Today, Andrea and I went shopping at our favorite regional supermarket, the Hieber in Grenzach, Germany. On the way back to Basel, as always, we stopped at the border to get our receipt stamped (to get the sales tax refunded). In the German customs building, both counters were open, and one agent was telling a story to the other, so I took my receipt to the one listening. As I got the stamp, I heard the other say something about “four- and five-star generals all ordered to come listen to a ridiculous speech.” The two German customs officers were laughing about the absurdity of United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 31 October 2025)