{"id":5289,"date":"2015-12-20T14:34:41","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T20:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=5289"},"modified":"2016-03-24T22:23:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T03:23:52","slug":"angela-we-have-heard-on-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/12\/angela-we-have-heard-on-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Angela, We Have Heard on High"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time Magazine’s selection of German Chancellor Angela Merkel as 2015 Person of the Year<\/a> is fascinating.. It shows the magazine still heeds that this award is not for popularity nor just for Yankees. It’s for the person who’s been, what, the biggest newsmaker of the calendar year.<\/p>\n

Its cover story profiling Merkel proves the point. Not least interesting is that she has a Ph.D. in quantum chemistry. If there’s just two biographical bits that make her the kind of leader she has been, that’s one. The other is she grew up in the now-former East Germany. She understands that<\/em> life.<\/p>\n

The article is long but rewarding. To see the highlights, view the sidebar, “The 13 Most Surprising Things You Never Knew About Angela Merkel<\/a>.” For ease click “View as List, as the default “View as Gallery” is a slideshow that you have to wait each time to open a page.<\/p>\n

Germany has been\u00a0fortunate to have such a strong, focused and clever leader this past decade.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time Magazine’s selection of German Chancellor Angela Merkel as 2015 Person of the Year is fascinating.. It shows the magazine still heeds that this award is not for popularity nor just for Yankees. It’s for the person who’s been, what, the biggest newsmaker of the calendar year. Its cover story profiling Merkel proves the point. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-items"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":230,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/09\/boo-hoo\/","url_meta":{"origin":5289,"position":0},"title":"Boo hoo","author":"Ben S. 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My Beloved and I were recently married, so mid-1990s, when Marion Lewenstein contacted me that she and Harry planned to drive from Palo Alto to see their son, teaching at Cornell. 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Pollock","date":"April 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's unfair to say one feels let down by a free program. It's more unreasonable to feel let down by a non-performer's performance. Alas, several of us did; I asked around afterward. Writer Joyce Carol Oates, 75, still teaching at Princeton and other campuses, was fascinating for her 45 minutes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Joyce Carol Oates.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/JCOonline3-247x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":153,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/02\/second-adolescence\/","url_meta":{"origin":5289,"position":3},"title":"Second adolescence","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Feb. 25, 2005. The local paper ran a feature photo this morning of an old man playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. I couldn't tell what he thought of this; the blindfold covered most of his face. A photog grabbing this sort of shot is easy-pickin's, just head\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1363,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/06\/i-am-so-controlling\/","url_meta":{"origin":5289,"position":4},"title":"I Am So Controlling","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"You scroll through the Internet and land here. Your choice, your control. I create an essay, choosing topic, slant and wording. I'm in control of what you're reading now. Hah! The wife reminds the husband about some chore. \"You are so controlling,\" he says. The husband expounds so about his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4930,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2014\/10\/debateable-indeed\/","url_meta":{"origin":5289,"position":5},"title":"Debatable? Indeed.","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A full-scale, live television candidate debate just may be the pinnacle of unscripted yet predictable \"reality TV,\" with a local example as proof. It was a circus of tamed animals, no clowns. On Tuesday, Oct. 14, incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor faced Republican U.S. Rep. 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