Thane Plambeck

Crewcut

Beauty is relative II, originally uploaded by True_Bavarian.

Flowering crabapple in our front yard

Flowering crabapple in our front yard, originally uploaded by thane.

Woman with "YOU ARE FREE" sign, and man with balloons

Woman with "YOU ARE FREE" sign, and man with balloons, originally uploaded by thane.

I drove by this couple today, near dusk, at the intersection of Middlefield Rd and Oregon Expressway in Palo Alto.

The woman was carrying a sign reading

YOU ARE FREE

She was eager to carry on conversations with motorists as they paused at the stoplights.

The guy seemed to be enjoying himself, but didn't say anything.

About the time this photo was taken, she was yelling, "There is no one exactly like you! You are free!" to a guy in a white Prius, who honked as the light changed.

Maybe it was the balloons.

The Palo Alto Little League season has begun!

Batting gloves, originally uploaded by thane.

Foul ball at the Middlefield Little League diamond

Foul ball at the Middlefield Little League diamond, originally uploaded by thane.

They had just raised the hatchback. A ball came over the fence and dropped right through it with a loud WHONK.

Cole competing in the Beaverton Regional Diving Meet

Cole competing in the Beaverton Regional Diving Meet, originally uploaded by thane.

1st on tower, 2nd on three meter, 4th on one meter

Stefan Zweig on Rilke

He suffered particularly from unpleasant voices.  I can still see him before me in conversation with a high aristocrat, completely bent over, his shoulders tortured and even his eyes cast down, so that they might not betray how much he suffered physically from the gentleman's unpleasant falsetto.  But how good to be with him when he was kindly disposed toward someone!  Then one sensed his inner goodness---although he remained sparing of words and gestures---like a warm, healing outpouring deep into one's soul.

From The World of Yesterday, 1943 (Univ of Nebraska Press, p 144)

Fright

Fright, originally uploaded by Smithsonian Institution.

William H. Johnson, born Florence, SC 1901-died Central Islip, NY 1970

Anneliese Korner-Kalman

One of our Tasso St neighbors, Anneliese Korner-Kalman, died last night. She was an emeritus faculty member of the Stanford School of Medicine and wrote a book that (in a small part of it) describes encounters with Hitler when she was a young girl:

An even more terrifying event for me personally was a run-in I had with Hitler one fine sunny fall day in 1934. By then I was almost fifteen, old enough to be allowed to ride my bike to school. I was on my way home, and unfortunately, so was Hitler. Just as I entered a narrow roundabout on Prinzregenten Strasse, two open, black Mercedes convertibles slowly pulled up beside me. Hitler was in the first car, to the right of his driver and about four feet away from my face. Loud and angry voices began screaming at me from the second car, "Greet Your Fuehrer! Greet Your Fuehrer!

All I could think of at the time was, "I'll be damned if I greet their Fuehrer!" And I held tightly onto my handlebars so as not to lift my arm in the obligatory "Heil Hitler" greeting. It seem as if it took an eternity for the caravan to pass me, as if time had stood still forever. When they finally cleared the narrow roundabout, I pulled over to the curb and saw that my hands were shaking and my knuckles white from holding on so tightly. As I approached our house, I saw Hitler's cars parked in front of his house. Only when I safely entered our apartment did I breathe a sigh of relief that I had come away unscathed from this terrifying incident..

Here's a photo of her that I took in 2005, at one of our street parties:

From 1995 to 2008 (or so, I'd say) she'd often walk by our house on her way to Midtown Palo Alto, to shop. I remember one time, I was out in the street with Cole (he might have been 5 years old), and Anneliese came by, carrying her shopping bag.

Cole started over toward me, crossing her path, and she suddenly turned to him and asked, in a curious way, "Do you know my name?"

"Yes," Cole said.

"Well, what is it?" Anneliese asked.

"Anneliese."

I had the distinct impression it made her day.

Lost Nation, Iowa

Lost Nation, Iowa, originally uploaded by thane.

google maps streetview

The Internet stops here

The Internet stops here, originally uploaded by thane.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&layer=c&cbll=54.829246,-98.489266&panoid=8kTnoXzI7fTAXVcUT4fJSQ&cbp=12,101.55,,0,2.22&ll=37.0625,-95.677068&spn=0,245.830078&z=4