing might actually be good for you. Or good for decreasing pain, anyway. For a study that came out this weekend, a researcher in the UK had a bunch of undergrads stick their hands in buckets … Continue reading

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phone off the shoulder

Since a lot of what I do for a living is type while talking on the phone, I thought it would be smart to sort out my headset issues. (See vivid visual representation of headset issues here.) I do have … Continue reading

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