When I saw a "gift shop" newly opened in Berlin (Zehlendorf quarter, close to the S-Bahn station), I was puzzled.
I was younger (about 12 or 13 years of age), did not read or speak a word of English and passed by this new gift shop every day on my commute to school.

The german word "Gift" means poison.
My youngling mind rattled with the question "could there really be a shop offering poison? And openly advertising it?".

Sometime later, we started English lessons at school.
This may seem like a late age at which to learn English, but such was the custom in the 1980ies: when entering 5th grade (students age about 11), we (or rather: our parents) were given a choice for the first foreign language to learn: French, Latin or English.
My Grandpa (my parent were already separated at the time) made my Mum choose Latin for me; he wanted the classical education for his eldest grandson.
My Grandpa was born in 1898, had had the classic education of that time - he was very much a son of quite another time and age alltogether.

But so it happened for young hase to learn Latin (and forget almost all of it later on, of course: there is no much use for dead languages in electronics engineering).
All kids that learnes Lating or French as first foreign language got mandatory English lessons starting at grade 7 (called Quarta in my school), the kids that got English as first were given a choice of French and Latin at this grade.

However, when learning some English, the mystery of the "poison shop" vanished - about the same time the shop vanished as well, iirc.

This web-(sub)site is about gifts.
Gifts I made, alone or in cooperation, to friends or family.

An especially about the type of gift to be feared for.
Thus the title Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.

Why was I/were we feared for out gifts?
Look at the pages, you'll figure it out.

Oh, btw: much of it is german.
I am currently transfering old content to my new web platform, but I am not rewriting or translating it.