Simone Pipek is a native of Cologne, Germany. She has worked with numerous German women’s magazines, including the German edition of Elle magazine. At the tender age of 29 she made the move to New York where she has been living for the past 10 years. She has worked on a number of writing projects since then in both German and English. She also writes on a regular basis as a New York correspondent for the German blog, Die Frohe Botschafterin. She grew up with a green consciousness. Caring for the environment is not only a trend for her, but a lifestyle. In her opinion, knowledge is power. So being educated is key to protect the earth. She is very happy about all the new bike paths the city has to offer.
Better--and much more fun--alternatives are flea markets, antique stores, and last but not least, Craigslist.com. For me, it’s the thrill of the chase for the ultimate piece of wall hanging, the dresser that just needs a little love, or the floor lamp that only requires a new shade to come to life again. Priceless. Or, at the very least, easy on the budget.
There’s something else that makes it all worthwhile. Discovering that very special item, I am automatically being told a story. Those pieces lived a life before they met me, and in my fantasy I can draw pictures of the former life and think of many different tales this night table or vase might be able to narrate. I just have to listen closely when I touch and smell it for the first time.
And the best part is, I am buying something that has already been built. I’m not responsible for diminishing any further resources by my purchase. While it might be second hand, it’s new to me. The literal translation for used, or second hand, furniture in German is “Zweite Hand.” And that expression hits the mark.


A Blogger For Any Diet
In another sense, I was very much amused by all the uproar realizing people’s anger was not because of an unpopular stance on abortion or gay marriage, but a grocery store. Now that is funny!!! I had no idea that people were so attached to where they bought their food. Shame on me, though, as food is always chock-full of intimate meaning for people. Lesson learned.
In the wake of the fallout from the DFO articles, this week allow me to offer a more personal piece that I hope will establish a context for what I write, and why I write it; a kind of road map to my inner gastronome.
The first item on the colloquial menu is the term “connoisseur”; this is what I consider myself in the food arena. Think of it as the “who does this guy think he is?” part of my writing. The second proffering is the usefulness of critique and analysis. While criticism nearly always gets a bad rap, I think we need critics and critical understandings of any subject, food included. As subjectivity is common to all of us, being critical can actually help us appreciate even our least favorite ideas by allowing us to see there is always another side to any story. But first, the connoisseur…
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