Do Cows Use Tools? This One Does. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/science/animals-cows-intelligence-tools.html?unlocked_article_code=1.H1A.fdOP.1KOQ6Z3fH8kD&smid=nytcore-android-share
For a light-hearted item in an increasingly heavy-hearted time.
Caption: Viennese birds
Bird on the left (in Viennese dialect): Worms used to taste better.
Bird on the right (also in Viennese dialect): Everything’s going to hell. (Literally, “Everything’s going down the creek.”)
(For those who don’t know, the Viennese have the reputation of taking delight in complaining a lot.)
From Helmut Qualtinger, author, cabaret artist and more.
“The problem for every Viennese: One can’t bear it in Vienna anymore–nor anywhere else.”
The man in the cartoon is on his way to a new course at the Volkshochschule (VHS). There you have the first point. Almost every district in Vienna has its own VHS, a school that offers all kinds of courses for a very reasonable fee so that “das Volk” (the people) can go on learning and developing themselves. The course is “Raunzen wie ein Wiener” or poorly translated “Complaining like a Viennese”. “Raunzen” is one of those words that is almost intranslatable. It is a particular kind of ongoing complaining about little things and the Viennese like to engage in it. The final straw for me was one of the comments on Facebook. One Wienzig follower had written “Des kannst net lernen”–Viennese dialect for “That’s not something you can learn.” 🙂
The guy on the left: This is a stick-up. Hands up and gimme your money. Dalli, dalli! [Viennese dialect for “fast”]
The guy on the right: Lucky for me, not a foreigner!
Caption: The priorities of the right-wing voters
(Vienna is voting on 11 October 2020.)
ecbinvienna 