Out of gas

I was listening to NPR the other day as usual the topic was the struggle for economic recovery and in particular Obama's recent budget proposal. In this segment they were focusing on criticisms of the proposal and I figured I might learn something about the complicated economic forces at play. But one after another all we got from the Republican skeptics were empty metaphors and (literally) shit jokes. I could only remember a couple:

Senator Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire) provided this technical breakdown of the Obama budget proposal on a morning news show:

It is as if you were flying an airplane and the gas light came on and it said 'you have 15 minutes of gas left' and the pilot said 'we're not going to worry about that, we're going to fly for another two hours.' Well, the plane crashes and our country will crash and we'll pass on to our kids a country that's not affordable,"

Meanwhile Governor Haley Barbour (R-Mississippi) delivered the weekly Republican address last Saturday and had this to say:

While families are cutting back, President Obama has proposed a massive government spending spree. It reminds me of how one of our old senators used to joke about the federal budget. He said it was like a newborn baby: insatiable appetite at one end and total irresponsibility at the other.

Ok I do think that last one is pretty catchy, but do either of these comments really qualify as economic analysis? It's also fun to think about variations on the themes, e.g. what if you were driving a car and the light says you have 15 minutes of gas but you still drive on? You run out of gas and have to walk to the nearest garage and then all the way back with a gallon of gas - still pretty annoying!

Still here

Hello readers,
It's been a while but now I'm back! I could sense the frustration out there among all of you with your Google Readers set to notify you of my next posting.

A lot has happened in the >6 months since I last wrote anything on this. I guess the biggest deal in terms of global paradigm shifts is that the USA finally did something right. It was a good time to be in Berlin during those days following the election, they really love Obama here and I could feel like I was a part of all that (I voted absentee).


I also got some new glasses.

I went back home for the holidays, stopped off on the east coast for a few days and then LA for a couple weeks. While back in the states I experienced some of the expected (reverse) culture shock. I couldn't find an address in New York since I forgot about that even and odd on the opposite sides of the road thing. When I overheard English being spoken on public transportation (they have that in NY) my first instinct was always that these were some American tourists and I wonder what they're doing here?

I took a bus down from NYC to DC and on the way down overheard a conversation that particularly brought me home though. I'm not saying that Americans are necessarily any less educated than the Europeans but they do say some funny things. Sitting next to me was a couple (A and B) and they were talking about the weather, since it was kind of cold:

A: So how do they measure the wind chill factor anyway?
(this is a good question actually, I also wanted to know)
B: Yeah good question. But I mean, how do they even measure *temperature*?
(um, I think I know this one)
A: I don't know. Well, I know how they measure *Fahrenheit* temperature, but not sure how they measure Celsius.
(eh?)
B: Whatever, no one uses Celsius. It's only for dorky scientists like you.

Ich habe keinen Bock

Last night Germany played Turkey in the semifinal game for the Euro 2008 football/soccer tournament (think World Cup but just for Europe). This game was important for Berlin because lots of Turkish people live here, especially in our part of town and neighboring districts. All week people have been waving flags out their windows, balconies, cars, storefronts, etc. The respective displays of patriotism have been pretty well represented on both sides, and I even saw a flag that was Germany on one side and Turkey on the other - very multikulti but confusing when the sun is shining from behind.





Of course I don't really care who wins the Euro 2008 European Cup (the US once again did not make it in) but it's fun to pretend to watch, and at least drink a beer in the warm evenings with everyone else. We watched this game at a very crowded beer-garden style bar in Kreuzberg by the Spree. The crowd turned out to be mostly pro-Germany and I guess I was kind of hoping for a Turkey upset.

Turkey scored first in something like the 20th minute and Germany soon evened things at 1-1 with a goal from the dyed-blonde Schweinsteiger (which I'm pretty sure means 'pig rider' although it doesn't seem to phase anyone here). Then in the second half each team scored another goal on what seemed to be mistakes by the goalkeepers. It looked like the game was heading to overtime (I went to buy another drink) but in the last minute of regular time the guy from the advertisements in the U-bahn scored a goal and won the game. It was all very exciting.



Actually one of the best parts of the game for me was when the TV signal cut out and sent the whole crowd into an uproar. I guess the folks in Austria (where the game was being played) lost power and blamed it on the weather. It was hard to get too excited when the goals were scored but it was easy to see why that was amusing.

Another good thing about watching German soccer is that the coach is kind of a hipster.

So anyway, Germany is in the finals and they place Russia/Spain (decided in a couple hours) on Sunday in the EURO 2008 championship match. I can't wait!

Re the title of this entry: I'm told it's funny if you speak German and Turkish.

words of wisdom

I just got back to Berlin after a couple weeks in Paris and then Stockholm. It was mostly work-related conference travel, but I did get to explore the cities a bit. I'll try to write something interesting and maybe put up some pictures at some point (at least from Paris, the camera broke before I got to Stockholm), but for now I will just say that I heard this song in a Stockholm bar/club.



I've been humming it to myself ever since.

bad news, Heidi

There's a McDonald's at Hermannplatz, a couple blocks from where we live (I've only been there once, and just for the fries). This morning I noticed that the windows are all taped up and seems like it's being closed down - is that possible?

catchy spam

Today I checked my old email account from the UW math department (seems to still be active). Everything gets forwarded to my gmail but occasionally I need to log in and delete all the old messages to free up some space. It's also fun to see the emails that slip through those sophisticated spam filters that the department has set up. Here are some of my favorite subject lines from surviving messages:

linguistic deficit
most difficult toothache
strawberry blonde grain of sand
overpriced submarine
sprightly bartender
so-called food stamp
self-actualized scooby snack
greasy football team
placid pine cone
cosmopolitan customer
like others, allows
we need one idea
he studies history.
kids win money
russian sex roulette
self-loathing blithe spirit
Barack Obama is saying about his transsexual affairs videofile!!!

rockin'

There's an article about our part of town in this week's zitty. It's in German but you can get the gist from the cover page (see below). And no, I've never seen her around the neighborhood.