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That map might just quash your travel plans – so focus on fun instead
Germans are usually so logical, it’s hard to believe how that can make such planning errors when they visit the U.S. Kind of gratifying, though.
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Think your vacation was spectacular? Don’t make me yawn
Germans take vacations every year without fail. If you need to know something about your own country, just ask a German.
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Canada, oh Canada, what have you done?
Canada and New Zealand have been bastions of rationality until the trucker protests broke out. Should we turn to bonobo monkeys for better behavior advice?
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How to beat the virus in 2022
There are more virus variants down the road in 2022. So let’s do what Sleeping Beauty did and just sleep through it
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I tried to escape the Oktoberfest. I failed.
15 October 2021 For the second time, the Oktoberfest has been canceled due to corona. But Munich refuses to skip the occasion and is celebrating in restaurants anyway. And Berlin, which knows no greater joy than poking fun at Bavaria, is nevertheless full of Lederhosen and Dirndl-sporting Oktoberfest fans. Any self-respecting Dirndl, the corset-style traditional […]
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The library, the monk and the sandals
14 September 2021 “Take their books! They’re useless propaganda. Get rid of them!” This actually happened. “Duh,” you’re thinking, “everybody knows how the Third Reich banned books.” Not so fast. This did take place in Germany, but I’m not talking about the book burning of the Nazis. They didn’t invent openly regressive politics. This event […]
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The 400-year-old Marketing Flop You’ve Never Heard Of
26 August 2021 They told me in college that marketing was invented in the U.S. The industrial revolution had produced a surplus of goods. Suddenly, stuff needed to be made more attractive to find buyers. Marketed. The whole idea of marketing is associated with modern times. Medieval shoemakers weren’t worried about customers, nor were blacksmiths […]
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Get those escargots out of my lawnmower
French culture impacted many countries’ languages and cuisine – and even the front yard.
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Vaccination Fascination
25 July 2021 A strange thing has set upon us. Suddenly, we’re all doctors. Better yet, we’re virologists. At least you’d think so listening to the conversations around you. Small talk used to revolve around topics such as “How are the kids?” or “How’s work?” Ha! Those were the days. Little did we know how […]
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The Prussian Rock Star in my Wardrobe
18 July 2021 Many people have been using their downtime from the pandemic to tackle long-delayed projects like sort through closets. After years of accumulating, the clothes have become packed to the point of being barely extractable. You have to fight to pull out that blouse and when you do manage to free it from […]
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Stand down, parler, this word is too good to debauch
Language is constantly in flux. Words come, words go, and sometimes their meaning changes altogether. Long gone are the days when I associated the word “gay“ with being happy, dancing around the room and singing one of my favorite songs from the musical Camelot. When you leave your home country as I did, you must […]
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The Race for Space is Over (but not the way you think)
Shopping pre-corona in Germany used to be a contact sport – that changed overnight