Geburtstag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik

Today in history:

• 1949- German Democratic Republic (East Germany) formed.
• 1952- The bar code is patented.

Our hall bathroom was struck by a vomit tsunami last weekend, rendering my suitemates and me lavatory refugees. Armed with only our towels and toiletry cases, we have been braving the unknown wilderness of nearby bathrooms in search of cleaner sinks and less noxious odors.

. . .

On a less unsavory note, one of the grammar structures reviewed in Korean class recently was 란 (lan), an awesome monosyllabic suffix that roughly translates to "(preceding noun) is characterized by" or "(following verb phrase) is called".

Today's qotd is the example sentence in our textbook for this suffix:

"인간이란 누구나 다 죽게 마련이다."
"Human beings are doomed to be mortal."

The three exercises below the example sentence consist of nothing less than defining the essences of men, love, and laughter.