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Gardens with a 12,000-person waiting list

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Re: Gardens with a 12,000-person waiting list

#101

Post by oever »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #54
benj111 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Spießertum" I'm getting the translation of philistine, which seems a bit harsh? Anything that better captures the flavour, for an Anglophone?

When I posted I thought about a translation but drew a blank. It’s somewhere between conservative, law abiding, rules oriented but also community oriented. But everybody has their own connotations so there is no real definition. Generally it’s used a derogatory term. Nobody calls themself a Spießbürger.

How about 'follower'?

Re: Gardens with a 12,000-person waiting list

#102

Post by colechristensen »

People need more space in cities.

People are willing to live with far too little space compared to what a person actually needs to live well. I think it is a zoning issue where local governments need to force more working green space and workspace in general.

Living in small apartments without space to garden or build or maintain things makes people somewhat miserable consumer drones.

Re: Gardens with a 12,000-person waiting list

#106

Post by jhallenworld »

My town's public victory gardens also have a waiting list, but not sure how long. The popularity has definitely increased recently and they are sure peaceful to walk through.

https://www.belmont-ma.gov/conservation-commission/pages/vic...

The rules are interesting to read: https://www.belmont-ma.gov/sites/belmontma/files/uploads/han...

Re: Gardens with a 12,000-person waiting list

#107

Post by Cerium »

13of40 wrote: post #67
DragonCot wrote: post #17

As somebody who has done his time on a waiting list for an allotment, and has been allotmenteering for the past 7 years now, I find these small German allotments vastly different to our UK ones. I fly reasonably often to Munich and I've often seen them alongside the railway lines... and they are immaculate. But the bit I find odd is that there is an awful lot of grass. We in the UK tend to focus more on food or flowe…

I've got one this year in the US (outside Seattle) and I can't imagine the outrage that would ensue if I was seen using the space for barbecuing, much less drinking a beer. I even think some of the other gardeners look down on me because I'm raising mundane crops like potatoes and beets, instead of kale and lemon grass.

Enjoy! This year one of my favorite crops has been carrots-I have never grown them before for just that reason. My first bite was an eye opening experience. I had no idea that there could be so much more flavor.

Re: Gardens with a 12,000-person waiting list

#108

Post by perl4ever »

slics wrote: post #69

Coming from a small third world country myself, I didn’t know what the market was until I was 19 and came to the states. Everything we needed to survive we grew it or raised it. It was a way of life, at 5 or 6 years old I was able to watch over our farm animals and knew exactly what was expected of me. Now a 6 years old can’t even put their own shoes on by themselves let alone know how to do anything related to self…

My grandparents had a farm, and while it was sold (in the 1950s) before I was born, just having the connection and hearing about it from family members keeps me from romanticizing it like people are wont to do after a few generations. None of their four kids took up farming, and that alone tells you something. It's a hard life, and my grandfather died from an accident while working on farm equipment, as people do.

Re: Gardens with a 12,000-person waiting list

#109

Post by perl4ever »

imgabe wrote: post #93
4b11b4 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The perspective which is open to seeing the "good" and the "bad" is usually closer to seeing the "truth". However, your open perspective does not necessarily counter the original comment. from the original comment: "Yes, we live in a sad world that we don’t know anymore what will happen if one day markets are no longer an option." If you remove the word sad, would you refute that statement? Yes, there are good and ba…

The lesson here is that everything comes with tradeoffs. Want to live in a an industrialized society and enjoy all the benefits that brings? Things like, modern medicine, indoor plumbing, independence from weather cycles for food? Well, yeah you're probably going to give up knowing how to live off the land. If your society collapses, you might not know how to survive. Most people view that as an acceptable risk. That…

Many of the first Europeans attempting to colonize North America starved/froze to death until they utilized the knowledge of the people who were already living here. So I think the omni-competence that people like to believe in from living closer to nature doesn't actually exist.

Re: Gardens with a 12,000-person waiting list

#110

Post by zmix »

indigo945 wrote: post #90
zmix wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, "philistine" is actually quite right. That's how Jesus Christ called them. You could also call them submissive, hypocrite squareheaded cowards. The "Spieß" seems to translate to "skewer", "spit", "pike". So, they sting, but are not very sharp. They always side with the authority du jour, because that keeps them safe.

The translation is correct, but your interpretation is wrong. "Spießbürger" is a medieval term, referring to citizens enlisted in a city's defense forces as spearmen, and was originally used derogatorily by the upper classes, who were mounted on horses instead. Later, it was mostly used by students to ridicule the "uneducated" masses. See famous German poet Heinrich Heine (translated from the Wikipedia article): "In…

Thank you for the interesting reference to Heine., which is nicely translated, btw. I didn't know this.

I assumed, the "spearmen" background, however, I find the analogy to be, probably by accident, to have a much wider reach, which I can not really communicate in English, since the vocabulary differs too much for that.

Thanks for the interesting comment.

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