Paul klee biography italianos pizza

It may surprise people who know me to learn that when I, an anxious preschooler, was told that the time had come for me to attend kindergarten, I decided to vocalize my fears as thus:

“But what if some of the kids speak a different language?”

I don’t think I really had any kind of linguaphobia, I was just making up a reason why kindergarten was out. And it turned out that at least two, maybe three of the kids in my class (it was a very small town) did speak different languages, at least at home. But they spoke English with me and we got on fine.

But the reason this seems such a funny idea now is because since I was not that much bigger than a kindergartener, learning, listening to, and thinking about languages has been more or less my favorite thing.

I chose my undergraduate university primarily because of the range of language courses listed in the catalogue of its Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, from Arabic to Zulu. I’m not a “superpolyglot,” a term that I think is reserved for people who can speak ten tongues, but I can get by in a lot of languages for an American.

German has never been one of them, however. German boosters often like to point out that English is a Germanic language, and it is true that they share an ancestor. But this doesn’t help as much as you think it does, as syntax, other grammar, and even most of the vocabulary have diverged dramatically over the millennia. Not much more than a quarter of modern English words come from Germanic roots; our corpus is nearly as French as it is German. And our case-free, non-gendered, reliably subject-verb-object grammar doesn’t look much like German at all. 

When I’m trying to pick up words and phrases in a new language, I fish for cognates to hang on to. Ideally, English cognates. But I’ll make do with Romance or Slavic or Greek roots, too—I’ve had formal instruction in ten languages, and studied many more casually—surely I know some word this word sounds like.

So

  • Love this quote from Paul
  • Andy J. Pizza's illustrations are
  • The exhibit brought together
  • About us

    At EINSTOFFEN, we do not like being put in a box. We create what we feel like, when we feel like. Since we founded the brand in 2008, we have had two driving forces: freedom and independence. Instead of jumping into the hamster wheel for a predictable career, we preferred the activity of «EINSTOFFEN»: equipping people with our own stuff or cloth…

    Currently, we create eyewear and fashion for independent people with minds of their own - kindred spirits, so to speak. Our customers are environmentally conscious, sure, but they’re also the type to enjoy what life has to offer, and laugh at it all a bit too. We exclusively design our products in Switzerland and we like to use unusual materials or incorporate extravagant details. But that could change tomorrow. As said before: we do not like being boxed in...

    Raw & Noble

    2025

    We gaze upwards, towards the sky, towards the infinite. Like flowers that bloom towards the sun, we too strive for the light. Sopraterra, a name that evokes the beauty and fragility of existence, is a testament to the human desire to see, to understand, and to dream. Welcome to the blossoming world of Sopraterra! For 2025, we have taken our inspiration from nature and conjured up something very special: eyewear that is as unique as a fingerprint. Imagine wearing a little piece of garden on your nose. We have digitized the delicate curves of flower petals and transformed them into breathtaking frames. Every curve, every line is a testament to the beauty of the natural world. The result? Eyewear that not only looks good, but also tells a story. Find your perfect floral match. We hope you enjoy browsing through our little flower shop.

    SOPRATERRA - A GLIMPSE ABOVE THE EARTH

    2024

    THE NEW COLLECTION FROM EINSTOFFEN unites the seemingly incompatible. Wildness and strength - beauty and evenness come together to create artistic eyewear for 2024. Wood and titanium meet gold and silver, irregular shapes are ac

    A splendid interior of the Castello di Sammezzano, built in the Moorish style in Tuscany during the 19th century

    Just 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) southeast of Florence in the hamlet of Leccio, an architectural marvel sits on a verdant hillside. Sammezzano, a fairy tale castle surrounded by a park of 190 hectares (470 acres), boasts a long history with legends describing that Charlemagne passed by in the 8th century after traveling to Rome to have his son baptized by the pope. In 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte, general of the French army, spent the night in the palace and King Umberto of Italy was hosted by the owner in 1878.

    But a glimmer of hope recently shined on the splendid edifice. In February the Fondo Ambiente Italiano (National Trust for Italy) conducted a national poll of “Places of the Heart” to designate endangered sites of the nation’s culture for restoration. Sammezzano came in second. This initiative, as well as a volunteer civic movement “Save Sammezzano,” gives lovers of Italy’s historical heritage optimism that the jewel of Leccio might once again regain its splendor.

    A hunting estate during the Medici era, the property was purchased in the 17th century by the Ximenes d’Aragona family, Spanish noblemen. Sammezzano remained in the family with the Marquis Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes inheriting the castle in 1816. The marquis, a philanthropist, art collector and horticulturist with architectural and engineering skills and a great imagination, transformed the castle into an exotic Moorish fantasy.

    During the 19th century, “Orientalism,” with the imitation of styles and architecture of the Eastern world, became the fashion all over Europe. Chinese pleasure pavilions and miniature Taj Mahals graced the villas of the European and American elite and artists including Eugene Delacroix, Paul Klee and Mary Cassatt embraced styles originating in Asia and North Africa.

    Visitors to Sammezzano describe the eclectic building as walking into the ka

  • Restaurant Schöngrün. With 15 Gault
  • .