Celebrating Valentine's Day, and short descriptions of feature articles
Before the public elementary schools in America began forbidding such relished holiday treats as Halloween costume parties and Easter-egg hunts, there also existed the Valentine’s Day party. In the days before February 14 was spent busily transforming a shoebox into a desktop mailbox with pink, red and white construction paper. Then, for approximately one week, evenings would be spent at home deliberating over which valentine to slip into each of our classmates’ boxes. The unassuming store-bought cards held such messages as “You’re neat!,” “Be mine” or “You’re a great pal!” At age eight, my biggest dilemma was choosing a card for Timmy Pomeroy, for whom I’d harbored great affection since age four, and selecting the most neutral one for Bill Purcell so as not to encourage his relentless amorous advances. It was simple and innocent. As yet untainted by commercialism, the lesson we learned was to be thoughtful of others by giving a card to each of our classmates. When I came to Germany in 1995, entities such as Hallmark and FTD were just beginning to thrust Valentine’s Day on an unsuspecting culture. When my boyfriend told me that his secretary had gone to each man in the office to collect wives’ and girlfriends’ addresses, whereupon a massive flower order was placed, I knew that Germany had sadly missed the point. This month’s issue contains two Valentine themes. In her monthly column, Kathleen Saal gives you some sweet idiomatics to whisper in your beloved’s ear. Marie Manchester found two romantic restaurants where you can test the idiom “The way to someone’s heart is through their stomach.” Many couples will no doubt enjoy many an evening of palatable pleasure in these establishments. Our first issue of 2000 includes the pilot of a new series of arts features planned for this year, in which unique museums in Bavaria will be profiled each month. Kay Turtle launches the series with an article on Murnau’s Schloss Museum. The town served as gathering place and residence to many of the Blue Rider members. In addition to hosting other exhibitions, the museum houses a permanent Blue Rider collection with special emphasis on Gabriele Münter. Cold winter months can be depressing to both body and soul. Many of us long for warmth and the rejuvenation that spring holds. In our Travel section this month, Marton Radkai takes us to two spa towns in the Black Forest, where the waters are said to heal most anything that ails. For the foreigner living in Bavaria, the most frequently asked questions when visiting our homelands invariably have to do with either beer or the Autobahn. There is good reason that Munich is known internationally for its beer, and people come from all over the world not only to drink the golden, amber or dark brown liquid, but also to learn how to make it. One such beer enthusiast, New England native Darrah Bryans, did just that, becoming one of only two women master brewers in the United States. In preparation for writing this month’s feature, Liz Vannah visited the Braumeisterin in a Boston brew pub, where she revealed some of the secrets to beer making and marketing. Had I known that I would meet a very handsome Bill Purcell some years later in a university course, I would have treated him more gently that year in Mrs. Gieske’s class. He didn’t forget my third-grade rejection of him and tortured me for weeks before I finally got a date with him — solid proof of the power of a valentine. <<<