9.72 Usain Bolt May 31, 2008
9.69 Usain Bolt Aug 16, 2008
9.58 Usain Bolt Aug 16, 2009
It must be the Berliner Luft or something.
“Astounding, seemingly impossible, unreal.”
Yeah, but where’s the Currywurst?
To eat, I mean. What is this, people? Berlin opens up the world’s first (and last) Currywurst Museum and the Betreiber (operator) folks don’t even have the decency to offer their guests one (or two) to eat.
They won’t be opening the eating lounge part for another few weeks, you see. But at least for that you can sit on the sausage sofa right now.
“Das ist wieder typisch Berlin!”
Nina S.
It’s all in how you say it
And only if you say it in English, of course. A German court has ruled that bad Nazi words, although still bad, are not nearly as bad if they are translated to English first and then said “there”, so-to-speak, making them legal, sort of, but just barely. There is a certain logic here, of course. Please tell me once you find it.
Meanwhile… Elsewhere in the English-speaking world… A signed copy of Mein Kampf (signed by you-know-who) was sold in England for a record $35000.
The guy who bought it was a Russian, however, which makes this okay, I think. If a Russian who can’t read German buys a bad German book signed by you-know-who in England then you could take the whole thing to court (here in Germany) and nobody would really much care, I think.
“In memory of our time together in prison in Landsberg.”
War is over, if you want it
I mean the recession is, in Germany.
So like, who won? Certainly the experts didn’t. But, then again, they never do.
“And while exports rose 7% in June, the fastest pace in nearly three years, few analysts had expected a return to overall economic growth so quickly.”
The Berlin Wall of Wilshire Boulevard
Hey, somebody’s got to do it, I guess. And imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I’ve been told.
“In what government and arts officials are calling the most ambitious commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany, a symbolic re-creation of the wall that once separated East and West Berlin will be erected across Wilshire Boulevard in November.
The Wall Project, painted by professional and amateur artists, will close Sunday afternoon traffic on one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares for three hours on Nov. 8 beginning at 3 p.m… It will be made up of two parts: The “Wall Across Wilshire” will have as its adjunct the “Wall Along Wilshire — Eastside Gallery West,” which will have a somewhat longer life in front of the 5900 Wilshire Blvd. building, remaining in place from Oct. 17 to Nov. 14.”
The location is “highly symbolic,” said Justinian Jampol, president and founder of the Wende Museum. “It connects downtown to the ocean, those two cultural anchors to the city.
And speak no evil
Do you believe there could be an election campaign held in your country in which the word Afghanistan is not even mentioned (much less the word war), although four thousand of your troops are stationed there (four thousand is considered to be a lot over here)? The Germans can pull that one off in their sleep.
After all, there are more pressing issues (see below).
Being big fans of semantic exercises, especially when it comes confronting evidence that upsets their sometimes rather dreamlike view of the world (in this case the evidence being that building schools won’t stop the Taliban, bullets will), German politicians on both sides of the grand coalition line are dutifully hiding their heads in the sand when it comes to this non-subject, at least until the coming general election is over, at which point the winners will continue to hide their heads in the sand some more.
“Germans have this pacifist world view whereby most problems can be solved through dialogue, aid, compromise and not by force.”
You never know, you know?
Elections can be tricky things. Especially when it comes to fairness and straight-up-ness and all that, I mean. And we all know Germans can be pretty tricky too, of course. Or at least I know it, I mean. So after Germany’s parliamentary election committee refused to let a few itsy bitsy and thoroughly harmless parties take part in next month’s election due to what was termed “application irregularities”, I, or somebody like me, got right on the phone to the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and reported it. These irregularities about the irregularities, I mean.
So now the OSCE will be sending election observers to Germany to monitor the country’s general election on September 27. You know, like folks do whenever there’s an election held in some despotic Third World country? Hey, what goes around comes around, I always say.
This will be the organization’s first ever election-monitoring mission to Germany, by the way. And I wholeheartedly welcome it because I, for one, think it’s high time that the rest of the world finally sit up and take notice of the appalling conditions here. During election time, I mean. The rest of the world could finally sit up and take notice of the appalling conditions here during the rest of the time here too, of course, but that might be just a bit too much taking notice to ask.
“Because the non-admission of several parties has now become an issue, our election observers will take a close look.”
Steinmeier falls off the wagen
Off the election bandwagon, that is.
Polls indicate that practically nobody believes much of anything he or the SPD are promising them anymore (the elections are now just seven weeks away). Of course they don’t believe anything the other parties have to say either, but still.
„Ich hätte nichts dagegen, wenn wir dieselbe Feier am 27. September wiederholen.“
