15.1.02023

Feature photo: Rick's Café Américain, snapshot from the film set | © Warner Bros. Pictures

Sunday evening

At the end of the weekend, we went to the dance school to get on the dance floor. I probably won't get used to the discofox, but there was a tango at the end.

The discofox, as you can see from the name, came out of the foxtrot, which is still taught and danced to this day. I was spared the Beat-Fox, precursor of the Discofox. Unfortunately - in my opinion - the so-called Discofox was created during my dance lessons and was even included in the world dance program in 1979 at the end of my dance lessons.

When my better half finally got me to dance classes again, I wasn't pleased that the Discofox had lasted for decades. And not only that, there are now more characters than I feared in my wildest dreams. And so, for better or for worse, I have to put up with the fact that if I want a tango and a waltz, I can also get a Discofox on top.

Play and binge

Yesterday evening and night we treated ourselves to something in a small circle. First a few games and then binge a crime series. Without a doubt, a wonderful evening. On closer inspection, however, one has to ask oneself whether the series production of films is really the last word in wisdom?

As in war, culture is increasingly focusing on quantity instead of quality. And so it's amazing that you can only enjoy some series if you consume them completely unrestrained. In my opinion, however, only if you make this consumption a community experience. In any case, binge has the advantage over gambling that no one takes it amiss if you e.g. B. the mail done.

I'm wondering now what from one of my favorite movies Casablanca probably would have become in the meantime, if this had been expanded into a series. This week would have Humphrey Bogart probably caught a Russian Politruk in the hangar and opposite Claude rains, who now acts as a Chinese police officer, announces the beginning of a wonderful friendship. And every week went in Rick's Café Américain new illustrious figures on and off. Not a politician worth mentioning who wasn't already sitting at the piano and singing As Time Goes By. Only at Ingrid Bergman I'm not so sure, they would certainly have been replaced again and again over the decades.

exams

It took me a very, very long time before I became more or less comfortable with writing exams. At that time, I had long since finished school and university and had to realize that lifelong learning, at least in the minds of all decision-makers, still includes writing exams. I grappled with alternative concepts for quite a while, but then came to terms with the fact that I can no longer change the world and I also came to terms with writing exams. And with this step I was able to gain something positive from them for the first time by redefining them for me as a kind of crossword puzzle for top performers.

In the meantime I had discovered correcting and later also creating exams for myself, which is probably simply part of my job. But even today I'm not quite sure which of these occupations with retreats is the most pleasant; probably the ones you don't have to do right now. And I'm dealing with these thoughts precisely because I started today to create the upcoming exam.

Probably the best exam was once written by a philosophy student who, when he and his fellow students were given the task of why the professor's chair does not exist, ended his work shortly after it had started. His answer consisted of a single question: "Which chair?" It is still rumored today that he passed the test as the best.

And probably still today, all teachers and lecturers advise that the exam writers should first get an overview of the exam before they start with it; especially if the corresponding exam was scheduled to last three to four hours. The best way to get an overview is when the very last task in a very difficult exam is simply: "If you hand in the exam without answering within the first 10 minutes, you have passed it." — unfortunately, I assume you did in our educational system, we haven't had the humor for that for a long time.

I would like to end this short article with a little tip that can certainly be very interesting and also very helpful for today's exam writers. In times when you work with keyboards or even use the input via the voice function, you should practice typing by hand a little more. This not only has to do with the legibility of one's own handwriting, but also with the ability to write with a pen for three to four hours. During my last hour-long exams, I actually had to struggle with cramps in my fingers because work has been largely digital since the 1990s.

And meanwhile there are also more and more people who recommend writing by hand again and justify this, among other things, with an improved ability to comprehend and remember.

---