It occurs to me now, 4 weeks away from my second birth in as many years, that my plans to do some volunteer work for the World Health Organization’s maternal and child health programs in South America may not be realized this year. See also: finishing the masters degree that I have not yet started, acquiring any degree of full-body base tan, and making croissant at home. Even as I was grinding walnuts this morning for Frida’s oatmeal I realized that my mortar-and-pestle days are numbered; soon I will break out the food processor to make a week’s worth of walnut butter at a time rather than shelling and grinding 4 individual walnuts each morning.

The parenting gig is totally worth it, though: Frida and I are making faces at each other while I type this, and I just made her laugh so hard she fell on her bum.

A question for the American Tic Tac Enthusiast – what color are the orange-flavored Tic Tacs in your part of the world? How long have they been that way? I was shocked to find that orange Tic Tacs are white in Germany, but then realized that I hadn’t had a Tic Tac in about a decade. I might just be out of the loop. Speaking of which, let’s play…

American Ingenuity, Corporate Headquarters Edition

Having lived in the U.S. for 31 of my 36 years, and having taken the commensurate student-hours of U.S. history, I am under the certain impression that American inventors and captains of industry have provided the world with everything good in the last century and a half, from cars to Coke to iPhones. While I know that the B in BMW stands for Bavarian, it comes as a surprise to me that so many companies I assumed were American are, in fact, not. To play, review the list below and try to name the company’s country:

• Bayer Pharmaceuticals (yeah, like Bayer aspirin)
• The Company That Makes Tic Tacs
• ThyssenKrup (I thought they were headquarted in DesMoines, Iowa!)
• SAP (as in, every airport advertisement you’ve ever seen and didn’t quite understand: ‘CitiCorp runs SAP!’ Um, OK. Thanks.)
• Merck Pharmaceuticals (Claritin, Dr. Scholl’s, the HPV vaccine, and every kind of birth control advertised in popular women’s magazines)
• Bosch (speakers)
• Hugo Boss (fashion)
• Jil Sander (fashion)
• Puma (sportswear)
• Airbus (buses that fly in the air)
• Volvo (just checking to see if you’re paying attention)

Answer: all of the companies above, except for Volvo (Sweden), Airbus (France) and the company that makes TicTacs (Ferrero Rocher, France) are German. Plus Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen, Adidas, Beck’s, Birkenstock, and whoever’s making all of the solar panels we see everywhere. Amazing. Way to go, Germany. I’m sure the Euro is in good hands with you. Now, France, I appreciate that diversification is important but Airbus and TicTacs? You’ve gone too far.

Your prize for playing: a link to Rick Ross’ insanely repetitive song ‘Everyday I’m Hustling’  See if you can get that out of your head. You’re welcome.