From Jennifer Rubin

 The Washington Post

July 26, 2024

by Jennifer Rubin

Distinguished person of the week

We are so unaccustomed to politicians doing the right thing that when one does (e.g., Liz Cheney) we are left slack-jawed. Biden will be remembered for a long, illustrious career as well as a willingness to put his own ambitions aside for the good of the country. Having declined reelection in the tradition of George Washington, he has earned a unique place in history. Biden may be among the most consequential modern presidents. He defeated Trump in 2020, leading the country through the horror of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. He rolled out a comprehensive, complex vaccination plan that freed the country from the covid-19 stranglehold. His American Rescue Plan saved thousands of businesses, spared hundreds of thousands of people from eviction, offered the single most effective anti-poverty measure for children (the child tax credit) and kept first responders on the payroll. Crime plunged, employment soared, the manufacturing sector revived and now border crossings are way down. Biden’s legislative accomplishments include the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Chips and Science Act, the Pact Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (with a historic investment in green energy and a cap on prescription drugs). Despite MAGA antics, he kept the government open and his agenda intact. He appointed about 200 diverse, extremely qualified lower-court judges and nominated the first Black woman to be a Supreme Court justice (who has exhibited her brilliance in one dissent after another). He ended the grifting, nonstop dissembling, cronyism and misuse of the Justice Department that characterized Trump’s first term. On the world stage, Biden reentered the Paris climate accord, rejuvenated and expanded NATO, rallied the West to Ukraine’s side, constructed new alliances (e.g., AUKUS) and stood with Israel in its greatest time of peril while insisting on providing aid for Gaza and pushing for a cease-fire. He ended a fruitless 20-year war in Afghanistan. To be sure, he had his stumbles — the process of withdraw from Afghanistan was painful, he may have indulged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu too long, and Biden was at times too parsimonious with weaponry for Ukraine. But on balance, he restored America as the indispensable nation, earning the widespread praise of our allies. And finally, despite sniping from the media, he focused the country on democracy and the preservation of the rule of law. He defined the stakes for the election and presented the question for voters: Authoritarianism or democracy? (That, in large part, explains how Democrats did historically well in the midterms, defeating election deniers and forced-birth zealots across the country.) For all that, Biden has earned his place among the ranks of the very best presidents.

Reichenbach Falls

If you are a reader of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series these falls will not be a mystery for you.  For those who haven't indulged in that mystery series,  Reichenbach Falls is the site of the demise of Sherlock Holmes and his mortal enemy Moriarty.  Alas readers of Conan Doyle were so aghast that he would kill off the protagonist, that  C. D. was forced to resurrect Sherlock Holmes.  He reappears after several years with a story as to how he survived the fall in the falls.

Reichenbach Falls is in Meiringen where we were based for our vacation.  In fact we could hear the falls and see the base of it from our backyard.

Dan and I walked over there to travel up the funicular and experience the falls close up.

We later stopped in to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum in town.

It was once a church.

Baker Street reincarnated.

So if you haven't read Sherlock Holmes now you must.

I took a paperback copy of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes to re read while I was there.  I left the book in the apartment for future visitors to read and enjoy.

Get Out the Vote

 Link here.

Cheese Making the Old Fashioned Way

 One museum we spent a lot of time visiting was the Ballenberg Swiss Open-Air Museum. This was an assortment of buildings assembled here from their original locations throughout Switzerland and representing different regions and periods of time.

The cheese making house was a going concern that day and we stayed and spoke to the cheese maker.

I took videos and tried to keep them short to load here.  I went too long on one so it's not included. You should be able to get a sense of what's happening.  Above he's sitting stirring the large pot of milk and curds are forming.  He gave us tastes of the curds and granddaughter #1 drank some of the whey.

Notice the stick he is stirring with.  He called it a Christmas tree.

He gathers the curds and lets them drain then takes large fistfuls and fills molds to make the cheese.

Matt, my son in law, bought some cheese too.  Not sure if they ate it before we left Switzerland or if this was the cheese forgotten in the freezer.  It was remembered as we stood waiting for the train to arrive to take us back to Zurich on our last day in Meiringen.  Not enough time to run back to apartment to get it.