Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

Birds protect their young with their wings. They spread them over the young animals, shielding them and giving them warmth. Spreading these wings so wide - or so I imagine - requires an enormous amount of strength. When I stretch my arms out fully, I can feel the weight and effort after a short time. Protecting others, being there for others is not an easy task and is an exhausting mission. In the...

I was recently talking about how we let ourselves be moulded or coined. Another comparison: I can cut out a biscuit without embossing it, i.e. just the shape, or I can add an additional embossing. In a way, both are a clone created by the biscuit mould. But with the embossing - and this is perhaps a bit far-fetched - I can think of the comparison that the biscuit is still the biscuit, but can be e...

In a large grocery shop, where Asian dishes are offered for take-away, the soya sauce - which I assume simply goes with it - is available in small portions. However, it is not available in a small bag analogue to a salt or pepper sachet, but in a small plastic fish. This looks attractive and goes far beyond the functional. I therefore imagine that these portions, which can be taken away for free w...

In the time around Christmas, many people make biscuits. The idea is to cut out the general shape of the biscuits, sometimes decorating them afterwards or embossing them with a separate cutter. I have also tried various ways of cutting a logo into biscuits that is still easily recognisable and legible after baking. If the dough rises a lot during the baking process, the original pre-baking embossi...

In my parents' house, where I grew up, the Autumn Fair, one of the biggest funfairs or fairs as they are called, was only a few hundred metres away. Where I live today, it's a bit further - but I still live in the city where it takes place. Many people come to Basel especially to enjoy themselves. I live here. Still: if I don't go, I don't get anything out of it. So it doesn't...

Maybe you have been in a situation where you had to tighten a loose screw or loosen a tight one. Of course, the best way to do this is with a screwdriver - that's what the tool is made for. It also works best if the size of the screwdriver fits the size of the screw and if the notch in the screw head is intact. However, the latter is sometimes not the case: the notch is widened or broken or ot...

Because I am fascinated by watches, I look at different models from time to time and marvel at the way they are made, their appearance, the functions and details, etc. I notice that the different types have names borrowed from other languages. A stopwatch is often called a chronometer - in reference to the term chronos, which comes from the Greek and means time. Meter also comes from the Greek and...

I was recently in a holiday flat where there was a device that made sparkling water out of drinking water. The way it worked was that I had to clamp the bottle into a device and it contained a cartouche of carbon dioxide, which was then forced into the bottle at the push of a button. So I had fine sparkling water within a few seconds. I couldn't see exactly how the process worked because the c...

There are notebooks, writing pads or training materials that have a spiral binding on the edge. This is usually a relatively stable wire that holds the individual sheets together through a very specific geometric deformation. The special thing about it is that this binding is really very stable. So even if one element of the spiral binding were to break off or be deformed, this would have little o...

As a boy, I loved playing with Matchbox cars. These were cars, made of metal, that were relatively small but nevertheless very realistically reproduced. Their size was only a few centimetres - hence the term: Matchbox cars, i.e. matchbox cars. At that time, I even had a car park with a petrol station to expand my vehicle universe. You could also open the doors on these cars. They were very sturdy...

I recently bought a pastry at the bakery that had a kind of puff pastry at the bottom, then a layer of vanilla cream followed by another thin layer of puff pastry and caramelised almond leaves on top. It was difficult to eat because the top layer was hard. If I applied too much pressure to separate them, the vanilla cream would ooze out on the side. I wondered which of the different layers I would...

Just the other day the topic was the dark tunnel and that this is not only negative but also holds a potential of hope - a possible path, even if not quite easy. But a path nonetheless. When you go from light to dark all of a sudden - for example, the light suddenly goes out in the stairwell or you switch off the light before going to bed - you usually hardly see anything, certainly not something...

When I think of cow patties, childhood memories come to mind first and foremost. How we used to go hiking across meadows and every now and then it happened that we overlooked a cow pat and stepped right into it - in the worst case, the pat was still fresh. Older patties were fortunately so dried out that little of the mass stuck to the shoe, which was not the case with fresh patties. Actually, it...

Looking at my watch, I notice how fine and thin the big second hand is. It is straight and thin and yet looks very fragile. Thanks to its minimal thickness, it indicates the seconds extremely precisely. So I can see very clearly what time is now displayed. This also applies to the other hands, of course, but they are not always as delicate. This precision in design and workmanship thus leads to cl...

In life, a tunnel is often an allegory for a dark, difficult time. In the natural world, a tunnel exists where there is actually no natural path or access: for example, a traffic route not over but through a mountain. This also makes it clear that an enormous amount of effort is needed to create this passage. This is very time-consuming and expensive, but in the end it is literally also a breakthr...

On a road, lanes are separated by stripes. The primary intention is to order crossing traffic flows and thus avoid collisions. Modern road signalisation has a certain materialisation so that a noticeable noise is produced when one drives over it. If the lane is very narrow and you often drive over this pavement, it may be quite annoying - but in principle this pavement feature is life-saving. It i...

The other day I made myself a poached egg in a pan. However, because I only cleaned the pan after the meal and it had been sitting on the cooker uncleaned for a while, residues of the egg white dried on the inside edges. These remnants were quite stubborn and it took quite a bit of rubbing to remove them completely. I couldn't see the residue with my eyes, but I could feel it with my fingers....

You may or may not be interested in politics. In our times of global uncertainty, the importance of politics and diplomacy is gaining in importance and is therefore once again increasingly in the attention of people and the media. The term politics comes from ancient Greece and means something like "the things that concern the city" - i.e. the community. Today, one could also speak of a...

There is a mountain in the Bernese Oberland called the Niesen. A train goes up or you can walk up the mountain. It is beautifully situated by Lake Thun. Now, in the mountains, the weather can change very quickly and circumstances can become dangerous. So you can start in sunny weather but still end up in a thunderstorm. As a possible guide, there is the saying "If the Niesen has a collar, you...

When was the last time you thought about your first name? I mean: that you consciously took a moment and thought about what it means to you to bear this name and what you associate with it? I don't believe that names are coincidence or meaningless. Of course, names are always more or less trendy over time. I don't know what the trendsetters were in the past. Today it's well-known perso...

It won't be long now and then the months will come when the days are also shorter. I like to light a candle then. In Advent anyway. And when you look at a burning candle, you can see the flame. Just like when you look into a burning fire. What I find special is that you see the flame, but if you were to reach into it, you wouldn't really find anything physically tangible. With water vapour...

A doormat, although old-fashioned, is nevertheless widely available. It is usually placed in front of the entrance door or a door to the garden or terrace. The purpose of the mat is to wipe or brush off dirty shoes or, better still, their dirty soles, so that the dirt remains outside and is not taken into the home and soils the floor there. So dirt from outside should not be taken inside. If you t...

I went to the pharmacy the other day and ordered a certain product. Before I left the pharmacy again, I was given a small piece of paper as confirmation of my order. To me, this note seemed obsolete. The staff have known me for years and since I would be coming back the next day to pick up the product, I didn't see the reason for this note. The next day I picked up the product, showed the note...

I don't know anyone who likes to wait. This is especially true when we are waiting for something that is very important to us. Waiting often also means expecting a certain outcome of an event, for example: a positive decision on an enquiry, a negative report on a medical examination, the arrival of an ordered item and much more. It is linked to hope and dependence is also integrated in waiting...

I recently bought an iceberg lettuce and a Cicorino Rosso. Both lettuces come in such a way that they have almost spherical-like their leaves around a core very close together and you can then peel off the individual leaves almost like you would peel off the layers of an onion and use them. That in and of itself is nothing exciting. But when I was loosening the leaves and preparing the salad, I no...