NOT THE FRENCH OR THE AMERICANS! The foot-long, open-face Baguette, covered with amazing delicacies, toasted and served in two halves was founded ages ago in Warsaw. They call it „Zapiekanka“ and the traditional one is with cheese, mushrooms and ketchup. But there are further variations with ham (or other meats), vegetable, pineapple, olives and Feta. I love the „Whatever Zapiekanka“, covered with what is at hand in the moment (but definitely with cheese and mushrooms). And you know what? Ryanair, the cheap carrier from Ireland, offers the speciality on board their flight to and from Poland! In two styles, with cheese, ham or mushrooms, weighing 185 and 175 grams, for 5 Euro = ca. US-$ 6! The suitable drink? „Piwo“ of course, a cold beer …
FOOD: No, the Poles invented it …
Wow, there is a new record …
UNBELIEVABLE! I report from time to time the development of the value of hotel luggage labels. So far US$ 1000 was a unsurmountable barrier – as an asking price! I was never aware that any collector bought at this price. But today (March 9, 2019) a very trustworthy dealer in Berlin, offering the best labels which are on the market worldwide, broke the barrier: Wirth the label of the Hotel „Gonnet“ in Cannes (France) – asking for 1889.00 Euro! Well, it’s a beauty from the first half of the 20th century, the hotel had a telephone number with 3 digits only (!), but the label is by no means especially rare or from the 19th century, the age of the truly valuable luggage labels. I wonder if the dealer will be successful – and I deeply regret, that this expensive label is not in my collection (so far) …
Beautiful Books by the Kilo …?
IT LOOKS LIKE IT! My good friend Jürgen just sent me this picture from Delhi, capital of India. He did there what he likes best – browsing the many fabulous bookstores. And than, one morning, he saw this yellow, red and black announcement, hanging from the ceiling and advertising Coffee Table Books for 250 Rupees per K – K meaning Kilo or roughly two pounds. 250 Rupees are circa US$ 3,50 or 3 Euros. But Coffee Table Books are heavy, one can easily weigh 1 kilo. Therefore the offer sounds too good to be true, but is a refined literary trick: If you happen to pick a volume of 3 kilos, the dealer will charge US$ 10,50 or 9 Euros! But nevertheless, it’s an interesting development: Books sold from the scale …
I discovered the most expensive banknote!
YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME? Have a look at the pictures: The front and the back of the 10 Dollar in the paper money of Mongolia! Printed in 1920 in the short-lived dictatorship of the German-Russian nobleman Roman Ungern-von Sternberg, called „The Bloody White Baron“. That’s why the 14 750 banknotes which were produced (only) on simple machines with blocks of rough woodcuts, were called „Barons“. Not even 10 of the 10 Dollar notes have survived, and that’s why a dealer in Los Angeles asks for US$ 200 000 or 176 655 Euros for the only one which has so far not disappeared in any collection (plus a couple of hundred dollars for shipping). I know that there are banknotes of US$ 10 000 or even US$ 100 000, but they are still „real“ money, worth the face value; but the Mongolian money is worthless, just a piece of printed paper – but a extremely rare collectors item. Still, I doubt very much, that the guy in L.A. will be able to sell the piece …
Ever seen the rarest car plate?
I SAW IT YESTERDAY, on the Spanish island of Mallorca! A huge black Porsche Convertible had it, parked in the harbor town of Portocolom: The license very very rare plate of the PRINCIPAT D’ANDORRA. A tiny but independent state between France and Spain, high up in the Pyrenees mountains. A country a bit larger than Barbados, with 78 000 inhabitants only. But one of the most sought after tax havens, a true paradise for the brutally rich, and no passport is harder to get than the Andorran one (more or less impossible, if you don’t bring at least 20 million in cash). The dwarf republic ist ruled jointly by France and the Spanish bishop of Urgel, a town in Catalonia, and is plastered with banks, hotels and shopping centers. And if you see somebody with the license plates I show you here, you know that you see the car of a member of the most exclusive club of the very few happy ones …
FITNESS for the HIGH SOCIETY …
… JUST FOLLOW THE EXERCISES IN THE ILLUSTRATION. Do you recognize it? A person doing three movements, easy to execute and possible wherever you are without any machine. But is it really a person? Look closer – no, it’s an old fashioned corkscrew, stretching and lifting its arms! What a great idea of an unknown designer. And so useful: You follow the three routines, at least a dozen times, and you will be fit like a sneaker. And loose some more calories by laughing heartily about the illustration …
Not Just Arabian Oil & Gas …
I SAT IN A RESTAU- RANT ON THE IS- LAND OF MAJORCA, turned my (empty) plate and got a surprise: It came from U. A. E. and said: „Make sure it’s RAK“. Good heavens, could it really by, that this china originated in the United Arab Emirates? And what is RAK? It’s the tiny sheikdom Ras al-Khaimah, the northernmost part of the U. A. E., which has no oil, nor gas. It has nothing except vast stretches of sand dunes, a bit of beach along the Arabian Gulf and a dynasty of dictators who rules the country for the last 310 years (!). And the present ruler, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi, had an idea: We produce the china for the Arabic/Islamic world! And he succeeded so much, that an restaurant on the island of Majorca served my lunch on his plates and the coffee in his cups! Salam aleikum …
Christmas is over, but …
… I WANT TO SHOW YOU, WHAT I DISCOVERED IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD YEAR: The largest, most precious Christmas collection outside a museum! A German has assembled these thousands of up to 250 years old Santa Clauses, market shops, miniature trees and toys. Just look at the almost man-sized, heavily populated tower with its ventilator, propelled by the heat of real candles! And the very old crib from Naples with a phantastic landscape of Jerusalem! Most are from Germany and Austria, and every Christmas he takes all those things from his climatized store and decorates them around his rooms – following for years detailed photographs of the desired positions. I reckon that at an auction in the USA his collection can fetch up to a million dollar – and I don’t even show his more than 300 antique Christmas tree decorations, some so expensive that they remain in their boxes every year: It’s too risky to use them. This collector lives in the vicinity of Munich and has never shown his treasures publicly, and small children are only allowed entry on the arms of their parents.