Einen Engel erkennt man immer erst, wenn er vorübergegangen ist.
Tag Archives: Christmas
Pleasant Christmas Smells Make Germans Sick
And here you always figured that your lousy Chirstmas spirit had to do with the dreaded Verwandtenbesuch (visiting relatives). Well, it does. But recent research indicates that Christmas smells in abundance (and they always are this time of year) can also make Germans irritable and depressed.
That’s right. Aromatic candles, incense, advent wreaths with cinnamon and cloves, vanilla, anise, coriander, you name it. All these wonderfully smelly yule tide substances now pose a health threat to us (I mean you) and should be enjoyed in moderation only. I mean not be enjoyed in moderation only, of course.
Bah! Humbug already!
“Zuerst empfindet man den Duft noch als angenehm, aber bald schon kippt die Stimmung, man fühlt sich unwohl, leer oder gereizt.”
What Do You Mean A Man Dressed As Santa Claus?
A man dressed as Santa Claus poses with his ‘helpers’ who are busy answering children’s letters in the Santa Claus post office in the Eastern German town of Himmelpfort (Heaven’s Gate) on November 10, 2011. Children can send their Christmas wish lists to Himmelpfort from around the world and receive a reply from Santa. In 2010, the post office here received 285.000 letters in 17 languages.
Merry Christmas and stuff like that.
Nix Flashmob Here, Buddy
As Wikipedia informs us, a flash mob (or flashmob) “is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, artistic expression.”
Well, Munich officials clearly aren’t in the mood for entertainment, satire or artistic expression these days (it is Christmas season here after all, bah, humbug) and are threatening with 1000 euro fines anyone who decides to follow a Facebook flashmob call to stand still at the city’s famous Marienplatz for five full minutes this coming Saturday.
It’s pretty clear that they don’t want the flashmob to interfere with the Christmas mob because this could lead to mob warfare and we all know who would win that one, right? Man do I ever pity the flashmobbing fool who gets in the way of those folks.
Uns geht es nicht um das Stehenbleiben, sondern um Blockaden.
All together now!
And to all a good night already. Merry Christmas!
This is a ho-ho-hold-up!
Talk about your Christmas spirit, sort of. Only this time it had more to do with the joy of taking–at gunpoint.
Is nothing sacred with this most heathen of holidays anymore? Three freakin’ Santa Clauseses robbed a supermarket in Kreuzberg yesterday and got away in their gay apparel quicker than you could say yuletide cheer.
“And don’t call da cops, lady. We know when you are sleeping. We know when you’re awake…”
Die Überfallene kam mit dem Schrecken davon.
—–
PS: And since everybody is handing out presents these days (think WikiLeaks), thanks for the link, A.K. It may be an Austrian view, but it is certainly valid here. After all, this anti-American hysteria is a global one, the one thing everybody everywhere seems to share these days:
“Da schlägt einem nämlich ein Ausmaß an Hass gegen Amerika entgegen, das jeglicher Proportionen entbehrt. Während Folter im Iran, das Umbringen von Zivilisten in Burma oder ein kleines Massaker an Christen irgendwo in der islamischen Welt diesen Postern nicht einmal einen Mausklick wert sind, wird jede nur denkbare Handlung der USA mit Tausenden von Hass-Postings quittiert, die an der psychischen Stabilität ihrer Urheber Zweifel aufkommen lassen.”
Observing Hermann 