Author Archives: Hermann Observer

Would Kilgore Trout Tell A Lie?

August 13, 2016 By in High Art, Higher Education, Humor Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

It’s special ebook offer time again already, folks. Deal with it.

Dumb Deutsch

Dumb Deutsch: Absurd German Language Errors (auch für deutsche Leser geeignet)

Also at iTunes, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, etc. For a limited time only or something.

“Very funny book, relating dumb things people say while trying out their high school German. Laughing so hard at my normally quiet workplace I had tears in my eyes, my boss walked by and asked if I was OK. Oh yeah! She has a great sense of humor with an eye toward languages. Buy this book and laugh yourself silly!”

–Kilgore Trout

German Intelligence At Its Best

August 12, 2016 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I mean like that spy kind of intelligence intelligence, you know what I mean?

Sleepeer Cell

A top official at Bavaria’s department of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has gone way out on a limb and said that ISIS sleepers “may have arrived as refugees” in Germany. “We have irrefutable evidence that there is an ISIS command structure that makes an attack in Germany highly possible.”

He also said in a later comment that “The risk is abstract, but very high that the Pope is a Catholic.”

“Das Risiko ist zwar abstrakt, aber sehr hoch. Wir müssen akzeptieren, dass wir Hit-Teams und Schläferzellen auch hier in Deutschland haben.”

“This Is Our Street”

August 11, 2016 By in Habeas Corpus, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

The times they are a changin’ in Berlin.

Berlin

“Residents on Soldiner Straße in Gesundbrunnen (Wedding) called the cops on Monday night because children were playing inside a car and had started up the motor repeatedly. A crowd of some 70 people formed around the officers and began behaving aggressively, threatening them. In the early afternoon two days later, also in Gesundbrunnen, a 23-year-old man began interfering with officers who were investigating an infringement. The conflict got physical and one officer was injured. During the arrest, some 30 people began protesting loudly against the police action.”

Nobody is allowed to mention in this article just who these people are, but I’ll give you a hint: They’re not Germans.

Are we having a no-go area yet? I think these folks need more therapy or something.

Erst vor kurzem bedrohte und bedrängte ein aufgebrachter Mob Berliner Polizisten im Wedding. Nun haben sich in demselben Problembezirk abermals Dutzende Menschen der Polizei in den Weg gestellt.

German Foreign Office Supports Trump

August 10, 2016 By in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humor Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Poor old Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He never was the sharpest knife in the, uh, cupboard. What is more, as Winston Churchill might have put it, “he is a sheep in sheep’s clothing.”

Trump

But worst of all are this guy’s instincts, or the lack of them. By coming out publicly and saying, as he just did, that the world is too complicated for characters like Trump (implying, of course, that only smart folks like Steinmeier HIMSELF are in the position to keep this complicated world of ours running so wonderfully as it is already) he assures that any American voter who hears this and is not quite sure about whether he or she wants to vote for Trump or not just got that much closer to deciding to do so.

„Die Welt ist wahnsinnig kompliziert. Sie braucht Politiker, die sich ihrer Verantwortung bewusst sind; die helfen, die Welt zu verbessern. Wir brauchen keine Anführer, die unsere Welt noch gefährlicher machen.“

German Of The Day: Butt and Fuchs

August 9, 2016 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, High Art, Higher Education, Humor Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Butt is a short form for halibut (although in this case it’s just somebody’s name). Fuchs means fox. Not like anybody cares here.

Butt

Linus Butt and Florian Fuchs were part of a German team that destroyed their Canadian opponents 6-2 in a group stage fixture on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro.

Footage shows the two men standing standing with their backs to the camera during the game with the surnames on their shirts side-by-side.

But Twitter immediately reacted with one user, Kris Kristensen, posting the image along with the caption: ‘This one’s for the 12 year old in all of us.’

Poor But Sexy, But Poor

August 8, 2016 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Those were the days. Berlin used to be just (arm aber sexy) poor but sexy.

Poor

Now Berlin is poor but sexy, but poor. At least when it comes to trying to earn a living here.

The German capital pulls down the per capita income for the entire country. According to Eurostat (the European statistics office), Germany’s gross national product (with an emphasis on gross) would climb 0.2 percent if they could just find a way to factor out losers like us here in Berlin.

Poor? Yo capital is so poor it can’t afford to pay attention.

Die Hauptstadt drückt auf das Pro-Kopf-Einkommen der gesamten Bundesrepublik: Das Bruttoinlandsprodukt je Einwohner würde um 0,2 Prozent steigen, wenn man Berlin und seine Einwohner ausklammert, wie das Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW) auf Basis von Daten des Europäischen Statistikamtes Eurostat errechnete.

Dial M For Migrant

August 7, 2016 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

To get the ISIS-ones-now-operating-in-Germany kind, I mean.

Ansbach

The two refugees who launched terror attacks in Germany last month were in contact with suspected members of the militant group Isis, including one with a Saudi phone number, according to reports in the German media on Saturday.

Records of internet communication now in the hands of German investigators show both men, the Afghan teenager Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, and Mohammed Daleel, a 27-year-old Syrian, were advised and directed by Isis, which provided tips on ensuring the maximum number of casualties.

“This area will be full of people. Kill them all.”

Attentäter sollen Anweisungen per Handy erhalten haben.

German Of The Day: Bewaffnete Bürger

August 5, 2016 By in Habeas Corpus, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

No, that doesn’t mean Waffle Burger (do you want fries with that?). It means armed citizens.

Guns

And yes, believe it or not, many Germans actually own so-called “guns.” Although a lot of them are just Schreckschusswaffen (alarm guns that fire blanks).

And word is out that the number of Germans wanting guns of any kind has increased dramatically the past year or two, for some inexplicable reason.

“As of June 2016, there were 402,301 small arms carry permits in the National Weapons Register,” the Interior Ministry said. The first half of 2015 recorded slightly less than 270,000 requests for permits – that’s an almost 50% jump in permit applications.