I came across this via the blog “the chutry experiment;” a bit more explanation about it all is available at the blog In Media Res.
W.W.G.W.B.D?
I liked this site a lot. Via boing-boing.
The war table
I’m sitting in a coffee shop near campus in Ann Arbor (the specific place is one that I don’t usually go to– I was seeking variety today), and the table right next to me must be the designated war discussion table. Two people were talking about it for a while about a half-hour ago, two men, one older than the other. I suspect the older one was a professor or graduate student who was a bona-fide expert on the Middle East because he sure seemed to know what he was talking about.
Those two got up and left, and now two different people are sitting at the same table talking about the same war. A couple college aged folks, a man and a woman, and the man is doing most of the talking. He does not appear to be an expert, but he’s rather earnest.
At this point, I kind of feel like I need to hang around and see if a third couple comes along and sits at that table and starts talking about Iraq.
Young’s “Let’s Impeach the President”
Annette said I should post this here (and not just on my official blog), and since I do everything my wife asks me to do, here it is:
Waterboarding Fun
You’ve heard of the whole water-boarding thing, right? What boing-boing describes as the “I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-torture” torture? Well, check out this link I found via boing-boing. Talk about public theater!
Clinton tears FOX news Chris Wallace a new one
This is pretty interesting stuff– from “Think Progress.” It’s worth clicking on the links that “fact check” Wallace after this interview. Regardless of one’s politics, you have to admit it is something to watch Clinton get red in the face mad at this guy.
Fun in Gitmo
So, what do the “illegal combatants” (being illegally held, IMO) in Guantanamo Bay do for fun? Well, according to this article Scotsman.com News article:
The Harry Potter stories are the most popular books in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre’s library, the Pentagon has revealed.
JK Rowling’s tales of the young wizard were the most requested by terror suspects held at the high-security camp from among 3,500 titles available.
The Defence Department also said detainees enjoyed watching World Cup football games and playing table tennis.
Wow, sounds like paradise, huh?
Potty-Break
Basically, a reporter from CNN forgot to turn off her mic while going to the can during a W. speech about the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Wow, I bet she had a good time at work the next day. Anyway, enjoy.
Stupid Americans/Language Skills….
I found this funny little bit of video from a Canadian TV Show— it’s on YouTube, but you can find a link to it and more examples here on boing-boing. It is one of those things that is certainly on my mind while I am here being a stupid American– or trying not to be too stupid of an American.
In Italy– specifically, the very American-heavy tourist center of Florence– just about everyone spoke English well enough to communicate and they were perfectly comfortable doing so, too. I did feel like I wish I would have known a little more Italian, that I would have actually listened to the CDs that I bought and/or taken a class or something. A little would have been better than nothing.
Now, compare that experience with Germany. Where we are at is popular with the German tourists, and some Italians too, but not so much with English speakers. But that’s okay since Annette speaks very solid Germany, her mom is actually German (though she has been in the US for so long that some of the natives here confuse her with an American who just speaks perfect German), and I have some rudimentary German skills. So here’s the thing: here in Germany, we are trying harder to speak German, and we kind of have to try harder since the locals don’t have that great of English skills.
It has been interesting. My most common German phrase is “My Deutsch ist sehr schlecht” (which means “my German is very bad”). However, I have learned that:
- They like it when you try. Often, Germans will say (back to me in German, usually) something like “oh, your German isn’t bad at all.”
- A combination of German and English pretty much will get me by.
- I feel like all those failed years of college German are coming back to me rather quickly, and I bet if I were here for another two or so weeks, I’d be in pretty good shape, Deutsch-wise.
- The Germans sometimes like practicing their English on the stupid Americans. We had a nice chat with a guy in the train station (who worked for the train station) about the automatic ticket machine. Several of the choices on this machine we used to buy train tickets to Innsbruck tomorrow were irrelevant. As I read the instructions (which were in English), I said “oh, that doesn’t matter” out loud. It took this guy a while, but he had a lightbulb moment (“ah– auf Deutsch, sag man ‘machts nichts'”). So I spread a little love, I guess.
I would upload some pictures, but I’m running out of time. I might have one more post before we come home on Monday. The short version: yesterday, we were in Munich, which was okay– too many tourists (again), and just a lot of walking, though we did see some cool churches and a fun market area. Today, back in Mittenwald. Will went hiking with the grandparents while Annette and I shopped a little. I bought a very cool Mittenwald Brauerei hat, and a snowglobe (of course). I suspect there will be some more gifty shopping for friends and family on Saturday, in part because we didn’t get much of a chance to do that in Florence and in part because stuff is dramatically cheaper here. Tomorrow we’re going to Innsbruck; Sunday back to Munich to get ready to get on the plane on Monday.
What should you do when you see a Hummer?
Why, hump it, of course.