Bern, books, and by-the-way
Meet the Muskox
Last month, in mid-December, I experienced muskoxen for the first time. I ran my hand down one of the animal’s massive horns and stroked its brown wool coat. I grabbed handfuls of its soft, downy, and extraordinarily warm underwool, called qiviut. I even got to feed dried lichen to two young oxen. No, I was…
My Favorite Fiction of 2025
Last January was the first time I wrote about my favorite books of the year, and now I’m doing it again for 2025. I didn’t experience as many reading highlights this year as I did in 2024, but I’ve still had fun thinking back and picking out which novels I could barely wait to get…
The Patron Saint of Children
Yesterday, December 6, was the day of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children and the fourth-century bishop of Myra, a Byzantine city in what is now Turkey. On this day, many Swiss-German households with young children are visited by “Samichlaus,” as Sankt Nichlaus is pronounced in the Swiss-German dialect. He doesn’t arrive in the…
BEFORE THE LEAVES FALL
Over two percent of Switzerland’s nine million people belong to EXIT, one of the nine or ten organizations in Switzerland that offer people who don’t want to live anymore a painless way to commit suicide. Since 1942, Swiss law has permitted one person to assist another to commit suicide as long as the motive for…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Get new blog posts delivered directly to your inbox.
Kim Hays 