Four actors from a theater company hit upon the idea of writing a comedy themselves after the products of comic playwrights had become more and more odious and boring to them, and all four of them immediately sat down and started to write, in the nature of things, only about themselves, although their original intention had been that each of them would write a part for himself in the comedy, for which, after thorough and, in fact, weeks-long study, they could come up with no other title than The Author, and twelve weeks after they had hit upon the idea they produced the comedy in their theater. But it is reported that even with this Author they had no success.

Warning

WARNING

A businessman from Koblenz had made his life’s dream come true by visiting the pyramids of Giza and was forced, after he had done visiting the pyramids, to describe his visit as the greatest disappointment of his life, which I understand, for I myself was in Egypt last year and was disappointed above all by the pyramids. However, whereas I very quickly overcame my disappointment, the Koblenz businessman took vengeance for his disappointment by placing, for months on end, full-page advertisements in all the major newspapers in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, warning all future visitors to Egypt against the pyramids and especially against the pyramids of Cheops, which had disappointed him most deeply, more than all the others. The Koblenz businessman used up his resources in a very short time with these—as he called them—anti-Egypt and anti-pyramid advertisements and plunged himself into total penury. In the nature of things, his advertisements did not have the influence upon people that he had hoped for; on the contrary, the number of visitors to Egypt this year, as opposed to last year, has doubled.

Emigrated

EMIGRATED

My former classmate who emigrated to Australia eleven years ago and returned to his Styrian homeland two years ago emigrated to Australia again six months ago, although he knows he will return to Styria again and will continue to emigrate to Australia and return to Styria as often as it takes him to find peace either in Australia or in Styria. His father before him, a journeyman baker from the Mölltal who went to school with my father, emigrated from Carinthia to Styria at least twenty times and each time returned to Carinthia from Styria until he finally found peace in Carinthia, in Arndorf near St. Veit-on-the-Glan, where in the old smithy—his final lodgings—he hanged himself on an iron hook because he was homesick for Styria, without, and he was reproached for this at the time and long after his death, thinking of his wife and children.

Unworldly

UNWORLDLY