Simanaitis Says
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MUNICH HAPPY SNAPS PART 2
AS NOTED YESTERDAY, THIS STARTED serendipitously with Munich happy snaps from 2002. We continue our trippin’ today in that Bavarian city’s ViktualienMarkt just south of Marienplatz and conclude in a corner of my dining room.
ViktualienMarkt. Wikipedia recounts that the food market has been held daily, except Sundays and holidays, since 1807.
“During World War II,” Wikipedia continues, “the square was severely damaged. There was talk of closing down the market in order to erect multi-story buildings. Instead, municipal authorities revitalized Viktualmarkt with considerable financial support, and the citizens of Munich enriched it with memorial fountains for the folk singers and comedians Karl Valentin, Weiß Ferdl and Liesl Karlstadt. Later, memorial fountains for the folk singers and comedians Ida Schumacher, Elise Aulinger and Roider Jackl were added.”
Continuity of its vendors is suggested in the current Munich website.
Learning German Words for Vittles. The “Viktual” portion of the market’s name comes from the Latin word victus. Mushrooms are Pilze, whence the German surname Pilzer for a gatherer of these edibles. Those in for foreground, Steinpilze, are also known as Porcini.
Tomatoes are a cognate, Tomaten. I kinda prefer the Italian pomodori, “love apples,” after the early beliefs (hopes?) of this South American vegetable’s aphrodisiac qualities.
Wikipedia recounts tomato history, “The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés‘s capture of Tenochtitlan in 1521 initiated the widespread cultural and biological interchange called the Columbian exchange; certainly the tomato was being grown in Europe within a few years of that event.”
The Columbian Exchange. Wikipedia cites “the widespread transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the New World (the Americas) in the Western Hemisphere, and the Old World (Afro-Eurasia) in the Eastern Hemisphere, from the late 15th century on.”
According to Wikipedia, the New World offered maize, turkeys, syphilis, and smoking; the Old World, wheat, cattle, smallpox, and Christianity. Extra points: Discuss.
Blumen. The English word “Bloom” shares origin with the German Blumen, “flowers.” According to Wikipedia, its etymology is ancient indeed, “from Indo-European bhlô, ‘to bloom, to appear.’ ”
In the background is a Maypole, about which Wikipedia recounts, “In Bavaria, the Maibaum is procured, prepared and then stored in some building, like a farmer’s barn days or weeks before being erected on 1 May. The young men (nowadays probably women, too) from the villages try to steal the Maibaum from each other (out of the storage places) which is why the men/ people of the village take turns in watching over it. If a village manages to steal a Maibaum, then the village the Maibaum has been stolen from has to invite the whole village of the thieves to free beer and a festivity to get it back.”
I suspect a good time is had by all.
A Corner of the Dining Room. These two photos by Wife Dottie have resided in a corner of the dining room for years. She was a keen photographer who shared my affection for Munich. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024
Simanaitis Says 
What is that mechanical looking item just below the photos?
Hello, Sabre,
It’s actually two different UGear models: Closer to the wall is the http://wp.me/p2ETap-8XM Tram Car. In front of it is the balloon-powered http://wp.me/p2ETap-4RO Pneumatic Engine.
By the way, just off to the left is part of http://wp.me/p2ETap-4X5 Bernard Cahier’s photo of Maurice Trintignant’s Cooper-Maserati on the Riverside Freeway. Elements of a tintype aeroplane also peek in (maybe a topic for another day?).
They brought to mind the Odhner mechanical calculator (http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/odhner.html) that my father used in his business before the development of electronic calculators. It now resides in my “museum of calculators and sliderules” in my study/home office.
Heavy, and would probably permanently maim a person if dropped on their foot. But really neat to use.
Aw!!!!
Why did you have to burst my bubble?
I thought it was the Cyclops perpetual motion machine that you, Pietro Martini and Henry L. Manney had perfected …
Ha. Thanks for overrating my creativity. The UGear models are quite something.
Curse you and your readers, Simanaitis
You keep bringing up aspects of my life experiences that should have been LONG forgotten!
Out of the Navy and after a job with a failing defense contractor going into the ’70s, I worked for AMF keeping alive their Fast Food Point of Sale “Multichek” concept that they had purchased. It used a mechanical Burroughs cash register on which was mounted a deck of electro-mechanical solenoids to push the keys in proper sequence. On another key panel, the employee would push “Whopper,” and through plug-wire programming, the 6, 9 and ADD keys would be pressed. When TOTAL was pressed, that key would be actuated, and the preprogrammed tax (more plug wiring) added. A paper tape would be generated to display the total order and price!
It was unique, ingenious, quick, efficient, operator error free, with an audit trail to balance the register … and a MULTI-FAILURE PRONE MECHANICAL NIGHTMARE!!!
This was always intended as a stop gap measure while we kept the existing customer base happy while we perfected an all-electronic machine … but delays from computer chip suppliers and a hostile takeover of AMF by Wall St. manipulators killed a concept that was well ahead of the time.
However, a dozen years earlier I had my first real job while in Jr. High in Pacific Beach, working as Engineering Assistant at Convair Astro which was building the Atlas Missile. I was a pencil sharpening, blue print running gofer, thus spending a lot of time in a baseball-field sized room, filled with “computers!” These were women with math degrees, each at a small desk with a MonroMatic Model 88 Multifunction Calculator clattering away in front of them.
The engineers and scientists would work out their issues with their slide rules, and the talented “computers” would verify and refine their calculations down to the appropriate degree of accuracy. While in 9th grade, I acquired a working knowledge of Trigonometric stress calculations, Calculus and Spherical Geometry that have served me well. Remarkably, we went to the Moon with slide rule calculation accuracy … even four function electronic calculators were a decade away!
Nights and weekends, I’d sit in the right seat of our PB Blvd. dentist’s Porsche 356 coupe, navigating on rallys in the San Diego hills, using a Curta hurdy gurdy computer, Stevens dial calculator (though I preferred my familiar E-6B) and reading his accurized Halda hundreths odometer, driven from a front wheel. (He also got me into the winner’s circle of the ’59 Indy, but that’s a long story!)
You realize, of course, Bob, that we’ve each been blessed in life’s adventures. See http://wp.me/p2ETap-oP for a pic of my Keuffel & Esser cylindrical slide rule, saved from my dad’s steel mill.