Monthly Archives: October 2009
Obama G.
Beautiful German of the week.
Because somebody has to admire them.*
* OK, she’s not German, but she’s not a girl either (and not really all that beautiful). But these are clearly extraordinary times we are now living in so Klappe (shut up) and go with the flow already.
Restraining ignorance?
Yeah, there sure is a lot of that out there, everywhere you look. Nothing against Herta Müller, I’m sure she does great work, it’s just that practically no one has ever heard of, much less read her. Nope, not even over here in Germany (of course YOU have, sorry, I’m just being ignorant again).
If the Nobel Prize literature circle’s only claim to fame is being predictable in making unpredictable choices, that’s fine. But if that also includes removing entire nations from the selection process (in this case the one that happens to lie between the borders of Canada and Mexico), then it doesn’t really have anything to do with literature anymore. But, then again, maybe this prize never did have anything to do with literature (ignorant, like I said).
“The winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature isn’t always a bolt-out-of-the-blue surprise, a writer whose work is known only to an elite fraction of American readers. It only seems that way.”
“There is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can’t get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world, not the United States. The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.”
Munich applies for the 2018 Winter Olympics, asks Obama not to help
Organizers in Munich have officially launched the city’s bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.
City officials sent a letter informing the International Olympic Committee of the bid yesterday.
They also sent a really nice letter to US-American President Barack Obama, who they still admire deeply and wholeheartedly, honest, in which they expressly expressed that he should not take any time off whatsoever to help them in their efforts in any way, should he have been planning to do so, which they personally doubt, being that Munich is a German city after all and he is so busy and everything all the time, which they understand and respect perfectly and completely, but they just wanted to let him know, just in case.
“Well, congratulations to president Obama and first lady Michelle. They celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary this week. Well, at first, they couldn’t agree where they should celebrate. He wanted to go to Chicago, she voted for Rio.”
Only the cheapest survive
On the top of Germany’s most wealthy list, I mean.
Cheapness is what Germany wants, especially these days. So that’s why the founders of the Aldi discount grocery store chain are once again on top of Manager Magazin’s annual list of the country’s most wealthy people.
The Porsche family is out, of course. They’re still not cheap enough. And this reflects a real crisis or something. The number of German individuals or families with at least one billion euros in capital fell from 122 to 99 since last year.
In the name of all things just and decent, won’t anybody out there do anything to help these poor folks out? Buy a Porsche already or something.
99 German billionaires on the wall, 99 German billionaires…
Real women wanted
Sometimes it takes a real man to make a real decision like this: Editor-in-chief Andreas Leberts has announced that starting next year, Brigitte, Germany’s most popular women’s magazine, will ban those skinny professional model types from its pages in favor of “real women”, whoever and wherever they are.
This decision is seen as an attempt to combat an unhealthy standard of unhealthy looking thin and flat I mean thin beauty and could also be seen as being the first step toward finally turning Brigitte into the men’s magazine it deserves to be.
Brigitte isst wieder.
Westerwelle will during appearances further German speak
His refusal, a British reporter in English to answer, brought Guido Westerwelle much malice in.
So will he never foreign minister be, predicted then his critics. But the FDP boss will during official functions continue German to speak and precisely this apparently Westerwelle likable makes.
I could more agree not.
“Endlich sagt es mal einer.”
They Might Be Giants
Miriam P.
Fruit sellers go home!
Bashing Berlin? That’s easy. Especially if you’re a real insider who’s on the outside now. Thilo Sarrazin (SPD), the city’s former finance minister now working for the German Central Bank in Frankfurt, has said in an interview that Berlin is 1) not productive enough 2) has too many immigrants and 3) is being held back by its leftist mentality. Well, two out of three ain’t bad (I’m on the immigrants’ side for some strange reason).
“In Berlin there is a bigger problem than elsewhere of an underclass that does not take part in the normal economic cycle. A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose numbers have grown thanks to the wrong policies, have no productive function except selling fruit and vegetables. I would strike a completely different tone. Anyone who can do something and strives for something with us is welcome. The rest should go elsewhere.”
It’s a good thing he went elsewhere before he did this interview is all I can say. And what the hell’s wrong with selling fruit, huh? I don’t see anything wrong with selling fruit. Unless your name is Klaus Wowereit or something, I mean.*
* Inappropriate/incorrect joke warning: Klaus Wowereit is Berlin’s openly gay mayor who’s about to be the next big thang in what used to be the SPD, get it?
Sarrazin hält die Berliner für eher plebejisch und kleinbürgerlich. Die Bundesbank distanzierte sich von Sarrazins Äußerungen.
Observing Hermann 