Random Learnings #69
Growing up in Iowa, all I knew of Kossuth County was its unusual size: essentially double the size of other counties in the state, it's the reason Iowa has 99…
The Treaty of Versailles and Germany
The Treaty of Versailles held Germany (a.k.a Germany Empire), and Germany alone, responsible for World War I: not Serbia who planned the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand; not the Austrian-Hungarian Empire…
The Lost Cafe Schindler
An extraordinary memoir of a Jewish family spanning two world wars and its flight from Nazi-occupied Austria. Meriel Schindler spent her adult life trying to keep her father, Kurt, at…
World War I Era Maps
My interest in maps - especially older maps - has grown over the past few years, and on a Monday in late February I spent a few hours in the…
Random Learnings #19
From the June 1951 National Geographic, Occupied Austria, Outpost of Democracy. Ranked as a liberated nation, not a former enemy, Austria has its own Federal Government and exchanges diplomats with…
Highline 179
While driving through Austria on our way to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, my wife and I drove under a long, narrow bridge high stretching high above us from the valley floor. Gobsmacked…