Do you recall Pippi Longstocking, the fictional heroine of many beloved children’s books and films, who had the strength of ten men and crazy red antennae plaits for hair? Pippi lived with a horse and a monkey in a crazy offbeat house called Villa Villekula—or Villa Kunterbunt— if you grew up in Switzerland (in which case Pippi becomes Pippi Långstrumpf).
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I could never wear a wristwatch. I’ve tried countless times – they all slip off or mysteriously vanish into timeless ether within a week. Once I tried to trick the time-watching spirits and gremlins with a pocket-watch some years ago and even that jumped into another dimension during a Long Island Railroad trip – a mere three days after its purchase. Mind you, I am rarely if ever late for appointments, rehearsals, etc. I suppose I’ve learned to be clockish and am able to feel an hour, ten minutes, etc. and know that it’s 5-ish or so.
In 1991-92 I found myself living in the land of cuckoo clocks and chocolate – Switzerland, specifically, the city of Winterthur. Clockishness does not bode well in Switzerland and some of my fondest memories of my time there entail the tension of this horological deficiency on my part in a land in which watchlessness is tantamount to public nudity, or at the very least, regarded as a desperate cry for help.
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Zurich's best kept secret is its diversity. Like any other major European city, it is the crossroads, melting pot, meeting grounds for a plethora of world-travelers, nomads, emigrés, immigrants, bohemians, dissidents... Nowhere is this more apparent than Zurich Horn, the very tip of the City that juts out into the Lake.
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Do you recall Pippi Longstocking, the fictional heroine of many beloved children’s books and films, who had the strength of ten men and crazy red antennae plaits for hair? Pippi lived with a horse and a monkey in a crazy offbeat house called Villa Villekula—or Villa Kunterbunt— if you grew up in Switzerland (in which case Pippi becomes Pippi Långstrumpf).
I could never wear a wristwatch. I’ve tried countless times – they all slip off or mysteriously vanish into timeless ether within a week. Once I tried to trick the time-watching spirits and gremlins with a pocket-watch some years ago and even that jumped into another dimension during a Long Island Railroad trip – a mere three days after its purchase. Mind you, I am rarely if ever late for appointments, rehearsals, etc. I suppose I’ve learned to be clockish and am able to feel an hour, ten minutes, etc. and know that it’s 5-ish or so.
Zurich's best kept secret is its diversity. Like any other major European city, it is the crossroads, melting pot, meeting grounds for a plethora of world-travelers, nomads, emigrés, immigrants, bohemians, dissidents... Nowhere is this more apparent than Zurich Horn, the very tip of the City that juts out into the Lake.
