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As I may have mentioned once or twice before, my nephew -- the one and only -- came to visit me this last week. My nephew, sister, and brother-in-law were in Italy for a little bit more than a week, then on Wednesday they took the train up to Sion, where I met them with a rental car. Sion was a convenient place to meet because it is fairly close to Italy (only 3 hours from Milan by train) and it is right in the middle of Valais, which is one of the most beautiful parts of Switzerland. Valais has been described to me as "Texas of Switzerland" by some of my colleagues, which has some truth to it. First, it is a fairly large (area-wise) canton that is not heavily populated. Second, Valaisians tend identify as Valaisians first and Swiss second. Finally, they love cows. When I visited Switzerland a few years ago, Serge took us all to Valais for an evening in a small chalet followed by a day of cow fighting, and I loved every minute of it. I wanted to recreate the experienc...

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Between now and midnight (which is when the first results come in over here), I can either sit here and develop an aneurysm, or, more constructively, I can post some random odds and ends that I've had sitting around for a while. Fortunately for all involved, I've decided on the second choice. So, in no particular order ... When I first arrived at my new apartment, the only thing waiting for me in my mailbox was a letter from my property manager telling me that someone would be around to fix a leaky radiator, and a bulk mail catalog from Ronja Versand . Ronja, as it is effectively known, is a retailer of the finer things in life: microfiber sheets, bath robes, and high fashion clothing for him and her. Best of all, Ronja delivers these products at very competitive prices. How do they manage to do this? By cutting out the middle man: products are shipped directly from 1993 to your door. Check out some of these dope threads. Fig. 1: Having a tough time choosing between a ...

As I may have hinted at a couple of times before, Switzerland is an expensive place. If you go to a typical store and look for a typical item (say, a trash can or a bag of potatoes), odds are you will have to pay at least 50% more than you would for a similar item in the US. Actually, that isn't exactly true. For certain things (mainly vegetables and fruits), this is definitely true. For household items and similar things, the real problem is finding "graduate-student" quality items; typically the cheapest item a store will carry will be significantly nicer or better than you really want. For example, the first things I needed to buy when I got my first apartment were towels and a floor mat. After a lot of searching, I found a two-pack of white bath towels on sale for 30 CHF and the cheapest floor mat I could find cost 40 CHF. In the US, you could go to your local Target, and probably find two (not particularly great quality) towels for at most $10 each, and I'...