A Tale of Two Seats (Draft for Pineapple 27) It began with a mistake. A woman in Canada sent me a sales email. She had visited the Brida website, she said, and noticed the language services we offered. Only we don’t really offer language services. Not in the way her email imagined them. So instead…
Labskaus is one of those dishes that you should probably taste before you judge — although, to be fair, the appearance does not always make this easy. A Northern German Sailor’s Dish. Labskaus is an old seafaring dish associated with northern Germany, particularly Hamburg and the coastal regions. Its origins are practical: on long sea…
By Ismar and Ritesh from the Atlantic Corridor. From shared schoolbooks and battery radios to AI companions, Ritesh and Ismar trace what happens when finding an answer becomes easy—and judgement becomes the harder part. There was a time when finding an answer could mean walking for an hour, asking an older relative, waiting for a…
By Alexander. After a 4–1 win, an offside thought experiment and a difficult team discussion, one question became harder than it first looked: when is a rule useful, and when are we simply used to it? On Monday morning, I was not really ready for difficult questions. Everything hurt. My head was still somewhere in…
By Ralf For me, curiosity can begin with a smell, a beautifully made object or one clever piece of engineering. Then the picture starts forming in my head — and after that, it can be very difficult to leave the idea alone. I have really done this. I am standing at the supermarket cashier, I…
When did we forget to be simply human? Yesterday my wife flew to the UK. Shortly after arriving, her phone received a message pointing her towards a French government service that could warn her about security risks while travelling. Apparently Britain has become a very dangerous place. She survived the airport. Of course, there is…
A Fruitloop University Thingy, created by Fruitloop and made weirder by The Mayor. Fairy tales with software problems, a dragon with a defective toaster, Dom Pérignon at the customer-service desk, and Fruitloop asking the sort of questions that make a perfectly serviceable brain wander off without permission. Fruitloop had warm South African winter weather. I…
By Alexander, Germany. Sometimes the easiest way into another world is to arrive without much of a plan and see what happens. For once, I did not really prepare. We were going to Croatia for a week with about fifteen people. Somebody else had organised the house. I knew some of the group well, some…
By Ralf The Grillmeister, Germany. I like new ideas in the kitchen. But sometimes the best technology is still a sharp knife, a little spoon, and knowing when to leave a good thing alone. I love cooking. It is a great part of my life. I like recipes, I like new ideas, and I like…
Learned at a Stefan Hensler cooking school in Hamburg (taught by Tobias Fjergs), cooked for Ralf’s 50th birthday. Ingredients (serves ~2–4): Ponzu sauce (homemade): 120ml sake, 120ml mirin, 220ml soy sauce, 220ml lemon juice — combined. Method: Arrange sliced fillets skin-side up in a deep plate. Add cherry tomato wedges. Mix lime juice/zest with salt…
