A photograph of a very blue sky. The tops of a couple of residential buildings and some trees peek up at the bottom.

Just your average Thursday here in Bayern 😁

Nothing beats that Bavarian blue sky 💙

WITCHES (chanting as they stir the ingredients of the potion into their bubbling cauldron): Eye of tiger, thrill of fight, challenge of our rivals, stalks of— wot th'? This isn't a potion. What even is this?

[Elsewhere]

ROCKY (pausing midway up the stairs): Wait, what newt?

Death by Shakespeare
Causes of 74 deaths in Shakespeare's plays
#ShakespeareDay

AOC has had enough of RFK jr.'s shit

how your email finds me:

A grid photo of 16 different characters all played by the legend Tim Curry.

Tim Curry, the absolute legend, turns 80 today. This man took huge swings.

I ruined tequila for myself by hosting a tacos and tequila night circa 2002. I was busy making sure everyone else had enough to eat but forgot to eat anything myself. I sure did drink though.

It was always officially verboten... But after a fatality last year there have been moves to remove the wave altogether. It's nice to wander through the Englischer Garten in any case 🙂

I'm not sure if the Eisbachwelle is up and running again but sometimes there are surfers there. We finally visited the Residenz recently (almost 12 years we have lived here!!!) and it was lovely.

Friends of mine live right behind it!

Grab a gherkin from the Sauerecke!!

Top 11 Most Challenged Books of 2025. Composite of 11 close-up crops of various book covers. Text at bottom: "Protect the freedom to read" ala.org/bbooks. American Library Association

The list of 2025's most challenged books was release this morning as part of ALA's State of America's Libraries Report.

Of the 4,235 unique titles that were challenged or banned in 2025, these were the top 11 most frequently targeted for censorship: https://bit.ly/3TE4cHi

#NationalLibraryWeek

When you use AI to do your writing, you are telling your audience: “I deserve your attention, but you do not deserve my effort.”

There has been a call for people willing to take class trips next March. YES. Considering Krakow this time!! My oldest daughter will be going on a trip at the same time and she has instructed me NOT to take one to Italy because she wants to go to Italy and does NOT want to come with me. Fair enough.

People are who not teachers may never understand that there are students who etch themselves on our souls.

It’s rare that we can predict who they’ll be, but there’s no mistaking it when it happens. For good or for ill, that’s my kid and their existence impacts how I see my job and the world.

Happy Birthday 🎈🎂🎉

One of my students, who is Hungarian, recently turned 18. I asked him in class this week if he had been able to vote.
HIS PARENTS DROVE HIM ALL THE WAY BACK SO THAT HE COULD VOTE IN PERSON. He's so proud that this was his first election.

Why do the Japanese like their buns askew (2026)

A ticket with ‘5 Geschlechtskrankheiten’

Not sure how this train booking platform works, or how this happened -

AI translated ‘STD’ meaning ‘Stunden’ (hours) into English as ‘Sexually Transmitted Disease’.

So it appeared as ‘Geschlechtskrankheiten’ on ticket.

www.krone.at/4109338

Ach nein. Ich bin gegen Halbzeit ins Bett gegangen. Voller Hoffnung.

Our school system can no longer second staff from the UK (thanks Brexit) so there are opportunities for "locally recruited" teachers from English speaking countries... We have schools all across Europe!

Potsdam is also nice for a day trip, but you're right, there's so much to see and do. I feel like one year I will have to spend a month there over summer just to really experience it.

The spy museum, the wall memorial at Bernauer Straße. I really want to check out the underground tour next time I go.

Oh wow you're right on the water! Enjoy 🙂

Our school has a display in the foyer at the moment of information about the resistance movement. Dachau is a compulsory excursion for the year 11 history course. It's so important.

Headline in today's Guardian that reads "Reading and writing can lower dementia risk by almost 40 percent, study finds. Cognitive health in later life is 'strongly influenced' by lifelong exposure to intellectually stimulating environments, say researchers."

This is why you need to be reading books and writing your own emails, by the way. When you outsource your thinking abilities, you risk turning your brain into soup. Heavy dependence on AI has already been linked with severe cognitive decline. What you don’t use, you will lose.

Happy birthday 🎈🎂

Woo it's my birthday today 🥳 I get to be 47 and I'm so grateful for that. I've lost a couple dear friends in the last couple years, so getting older isn't something I take for granted.

Just a reminder, I still have my 17% off sale on my website up until Sunday night :)

#watercolours #fox

It is. In the Baccalaureate cycle it's effectively a literature course rather than a language course. I still dip back into grammar essentials if I see it's needed, but most of the time is spent on the thematic study of literature. I LOVE my job.