Bernd Brunner | The Smart Set

The Strange Afterlife of the Vikings

Bernd Brunner — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Adapted from Brunner’s new book, Extreme North – A Cultural History When Geneva historian Paul Henri Mallet began to publish Old Norse tales in 1655, he could probably not imagine the persisting wave of interest in all things “nordic” more than 250 years later. Although the Old Norse tales feature the sort of wild […]

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Orchards for the Masses

Bernd Brunner — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 14:57:50 +0000

Excerpted and edited from Taming Fruit: How Orchards Have Transformed the Land, Offered Sanctuary, and Inspired Creativity, by Bernd Brunner, available November 2 from Greystone Books. Excerpted by permission of the publisher. The orchards of past times that have survived — in physical form or at least recorded in written documents — are those that belonged to kings […]

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Dust Never Sleeps

Bernd Brunner — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 12:30:59 +0000

They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some of them are slim and easily recognizable as such, they can look clumsy or elegant, others are shaped like a flying saucer. In our advanced age, some of them even have a brain and — almost — a life of their own. Although at some […]

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Voices of Istanbul

Bernd Brunner — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 11:30:47 +0000

Can you recognize Istanbul with your eyes closed? The ezan, the call for prayer, is particularly dramatic when you are awake early in the morning and the background noise of the city is at a low ebb. At times like these, the muezzin and his recorded song dominate the acoustic landscape. Soon the seagulls chime […]

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The Allure of the Egg

Bernd Brunner — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 11:18:26 +0000

The following is an excerpt from Birdmania, the latest book by author Bernd Brunner, translated by Jane Billinghurst. The science of eggs is called “oology” (from the Greek “oion”) and not, as one might have guessed, “ovology.” Is interest in the outer covering of an egg an expression of the joy the observer feels as […]

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If Walls Could Talk

Bernd Brunner — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 12:10:54 +0000

A hotel is a living organism, a microcosm with a strict hierarchy, an orchestrated timetable of actions and events that unfold according to a particular dramaturgy. Some hotels have even reached the status of living myths — they have succeeded in forming an identity of their own. And in many cases, their status is owed […]

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Seeing Red

Bernd Brunner — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 11:30:51 +0000

I have been wondering recently why it’s essential for politicians or diplomats at high-profile meetings and film stars in Hollywood or Cannes to stroll along a red carpet. I assume that the red carpet is supposed to highlight the esteem the public holds towards these famous individuals (or, in the case of hotels, managers want […]

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Between Everywhere and Nowhere

Bernd Brunner — Tue, 16 May 2017 18:56:23 +0000

At the end of the 18th century, a Frenchman by the name of Xavier de Maistre had to undergo house arrest for dueling. He made the best of it and traveled about his room. He was inspired by the paintings, the books on the shelf, his servant, his dog, his lover. And he wrote a […]

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Destination Amerika

Bernd Brunner — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 13:01:16 +0000

If German visitors to the United States shop at a supermarket, they will probably notice beer cans on the shelves bearing familiar-sounding names like Pabst, Schlitz, or Anheuser-Busch. But if they ask Americans unfamiliar with modern-day Germany what it means to be German, the answers might surprise them. For many Americans, “typically German” things include […]

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Between Porcophilia and Porcophobia

Bernd Brunner — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 12:10:56 +0000

Both Jews and Muslims consider the pink, snout-nosed animals we know as pigs to be unclean. The question of why this is so has not been conclusively resolved. Did the Koran follow a Jewish rule? Or does the ban stem from the fact that eating raw or undercooked pork meat can contain roundworm larvae, which […]

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