November 2002

Christopher is playing with his Lego trains, and he is telling me ‘Klappe!’, which means ‘Shut up!’, as in Halt die Klappe! I’m thinking, what kind of words is he learning at day care anyway? Then Mama explains he means the actual meaning of the noun, as in a flap, latch or valve. He [...]

DW World Court Passes Sentence on “Suicide-Bomber’s” Father “Berlin court gives suspended sentence to father who dressed his three children up as suicide bombers at an April demonstration.” The 33 year old Palestinian asylum seeker was charged with ‘public endorsement of a criminal act, and in addition to 5 months suspended must serve 300 [...]

After the The Ketchup Song (like the Macarena, only the lyrics are nonsense), we now have Der Steuersong “The Tax Song” by a Schröder imitator, except the lyrics are not nonsense, but bitter reality.

I’m raising all your taxes Elected is elected, you can’t fire me now That’s what’s cool* about democracy

*The German text, ‘das ist ja das [...]

Luckily I noticed at dekaf last week that the best band in the world was releasing their new album, Rock’n’Roll Realschule, an MTV Unplugged concert. And this evening I finally caught the 5th or 6th TV repeat of the concert at the Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium in Hamburg. Let’s just say that after the Pisa Study, my faith [...]

An email to Glenn Reynolds asks “I wonder if German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has placed a congratulatory call to President Bush yet?”. Actually, according to Spiegel Online, he has. Or at least he intends to. I guess the real question is, will President Bush bother to pick up the phone when he sees who is [...]