As years go by, I am ever more appalled by human ugliness. This morning at the open market in the center of the Croatian capital was almost painful on account of so many horrendous faces and bodies that pressed all around me. I did not know which way to look. “I don’t remember so much ugliness when I was a kid,” I mumbled to my beloved at some point. And then we passed by a man about my age who was badly wrinkled and who had no teeth left. “Look,” I continued, “this guy I do not find ugly at all!” It took me only a few minutes to wrap up my story. “When I was a kid,” I nearly smiled, “few people beautified themselves, and even fewer walked around with exaggerated importance in their posture and gait.” Indeed, it is the outlandish hairdos and loads of makeup on elderly women that I find appalling, as well as prim suits and ties on puffed-up men well past their prime. Today’s Zagreb, that is. The human ugliness I am talking about is all about fake prettiness and futile pretense, which were unimaginable right after World War II. Those were humble times, to be sure, but at least I was spared from human ugliness while I was growing up. And I shudder when I think of the years yet to come.