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Because of a given occasion:
"Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity. But I'm still not quite sure with the universe."
(Albert Einstein)
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Picture: Public domain
When I was 18 years old and still at school for the last year we ad a half-year-topic for our art-lessons: “Vivified area in grey.”
Picture: Table for buying color in different greys
Already this topic would deserve a price for comedy. This was what I thought then. And when I don’t see the sense of something I don’t do it, and that’s that! And can anybody tell me what I should ever do what would be work enough for a half year!? I didn’t feel like doing anything in the arts-lessons. So I talked here and there, pretended to help other pupils who weren’t as good painters and sometimes pretended to paint something.
After the half-year was over the submission date came nearer and nearer and I hadn’t painted a single stroke of the brush. The day before we ad to deliver our pictures I knew that I had to paint a picture or would get a “6”, what would mean that I couldn’t pass the 
school year. So I went into the cellar where my father has had a little workshop for his tools and made a frame from four pieces of battens. Then I took a piece of an old bed sheet and spanned it over the frame with some tacks. This was my canvas. Well, this satisfied 
me. But now the whole canvas had to be painted in grey. I found some white and some black color. Mixing black and white? Nope. This was too much effort. So I took a putty knife and slapped alternating black and white color onto the canvas. OK, grey area, check. Vivified? OK, a little bit blue into the left upper edge of the picture, check. Done!
The next day I crept to school: I was the incarnate bad conscience. I knew that what I was going to deliver was pure provocation and a real gall. But this is me: Pigheaded and a bit anarchistic. If I don’t see any sense in something I don’t do it or I do it this way, if there is no way to defy. Two days later I was called to the teacher’s room. O dear! I already saw myself being executed for this gall. But – no: The teacher was full of ardor about my picture and asked me if I would donate this gorgeous painting to the school as a decoration in the entrance-hall. "O, yes!" I stumbled happily about the fact that she didn’t scold me for my provocation. The next arts-lesson the teacher interpreted my painting for the whole class. I sat there and was very astonished about what clever thoughts and ideas I had when I painted this wonderful picture. She told something about „this wonderful rhythm“ and I don’t know what else. And I only thought: If she knew that I only wanted to paint an area grey without any effort and in the shortest time, she would have felt messed around. But she didn’t notice that the whole painting was a total provocation.
This was the day that I decided that studying arts wouldn’t be the right way for me. That’s not me, taking people on a ride. And already then I had the strong feeling that a lot of artists take people on a ride with their „works of art“. This wouldn’t be honest, so I decided not to become an artist.
But although in my opinion this "painting" was crap, I'm sorry that I don't own it any more. Maybe that it's still hanging on one of the walls in the entrance-hall of the school.
And this is what my paintings are usually like.... This one I painted when I was about 20 years old.
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"Grey" pictures: Public domain
Street life: Painted by Georgia; all rights reserved
A few days ago I wrote a funny story with the title „She Has Got Cancer“.
Today there was the surgery of my little dachshund Ulme. All went extremely well. The moles haven’t been cancer and another examination showed that there isn’t any cancer in her body. The 4 moles were removed and consist only of pure fat. Ulme is awake again after the narcosis and the four incisions will be healed in a couple of days.
So we are all glad today!
This was my daughter Anna on the very first day we had Ulme in our family.
Little Ulme in her basket.
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Pictures: Taken by Georgia; all rights reserved
For today I will translate an article for you Nikolaus Count Praschma wrote about my mysterious great great grandfather, about our families and about me in the family-newspaper of the Counts of Praschma:
Used as a Passport: The Signet of the Counts of Praschma
After Georgia* has been studying and searching she knows: Her great great grandfather was born about 1797 and fought in 1831/1832 during the Polish Revolution against Russia near the town Ostrolenka. Andreas had to flee; one or two of his brothers drowned when they all swam through the river Narew. The escape ended in Deutsch-Krawarn in the „Hultschiner“ area (a part of Austria then; look a the map below), where Andreas went to the Countess of Larisch and showed her his signet-ring (picture) telling her who he was and that he had escaped from the Russians.
(Picture: the Battle of Ostrolenka, May 26, 1831)
The Countess of Larisch imparted 
him to the Baron Rudno-Rudzinski, where Andreas got an employment as a general manager of the baron’s estates, because he could prove his descent and story by the signet ring of the Counts of Praschma. Andreas’ marriage to Caroline Kobersky a few years later took part in the private castle-chapel of the Countess of Larisch. Andreas educated five sons and three daughters, moved to Groß-Hoschuetz and became a general manager of the estates of the Count of Sprintzenstein. Both men were close friends; the Count educated Andreas’ children as if they were his own children. On January 14, 1857, Andreas died in the Hospital of the Teutonic Order in Troppau after a wild horse had bucked him off and kicked him on his head.
(Castle of Deutsch-Krawarn, the famous poet Eichendorff lived there before.)
From narratives of her grandmother and from a lot of letters and records Georgia* knows, that her ancestor changed his surname, maybe also his prename after the escape to evade the hunting of the Russian secret police „Ochrona“. Until today the following is handed down: „This signet is the prove of my descent.“ This is what Andreas said. And therefore always the oldest son has inherited the signet. Because the male branch of the Scerba-family (later they changed the name into Schuerba, which was more German) is already extincted, Georgia* is the preserver of the signet today. Experts say that the signet is about 250 - 300 years old. It is the key to the figure of Georgia’s* mysterious ancestor.
The signet (picture) shows the coat of arms of the Praschma-family on the left side, on the right side the coat of arms of the Counts of Sinnich. Without any doubt this signet can only be made due to the second marriage of Franz Wilhelm Count Praschma (1677-1731) to Anna Isabella Countess of Sinnich (died in 1721). Because the only child of this couple is a daughter and nearly another 100 years passed until Andreas could show the signet-ring, we must ask for the connection between this couple and Andreas: Why did Andreas go to the Countess of Larisch? A cousin of Franz Wilhelm Praschma was married to a Countess Larisch. On the other hand Andreas sometimes should have told that he was a Polish Nobleman. Names like Kaminski or Wengersky were mentioned, when Andreas spoke about his former life. Benigna Countess of Praschma was a daughter of Franz Wilhelm Count Praschma. She married Franz Count of Wengersky. But there are two families „Wengersky“ - a Polish and a German one. And what about the alias „Scerba“? Maybe Andreas used the name of a lake nearby where the Counts Wengersky lived. But Scerba can also be translated as gap or nick. An ironical hint that there was a gap instead of his real name? The riddle isn’t solved until today.
(Picture: old postcard of Troppau)
And it is without any doubt that Andreas was the legal owner of the signet ring. So his ancestor has been Franz Wilhelm Count Praschma. But who is Andreas? He must be a grandson or better great grandson. But of which family? What was his real name? His name was not Praschmat, but to which female progeny does he belong to? Andreas didn’t tell too much about this. He only spoke to the Countess of Larisch and to the Count Sprintzenstein. They knew who he really was. His wife and his children didn’t know anything real, because the lived in fear of the Russian secret-police his entire lifetime and he was afraid that the Russians also would capture his wife and children. But in the villages around there was a rumor that Andreas has been a prince. This rumor existed until WW II, when Georgia’s* grandmother Margaret Schuerba Wieder (picture) came to visit her grandfather’s grave. A few old women fell on their knees and kissed the seam of her dress. They called her „Princess“. Georgia’s grandmother was so terrified, that she refused all this and told the women to get on their feet again. Then she ran away without asking the old women after the rumor. Perhaps this was a mistake. The rumor might have been overdone, but such rumors are mostly based on a true story.
(Picture: Silesian Museum in Troppau)
Perhaps we will never know, but on the other hand Georgia* says that it took 170 years to find out as much as we know today. One day the secret will be lifted.
* Of course he didn't call me Georgia but by my full name.
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Source:
Pictures:
This is the coat of arms of my great great grandfather Andreas Schuerba. He was a mysterious man and I will tell you about him from time to time.
(Picture: Coat of arms; painted by Georgia, all rights reserved)
The only piece that belonged to him and that has remained until now is his coat of arms which is engraved into a gemstone, which formally was part of a ring, a signet ring. The gold is already gone, but the gemstone is still in my possession. The name Andreas Schuerba was not the real name of my great great grandfather and until today we don’t know the real name. He lived incognito his entire lifetime and he couldn’t lift the secret, because he was killed by a wild horse when he was only 60 years old.
(Picture: Gemstone with the engraved coat of arms; taken by Georgia, all rights reserved)
He never told his family more than this: „This coat of arms proves my descent. I’ve been in the Battle of Ostrolenka in 1831, where I had to flee from the Prussian and Russian troops. My brother was with me, but he drowned with his horse when we swam through the river Narew. My family have been noble people, but I had to omit all my titles, because I am politically pursued.“
More about his life later.
This coat of arms is engraved in the year 1718 in Vienna. It’s made on the occasion of the marriage of Count Carl Wilhelm Praschma and Countess Anna Isabella Sinnich of Loewenburg in the cathedral St. Stephan in Vienna. Look at the pictures: In front of this main altar the couple married and also Countess Anna Isabella's mother's burial ceremony took part there one year before her daughter's marriage. At that time the altar must have been new. - Because it is a so called marriage-coat-of-arms you can see two coats of arms which are united. The left coat of arms shows stag’s antlers on a blue ground. It is crowned with the crown of a baron. This might be, because Count Praschma had become a Count shortly before, but formerly was a baron. Count Carl Wilhelm Praschma was born in 1677 and died on May 9, 1731. The stag’s antlers on blue ground are the sign of the Counts of Praschma until today and the signet rings also of the living Count of Praschma show the same picture.
(Pictures: Cathedral St. Stephan in Vienna; public domain)
The right coat of arms belongs to the bride. There is a golden Lorraine-Cross which comes out of a silvery crown that is placed on the top of three green mountains. The background is red. The coat of arms is crowned by a Prince's crown, which might show that this family has been very important to the Austrian Emperor. Countess Anna Isabella was a heir-daughter, which means that there weren’t any brothers who could inherit her father’s estates. Therefore her coat of arms was united with the coat of arms of the Praschma-family, which was only general for such cases. She didn’t become old, but died on December 9, 1721 at the age of about 25 after giving birth to her daughter Maria Anna Leopoldine Countess of Praschma.
Her coat of arms is very interesting, because it is very similar to the coat of arms of Hungary or Slovakia (picture: coat of arms of Slovakia; public domain): The double cross comes from the East-Roman-Empire, where it can be seen already in the 9th century. The missionaries Kyrill and Method brought this symbol to the today Slovakia in a region called Maehren, where my mysterious great great grandfather later lived. It became the symbol of the Frankish Kings and therefore 
was called the Lorraine Cross. Later the symbol appears again in Hungary on coins of King Stephan who reigned over Maehren. His residence was the town Neutra. Because this region later belonged to Hungary it became also a symbol of the Kings of Hungary. It became also a symbol of the town Bratislava or Pressburg, which also belonged to Hungary.
(Map of Europe: Slovakia today; public domain)
The region Maehren was called Upper-Hungary then. On the old map (public domain) you can see Maehren (Moravia). Countess Anna Isabella’s father has been a high official of the Austrian Emperor and he had to collect the taxes in Upper-Hungary. Therefore he got this coat of arms, although he and his family mostly lived in or near Vienna. They probably had a few residences.
The three mountains also symbolize the old Upper-Hungary, because they are symbols for the three mountain-regions Tatra, Fatra and Matra there. On the map 
on the bottom (public domain) you can see the today Slovakia and the mountain regions. A lot of people don't know how beautiful these mountains are! And they are pretty high!
Later the state Slovakia took this coat of arms as their official coat of arms, but changed the color of the three mountains from green to blue.
I found this picture today from the hometown of the Erieite Albracht-family: Rhoden in the Dukedom of Waldeck. On top of the mountain (Hagenberg) you see the castle of the Prince of Waldeck and on the right side you see the tower of the old church. This is how the village looks like when you come from the east. My uncle Willi Diedrich painted this picture. He was a professional artist and made many beautiful paintings of his home Waldeck.
This happened a few weeks ago:
One morning I came into the kitchen. On the desk over the dishwasher there was a glass with self-made carrot-juice. The carrot grater was put on the glass. Hmmm, should my daughter have made carrot-juice? The carrots in the fridge were missing. And the juice looked as orange as carrot juice normally is. So I concluded: Orange water in a glass with a carrot grinder on top and missing carrots can only mean that this fluid is carrot juice. So I faithfully put a piece of foil over the carrot juice and put it into the fridge and set the grater into the dishwasher.
The next day my daughter came out of the kitchen laughing, laughing, and laughing. Why? Because I had put a foil over her painting-water (she had painted with water colors the evening before) and put it into the fridge. At least I’m glad that I didn’t taste the „carrot-juice“.
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Pictures: Public domain
This could be read today on the news-site of a German Internet-provider:
A Canadian film-maker believes that he would have found the tomb of Jesus and his family. In a documentary-film he reports about the grave that was found 26 years ago and is now under an apartment-house in Jerusalem.
He tells us, that his statement is proved by archeologists, experts for historical texts and DNA-specialists. 1980 there accidentally was discovered a 2000 year old cave with ten coffins. On each coffin there was an inscription with the name of the deceased. „Jesus, son of Joseph“ could be read or „Judah, son of Jesus“ and two times „Maria“. Some scientists believe that these are the coffins of Maria, Jesus’ mother, and Maria Magdalena, Jesus’ wife. And Judah should be the son of Jesus. In deed people are arguing if Jesus was married and had a son or a daughter. (Picture: The Holy Family; El Greco 1604)
Later the apartment-house was constructed, but the tomb wasn’t destroyed. It remained under the cellar-bottom. The film-maker Jacobovici and the archeologist Charles Pellegrino and his team, which were also present when the tomb was discovered, opened the cellar-bottom recently and examined the remains again. Experts of a criminal lab in New York had proved that the bones are probably from the Holy Family. The chances were only 1 to 1 million that they are not from the Holy Family. This result surprises me, because there is no DNA-material for comparison as far as I know. You can’t take these relics serious which should be a hair of Maria or Jesus or so on. I'm more than sceptical about this result and I don't believe it.
Professor Amos Kloner, who was present during the first opening of the cave in 1980 says, that there is no single prove that the bodies are from the Holy Family and the names Jesus, Maria and Judah have been very common names at that time.
(Picture: Funeral of Jesus)
The documentary film „The Burial Cave of Jesus“ is a production of the Canadian film-maker Jacobovici and James Cameron, who has got three Oscars.
In March there will be also a book „The Jesus Tomb“. I would like to buy this book to learn more about this and to make my own opinion what could be true. But I’m afraid that this book will not be objective. I would like to read the original report of the first excavation.
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Pictures: Public domain
Yesterday evening – talk to my daughter, when I came home late after a conference. Anna was sleeping on her sofa and I came into her room and said „hi“.
Me: Did you ring up grandma? I couldn’t do this today because of the conference. So did you talk to her?
Anna: Yeeees.
Me: And…..? What’s up?
Anna: She might have cancer, but she shall not always wail about this, until she knows the real result after the surgery.
Me: Surgery? When?
Anna: Next Tuesday.
Me: Cancer….where does she have cancer?
Anna: Under her arm, the shoulder. There is a mole.
Me: Who said this?
Anna: Her doctor. She was at the doctor today.
Then Anna turned round with her back in my direction and kept on sleeping. I rang my mother up full of fear. I was terrified. I couldn’t get her for nearly one hour.
But the story was true apart from one single word. My daughter forgot to mention the word "dog". And this is what really happened: My father was at the vet with our dachshund Ulme. Ulme has a little mole under her shoulder and the vet is going to remove it next Tuesday. It probably is cancer, but it is nothing too serious. Can you understand that I would have liked to kick my daughter into her ass for a short moment? But I must also say that she wasn’t really awake when I asked her. Yesterday evening we finally could laugh about this mishap.
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Picture: Anna's living room; taken by Georgia, all rights reserved
A lot of people love fast food. We not. We never liked it. When Anna was a little girl she always wrinkled up her nose and refused eating for example these Chicken Mc Nuggets or how this stuff is called. Her comment was: "I also could eat my eraser instead. Same taste." It's meat scrap which is pressed into this nugget-shape.
Now “Stiftung Warentest”, a German consumer organization, tested French fries. The worst French fries you can eat at IKEA. They are full of artificial grease, which causes cardiac infarctions if you regularly eat them. Therefore they got a „fail“.
Mc Donald’s only got a „satisfactory“, because these French fries contained Acryl amid, which is responsible for getting cancer.
The best French fries were from Burger King, which didn’t contain any poison or artificial grease. But they didn’t get „excellent“, because they contained too much fat. The problem was that the Burger-King-fries were cut into very tiny pieces so that there was more surface which could soak all the fat.
Not as much fat was in French fries of Kentucky Schreit Ficken, errr…. Kentucky Fried Chicken (German pan I don't translate). Also Mc Cain fries didn’t contain too much fat (the bigger the fries the less fat they contain), but I wouldn’t suggest eating them from automats, because the fat there has gone stale. Yuck!
Good appetite! Don't they look delicious?
But the worst I found was this school lunch:
No vitamines, no vegetable, so salad, only fat, fat, fat. When I think of our politicians who want all-day-schools and I imagine that our children would eat such crap day after day, I feel as sick as a parrot. We would get all these problems with too many too fat children who will become ill grown-ups.
French fries are yummy and French fries can be eaten from time to time when you don't forget salad or vegetable. But if you want some very excellent ones I would suggest making them at home with fresh and high-quality fat. And don't choose this pressed scrap-meat. Real meat tastes 1000 times better and is much healthier.
And here is fast food in calories if you are interested:
Does anybody know what Hamburgers have to do with the German town Hamburg?
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Pictures: Public domain
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