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Michael In San Francisco, a well-kept secret is a staircase in the hilly neighborhood of Bernal Heights called the "Esmeralda Stairs," which is surely a hundred meters long and has a slide built between two landings. No kidding, the slide is ten meters long and is constructed so sturdily from steel that, after a thorough inspection, I concluded that it can not only withstand the boisterous children it was built for but also adults of my size. Now, granted, I have never seen anyone older than 10 years sliding there, but that doesn't mean anything.
In my first few attempts at sliding, however, it turned out that the steel slide, despite its polished surface, created too much friction with the cotton fabric of my pants. Instead of accelerating into a rapid descent, I immediately came to a halt and even had to push myself to avoid getting stuck. Back home, I remembered that as children in Augsburg's Ziegelstadel amusement park, we always zoomed down the giant slide on potato sacks. But since nowadays, as an urban resident of an American city, one no longer has potato sacks on hand, I quickly ordered a four-pack of so-called "burlap sacks," as they are called in proper English, on eBay.
After the package with the order finally arrived, we set out for Bernal Heights on a Sunday morning, made sure there were no children nearby, and then proceeded with the death-defying execution of the experiment. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure how strongly the frictionless acceleration would catapult me downward, so I kept my jacket on as a precaution to prevent abrasions. Additionally, I am known to have cat-like reflexes due to my many years of martial arts experience! However, Angelika feared that I would end up in the emergency room, but after some persuasion, she agreed to go film the whole thing. And, behold, I went swiftly downwards, just fast enough! Angelika also dared to take the ride afterwards, and both newsletter reporters survived the experiment without injuries!
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All Editions:
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2022 143 144 145 146 147
2021 138 139 140 141 142
2020 133 134 135 136 137
2019 129 130 131 132
2018 125 126 127 128
2017 120 121 122 123 124
2016 115 116 117 118 119
2015 111 112 113 114
2014 106 107 108 109 110
2013 101 102 103 104 105
2012 96 97 98 99 100
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2007 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
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2003 43 44 45 46 47 48
2002 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
2001 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
2000 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
1999 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
1998 7 8 9 10 11 12
1997 1 2 3 4 5 6
1996 0