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Der Spiegel interviews, debates Iran’s president
A fascinating interview utterly unlike anything that would happen with a major U.S. publication. Der Spiegel talks at length to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (link is to English translation) about the Holocaust, Palestine, German responsibility to Jews, and about the current nuclear debates. Ahmadinejad accuses the interviewers of “fanatically” taking the side of European politicians, and…
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All Bud at the World Cup? No wonder people hate Americans
The World Cup. Big sports event. In Germany. Where they drink, and make, a lot of beer. But Anheuser-Busch spent northwards of $40 million to sponsor the World Cup, and so at all stadiums, all games, Budweiser will be nearly the only beer availible. *Nearly* the only beer because of trademark issues, thankfully. First, they…
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Nass, which doesn’t mean nice, for Sleater-Kinney
It’s wet outside. Nass, a word which I have just learned. It’s also wet inside, on me and through me. My fingers are too cold to type really efficiently; but just wait, I tell myself, they have real winters here, its no use complaining about the spring. We’ve just ridden back across town from the…
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Hammer from the sky. It’s Thor! Or the construction guys.
Every morning, at eight o’clock (weather permitting), the people turning our attic into a luxury penthouse begin hammering. There are no power tools in this job, except for the hoist they’re using to bring sheetrock and glass up the six stories. So we hear the bang through the walls. Bang. Bang. Bang. It’s better than…
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Apfeltaschen, blue sky and Boredoms
For the last week, the same weather pattern: Stunning blue mornings, and then low white clouds drift over, almost apologetically at first, as though one or two had lost their way and might ask directions before strolling off to their real destination; but then they thicken, and the wind begins to bend the trees and…
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Fart jokes of the ancients
Every kid should read Aristophanes in junior high. When I’m dictator of the world, this will be done. It will re-open generations of young minds to the possibilities of literature. What? they’ll say. South Park isn’t original? You mean they were doing this stuff 2500 years ago? I picked up a few of Aristophanes’ plays…
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Eurovision stunned as Arockolypse… well, rocks. Duh!
A quick word of explanation. We watch the entire Eurovision finals, which is kind of a hybrid of American Idol and the Olympics for Europe, but older than both. No, not older than the Olympics. But it is in Greece this year. The point being, rock. Something like 24 countries enter a national champion, and…
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Tra-la-la isn’t a weapon, it just looks that way
Last night Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band at Maria am Ufer, a little club tucked on the bank of the Spree, in I think what would used to have been the dead zone between Wall and West. They start by saying, “This is our third time in Berlin. The other times,…
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Pink carpets and happy gourds
A small spring storm last night, with heavy rains and blustery skies. Today most of the chestnut and cherry blossoms are swirling and eddying on the sidewalks, blown into thick pink carpets against the curb. On another note, I’ve found a local establishment that sells my Cruz de Malta yerba mate, for 4 euros a…
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One month. So far, no international incidents.
We arrived in Berlin exactly a month ago. Our landlord’s agent, the “punk with a pillow,” was gracious enough to pick us up at the airport, and drive us to our temporary studio on Maybachufer, along the Landewehrkanal. The next morning we met Paul at the Brandenburg gate, and spent the next few days in…
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Red wine fights deafness? Wie bitte?
Next in the list of red wine’s superpowers: it may help fight deafness. Free radicals are in part responsible for degeneration of the tiny hairs of the inner ear that are responsible for hearing. Wine’s antioxidants may help slow that process, some scientists think. And because it’s the magic powers of antioxidants we’re talking about…
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Tranny magic at the Osteria
It’s 4 am and the sky is lightening, a little too soon for my tastes. We’ve just come home from an evening with Kenji and Till in their Kreuzberg neighborhood. Wine at their apartment and then dinner at an Italian cafe, where near midnight a tranny magician wandered in, and spotting us alone in a…
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Fertility symbols for breakfast
I’ve been up for an hour or so, reading the news and fiddling with bits of PHP when Aimee comes into the living room. “I’m going to make a French breakfast,” she says. “How does little omlettes with leeks sound? And asparagus with speck?” This is obviously a trick question. Only someone with massive and…
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I blame the computers. Not the Republicans.
Y’see, It’s not spying if we just happen to keep track of every number which everybody in the United States calls. Because, see, we don’t know who’s at that number. Well, we do, because we can look that up. But we don’t know what you’re saying. Well, we do, because we recorded that. But we’re…
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Victory! The new, virtual, land is is ours.
We are at last online. The DSL and Wifi are humming away, and I can finally sit at my little egg-shaped table overlooking the trees three floors down (and the really noisy trucks) and surf the Net. Or, as Brad noted, ignore completely the fact that I’m in Germany. But it’s not true, there’s really…