GAZETTE
Published by My Big Fat Funny Life
Volume I, Number 017 September 6, 2026
A weekly-ish dispatch from Greece, with questionable authority and excellent coffee.
Showcase Story
This week’s showcase
The Loud Life: Why Silence is Suspicious in Greece
From competing church bells to midnight bouzouki, welcome to the country where peace and quiet is the strangest sound of all.
Trending This Week
Reader favorite
Greek Questions: A Survival Guide for the Mildly Confused
In Greece, questions don’t ask for information. They test your character.
Reader favorite
Πού Να Στα Λέω? (pou na sta leo)
In Greece, one small hand gesture can explain what language wisely refuses to touch.
Reader favorite
Greece’s Sticky Little Secret
How a postage-stamp-sized square ruled a nation’s paperwork.
Reader favorite
The Passport Stamp Was the Souvenir
A love letter to passport stamps, grumpy customs officers, and a world that was not yet completely flat.
Coming next
On Substack and the website. No need to wait for the next Gazette.
Tuesday · September 8
You Moved to Greece? Forget the HOA.
Thursday · September 10
Paradise Wasn’t Built for August
You made it this far. You may as well do the right thing.
Free, of course.
No forms, no stamps, no appointment at KEP.
(If Substack flashes the paid menu first,
choose None and carry on.)
The Kafeneio Spoke
A collection from this week’s table.
“This observation is pure gold because it captures the essence of the Greek "social contract." In Greece, the communal bin is the ultimate equalizer—a place where the neighborhood's secrets are bundled in plastic and the act of disposal is a silent performance of citizenship. We’ve turned waste management into a game of "plausible deniability," where if the bag doesn't quite fit, it becomes a problem for the universe rather than the individual. Those new electric bins in West Mani aren't just a technical upgrade; they are a psychological shift. That gentle humming is the sound of modernity trying to automate…”
— Νίκος Μουρούτσος For: Taking Out the Trash in Greece
“"negotiating with abundance."- What a great phrase! I find these negotiations to be so overwhelming that I just give up. It's an encounter with the sublime, in the old-school Romanticist way.”
— Maria Spelleri For: You Do Not Plan the Peloponnese. You Surrender to It.
“I’m American and I just don’t understand why people worry about this. Hey fellow Americans, don’t flush the toilet paper!!!! Okay, I feel better. If it bothers you, don’t visit Greece. More baklava for me.”
— Christopher Stamey For: The Greek Toilet Paper Rule
Have an idea?
About what I should be writing about.