A Viennese Vignette

Not the minister mentioned

A number of years ago, my wife and I were on a train from Vienna to Budapest. Across from us sat an attractive couple about ten years younger than we were. Being rather gregarious, I started small talk ... learning that they were German from Hamburg and on vacation throughout Eastern Europe. I was surprised when I discovered, at his age, that he was a retired Lutheran minister ...well appointed and taken care of financially.

We then went through the standard questions back and forth ... children, pets, hobbies, trips, etc. But then I stopped things cold when, at the end of some religious conversation, I blurted out an impulsive query ... prompted by some of his wishy-washy answers. I said, "Do you believe in God?" After I saw his  reddening face and some sullen silence, I realized I had stepped over a cultural line.

After taking my wife's elbow in the ribs, there was no more polite conversation all the way back to the now-wider Danube.

Graffiti

Bansky Graffiti

Graffiti is often the bane of cities' ambiance. Gang tagging or political messages corrupt views of otherwise beautiful vistas. Paris and Vienna both suffer from this malady. If you take a boat cruise on their respective rivers, graffiti is just about all you see. And I am sure that there are many other world cities that suffer this same ugly fate ... particularly since the invention of spray-paint cans. One small exception is Bansky who adds talent and humor to his street art ... see above.

However there sometimes can be amusing graffiti in the form of bathroom-wall humor which I  can tolerate as long as it is indeed humorous and not just crude. There used to be a bar on 61st Street off Lexington called Dick Edwards whose men's room contained some quite creative graffiti. One was, "my mother made me a homosexual" ... under which was scrawled, "if I gave her the wool would she make me one too?" Another clever example was, "death is nature's way of telling you to slow down". Yet another famous graffiti bon mot is, "God is dead, Neitzche" and underneath,  "Neitzche is dead, God". This comes ourtesy of  the blog Half-wise Half-wit.

One of Mayor Giuliani's great accomplishments in New York City was to virtuarry erase the obscenity of gang tagging that had so destroyed his city. Now, under Mayor de Blasio's liberal agenda, the Big Apple is slowly sinking back into a tagger's heaven ... see: Vice.com Article. Too, too bad.