Morning Stories

Days and nights used to be long — and rarely entertaining. Life in the northern world, hundreds of years ago, was sparse: a bit of fog, bone-deep cold, a view of the next hill, and endless forests with no exit.

Language doesn’t live on words alone. It thrives on change — and, more than anything, on meaning. Whether written or spoken, language (and rhetoric with it) is a fascinating adventure. And we are the adventurers of linguistics.

When Peter Tosh passionately sang “Legalize It” fifty years ago, smokers everywhere perked up and stood tall. Finally, they thought, the haze of prejudice around the so-called “devil’s weed” might lift.

When attraction grows powerful, when enthusiasm lifts to new heights or curiosity dives deeper—and when excitement keeps intensifying—then fascination is fully at work.

Usually, I write my Morning Splinter story when a first — sometimes a second — word comes to me early in the morning. That word becomes the foundation of the story.

A man gathered his old band, brought two of his favourite musicians into the studio – and the iconic song “Heroes” was born 49 years ago. Back then, none of the musicians working with David Bowie knew they were creating a timeless classic.

This year is at its end — and honestly, it looks exhausted. 2025 is limping across the finish line, battered and breathless. Time itself seems to have been grinding its crooked teeth all year long.

Someone once said, “Time is like a roll of toilet paper — the closer it gets to the end, the faster it spins.” What a wonderfully precise thought for a place designed for letting things go.

Take a compass and place it right in the centre of the Arctic — at the North Pole. That’s the point, or rather the region, that exerts the strongest pull on most compass needles. The North Pole has always been magnetic — in every sense of the word.

Schampar? What a peculiar word — and what a shining example of Swiss linguistic creativity. It’s an expression used to amplify intensity. In other words: it means very, really, or extremely. But only in Switzerland. Everywhere else, it means absolutely nothing!

What a brilliant invention — and what a monumental gift to humanity — to finally have intelligence available on demand. No more wasting personal brain resources! A golden age of thinking and opinion-outsourcing has begun. If it can’t climb the tree of intelligence on its own, we simply let AI do it for us.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been at war with the word stupidity. Not because of the word itself — a word is just a word — but because of how it’s used.

Sleepy eyes gaze at the table — beautifully set, almost sacred. Salmon, fresh rolls, butter, and right in the middle: the enormous, still-untouched turkey, waiting for its cue. The Chrunch can begin.

Who are the people who keep sending their questions out into the world? Children and journalists, of course.

Oh yes — this phenomenon has quite a large team of perpetrators. And they wield a powerful tool: the ability to make life together fair, kind, and deeply human.

Was that a battle cry back in the flower-power seventies? Make Love, Not War — the slogan that blossomed under the shadow of Vietnam — wasn’t just an invitation to a freer love life, but a bold protest against the madness of war.

Lighting up the dark December days is a brilliant way to chase away a bit of the gloom. How? Oh, that’s not what you meant by “light figures,” right? Hmm.

45 RPM singles have always been a hit with rock’n’rollers. On the tiniest space, with an A-side and a B-side, magic was born.

“Who’s in the mood for a celebration?” Mood? Oh right — that mysterious state of being that can change faster than a Canadian weather forecast. Mood is an emotional lightweight, true, but it lasts longer than any passing feeling. It’s often confused with spirit — and that’s perfectly fine.

When two atoms share an apartment, the landlord is almost certainly called Molecool or Molecule. These living units are highly electrified but mostly neutral. It’s now officially known who inhabits these molecules: on one side, the group of “birds of a feather flock together,” and on the other, those who live by “opposites attract.”

Wishful thinking isn’t just a holiday tradition — it’s a year-round mindset. All year long, there are people who’ve made thinking itself their norm. Why, you ask?

German words are rarely made for Scrabble. Especially those that march onto the board in large, intimidating groups of letters. Take Ausnahmezustand — “state of exception.” That word alone could sink a vocabulary ship.

The long road of evolution is, in truth, a never-ending test track. Some tests pass with flying colours. Others crash and burn. So far, so evolutionary.

Once upon a time, a curtain meant one of two things: a belly proudly spilling over a belt, or a piece of fabric designed to shield the private from the public. The curtain stood – or rather hung – for privacy.

Your average Homo sapiens loves to form groups. It doesn’t take much—three people are enough, and boom, you’ve got a group. How educated that group turns out to be is another question entirely. But once formed, evolution takes over and the show begins.