BillZiegler1947

Eponym: name and birthdate

The author obtained his B.A in Geography at the University of Cincinnati in 1969, he completed his M.A. at Kansas State in 1971. From ’71 to ’73 he did some post-graduate studies at Justus Liebig Universität in Giessen, West Germany. A couple of decades later, he completed a Master’s degree at the University of Cincinnati again, this time in German Literature.

Alan, one of Bill’s friends majored in Philosophy; he is famous for gifting me with my self-descriptor:

“I may never get a job, but I sure am smart.”

“Now for something completely different” is the modus operandi for an iconoclast and firebrand who deliberately chooses roads less traveled, supports causes generally despised by his peers. It’s a place about stuff, a commonplace book inspired by A CERTAIN WORLD: A COMMONPLACE BOOK by W.H. Auden. I ask my readers to think for themselves freely, safely, and with conviction. To at least try to live an authentic life.

I’m a former Teacher of German Language: State of Ohio Department of Education, but most famously as faculty member at the inimitable TriState German-American School. I enjoyed involving each student in what theater, in each case the routine classroom setting became an opportunity to use German language in imaginative ways. Once you master German, consider learning Arabic… or not.

Nelson Mandela reminds us that good translations matter.

“Propaganda relies upon endlessly repeated mistranslations, designed to obfuscate. Weaponized language to serve hidden agendas, to move geopolitical stakes through sabotage, bigotry, racism, straw men, false flags, pacification, liquidation; in other words, chicanery of any convenient kind. Whatever works. No questions asked.”  {Languages, Escape Velocity and Bigly Lies}


   
   
   


14 thoughts on “BillZiegler1947”

    1. Hello Violet, sorry for the incredibly very long delay in responding to your very kind comment.
      I have indeed ridden quite a few metaphoric rollercoasters and metaphoric games of Chutes and Ladders. But it’s always wonderful to realize that each of us, including all the marvelous fellow-travelers who are endlessly exploited for the value of their protective coverings, tissue, bone and marrow. Your gifts at revealing your strong and gentle heart — actually transforming them in your comics into what they genuinely already are.
      Once devoted in this way it becomes impossible to deny complicity for a disturbing appetite. Know that your work finds welcome all over this planet we should always share 🙂

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      2. Bill hi, I would suggest you come and visit Palestine – you know Palestine was Israel before 1948. If you come I would be only too happy to offer you coffee and you can tell me what you think about Israel and answer any of your questions if I can. Even though I live here and spent hundreds of hours at lectures my memory unfortunately is not what it used to be as I am now 76. I live in Netanya and would be only too pleased to help you find answers from history lecturers to any questions you may have. My opinion on Israel seems a bit different to yours but I am sure we could have interesting chats. I must tell you I am fascinated with BDS and how so many people really do have a problem with facts here and there but I always believe you have to visit a country and speak with the locals so as to make up your own mind. I keep hearing from members that there is a Genocide in Israel and the disputed territories yet their own statistics show this to not be true. How many members know that an Israeli president was sentenced to jail by an Arab judge. That Arabs account for 20% of the population and that is their representation at Universities and hospitals where they are professors and famous surgeons. Please don’t mix up Israel and politicians – I would swap Bibi for Trump in a heartbeat. I think we should keep our correspondence private as I really do not want to cause anyone any grief.
        Looking forward to your reply
        Mike Altman, Netanya Israel

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        1. Hello Michael, Thank you so much for the very kind comments, they are gratefully received. In the two years I’ve been writing this blog, yours is the very first remark from an Israeli perspective — a succinct and thoughtful set of arguments as well. I certainly respect your wishes to maintain an off-blog conversation; however, I would also like to share your views with my audience. Please know that I am quite willing to make your comment visible — again, I understand your concern.
          Here is one proposal: I am eager to write a post that addresses your points and to respond on each concern you express. An open conversation between viewpoints is sorely lacking, but desperately needed. Droning on in parallel from differently selected events, statistics and perspectives proceeds without hope of resolution, and indefinitely. I have been following the “conflict” for many decades now. I was born eight months before the events of 1948, so it is possible for me to relate each event. For example, I was a student in Germany during the Munich Olympics of 1972. So I was 25 years old and so was Israel/Palestine Palestine/Israel.
          Perhaps a point-by-point response that does not reveal your name or location might be a worthy compromise between private and open dialog.
          It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Michael. I look forward to learning from you 🙂

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          1. I try and reply to posts immediately but your reply was different to what I somehow expected. I do not at all mind our conversation being viewed online I incorrectly assumed it would be you that would rather have an offline chat.
            Since I am blessed/cursed with a very over active imagination I manage to see things from multiple angles and standpoints. When I think of BDS my mind is flooded with so many questions of why does one well funded organization with ardent followers choose a basically one sided view of just one of the many obviously urgent problems on our planet. Reading articles I do understand that people are writing from their viewpoint but like I am colour blind I expect people to try and see what is there but maybe not visible to them. The thing about being colour blind is that the mind can force oneself to see the missing things if you think they should or could be there. I have a childhood friend that adamantly believes that we should not intervene – like invading Iraq – we are obliged to do nothing and wait for evolution to choose a path for everyone. Maybe Obama also believed in doing nothing and the result was half a million people killed more wounded and displaced causing hardship and misery for millions more. Never mind the other millions migrating to Europe from Africa to find a better and safer life for them and their children. The reason I mention this is because with all this abject misery surrounding us I would think that such a well-funded and run organization would not be focusing on just one problem amongst all others. I have always been able to analyse what I see and read and imagine the many directions things could take and how effective they could be. In my humble opinion I cannot see why BDS could succeed as it has already “solved” this complex problem without understanding too much about it. My father would not have won many “father” awards but he was smart and instilled in me to never judge anyone until I have walked in their shoes. As an example, the last time I visited the Western wall myself and everyone else including tourists passed through metal detectors – like we do at airports today – thank goodness. After arms were taken onto the Temple Mount and used to kill two policeman. The head of the police promised their families who happened to be Druse that they would take steps so it would not happen again. Maybe even to foreign visitors on this holy site. The police themselves decided to install metal detectors at the entrances and this is what caused the current serious problem. People prayed in the streets instead as they would not pass through the machines and dispersed after prayers with very little problems but in some parts of town young people rioted and people were injured and killed.
            Please forgive the over long post but there is so much to say.
            May you all have a very good week, Mike

            Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks for your kind reply, da AL
      My two years of Latin from ’61/’62 introduced me to inflections. About ten years ago I relearned the Latin. I’ve been told that people who suffer from piped-in music ear-worms are instinctively better at language learning.
      I’m getting ready to write about converting numbers to letters. Back in the 70’s there was a memory fad based on something called the ‘Major System.” It was mostly a parlor game thing — memorizing long numbers by converting each digit into a consonant. When stuck in traffic I would use the system to read license-plate numbers by creating words in my mind. Lisa is my sound board for such things that interest her not one single bit 🙂
      We each had dial-up connections to a local telephone company that provided the bulletin board as a public service. There were a number of boards for different interests in 1993. I saved our correspondence on 5 1/4″ discs and printed them out on a dot-matrix printer. One year — for her birthday — I went through and annotated them for a ring binder. She still has it. 🙂

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  3. You’re a doll and she’s beautiful. The Cloud and esme knows that the best of hearts gravitate towards each other, sometimes too late, sometimes at just the right time. Like you two. By the Gods and Medium-sized Dogs, the webernet sometimes is worth its weight in the finest gold.

    – esme dancing with them both upon the Cloud ❤

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    1. I shared your graceful and soothing responses with Lisa — she agrees with you on both counts 🙂 We complement each other and compliment each other by being differently demeanored souls.
      Northern European plodder philosopher meets Southern European singer/dancer/ebullient poet.

      Lisa — Pisces, Chinese zodiac Tigger, Owl, night-persona, Esmeesque
      Bill — Virgo, Chinese zodiac Piglet, Moose, morning-persona, Hariodesque.
      Expressing gratitude now to each Medium-sized Dog who weighs the gold (Au) in each of us for each of us. Them is great doggers!
      We enjoyed the splendid dance — ankles never grow weary on an Esmean Cloud.
      Many hearts ❤ ❤ ❤ to everyone reading these thumbnails 🙂

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  4. Pingback: The written, the spoken, and the audible a part of the soul and a blessing to humanity but also the trigger to those who love Crusades and the Inquisition | From guestwriters

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