A group of common waterfowl, some of the coolest animals on the planet, explore the Lietzensee in Charlottenburg.
There's always a lot to write about here at luxurious Villa Charlottenburg, so I will use one of the most popular journalistic styles, the "roundup" (which I suppose suggests cattle, not duck imagery), in order to provide you with as much up to the minute reading material as I can.
Bathroom update. The vast majority of the comments I've gotten regarding my "blog" have been regarding the functionality -- or rather the dysfunctionality -- of our bathroom here in Seelingstr. 41. Thank you all very much for your deep concern. Fortunately, the shower's temperature fluctuation problem, which stemmed from our pre-unification era water-heater, is no more. Unfortunately, it has been replaced by yet another problem, in that said water-heater no longer produces hot water at all. Now, as regular readers of this blog know, I am not one to complain. No, no, I love life and all of its goofy little quirks, even the ones that make me boil my own hot water on the stove before going to shave or clean myself. (Today, for instance, I took a two kettle bath, using about a gallon of water.) But really, this is not all that bad -- compared to the hundreds of millions of people on our planet that don't have regular access to clean water of any temperature, I have nothing to complain about. Plus, it gives me a good idea of how much water I actually use when practicing my daily person hygiene, and furthermore, if there's any unused water left over, I can make tea. I am under the impression that the issue should be resolved in the coming days -- at which point I will probably revert to the hedonistic habits I practiced before the most recent crisis. So please discontinue sending me additional bottles of cologne or parcels of deodorant.
Issue 2: Terrorism Scare in Boston. You may or may not be familiar with the American cable television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a low-budget and somewhat flippant cartoon centering around the exploits of a bag of fries (Frylock), a milk shake (Master Shake), and a meatball (Meatwad). It is fairly distant from main-stream entertainment, but nonetheless clever and occasionally hilarious. Apparently, promoters for this show devised a set of advertisements using flashing signs powered by four Size-D batteries, intending them to resemble one of the show's characters with one of its fingers extended. I'm not sure how or why, but these advertisements were interpreted by some of the good -- but perhaps not so hip -- people in Massachusetts as a terrorism threat, temporarily shutting down Boston's commercial port and provoking statements from the state's governor and the city's mayor, who reminds me of Carl, the disgusting and consistently grumpy neighbor on ATHF, who is the butt of a good number of the jokes. This has to be one of the most ridiculous knee-jerk reactions since this whole terrorism paranoia started. If we really think the terrorists are going to conquer the free world by cobbling together a few light-bulbs with some extra batteries, I have to wonder why we're not investing more money in determining what's a legitimate threat and what isn't. At the very least, it's a brilliant bit of publicity for ATHF; I think I might go to amazon when I'm done writing this and order the latest season's box set.
Upcoming world explorations. As if the world weren't big enough already, it was recently brought to my attention that there are other countries aside from the United States and Germany. Correspondingly, about a month ago I decided to plan a visit to one of them, called Denmark, which lies some distance to the north of here, past Tegel, Neustrelitz and even Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Past Rostock there is a large body of water called the Baltic Sea, and beyond that there are some islands. Several of these islands make up the nation of Denmark, as well as a thumb-shaped peninsula north of Kiel that apparently the Prussians decided was not all that enticing. Astonishingly, these people that dwell in Denmark -- I am told they are called Danes -- prefer to speak a language called Danish, which I only know as a tasty breakfast item. (Perhaps I am confusing this with bagels.) Fortunately, I am told that these so-called Danes also speak English -- probably better than I do -- and also possibly German, although they will probably not admit that to me publicly. (But of course I probably will not admit that I speak German to them either.) At anyrate, my exploration of this never-before-seen land will take place from Monday to Friday next week. So, for your edification as much as mine, may I suggest you visit my other "blog" during that time period -- although I may find the time to brag about myself again here before I leave.
Approximately a week later my wife and I will take a weekend trip to Rome, where I expect either to meet Russell Crowe or to participate in a chariot race, or perhaps both.
1 comment:
Nate, your blog cracks me up. If I didn't have some apathetic children to teach, I would happily steal away in your bag on your trip to the land of tasty breakfast items... always wanted to go! And maybe they also have waterfowl and hot water up there, too, in which case you'd better send for your things from Berlin.
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