The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 29, 2012, 5:39 pm
  This billboard, with its tantalising wisp of chest hair on a svelte torso, didn't raise too many issues of language.  At least not at first. It's an ad for World Compact, a tabloid version of the prestigous German national daily The World.  Few know this, but the paper was founded in ...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 16, 2012, 2:52 am
Tuna How about that new Twitter interface!  When composing a post, it didn't allow me to place the cursor at a point of my own choosing through the use of a mouse, but hey, let's not quibble.  It performed well enough to deliver a private Tweet from a certain @wowiezowietuna. I'm not sur...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 13, 2012, 5:15 am
    Today's the day.  Tell the busybodies and fusspots that they can bite you, as those witty young people say nowadays.  Then tell us about it on the IDTBM home page. Or the IDTBM facebook event page.   Tweet about it with the tag #bitemeday.  Or just leave a comment her...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 12, 2012, 3:04 am
A messy desk acts as a lightning rod for scorn from some.   Far be it from me to judge those who would spend time clearing up papers, rather than thinking of ideas to write on them.  No scratch that.  I judge, and judge hard.  Those people can bite me.  But something happened on Thur...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 10, 2012, 4:02 am
Happy holiday, everyone. Yesterday was the second Monday in January, or National Clean Off Your Desk Day.  You may recall that on just such a wintery day in 2009, a certain blogger failed to clean off his desk.  Instead, he wrote a blistering blogpost, and washed down his bile with a beer.  ...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 8, 2012, 5:25 pm
It is not a part of German culture to withold one's disapproval.  Many foreigners who live here can recount tales of being told off for anything, anything at all, which a passer-by deems improper. Haughty matrons tell off the Heidelbergerin for not packing her groceries fast enough at the Aldi...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 3, 2012, 7:33 am
Hä Jungs, pull up your Kurzstrumpfen.  What a pathetic effort!  You know what I'm talking about.  It's your 2011 Jugendwort, or German Youth Word of the Year.  Every year, Munich firm Langenscheidt gathers a jury of linguists and youths to select the most important words from the Jugendsla...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Dec 22, 2011, 11:58 am
Y'know, these newfangled social media ain't so different from good-old-fashioned social life. Especially at this time of year. Some parties, you have to attend, out of obligation.  Some parties, you really want to attend.  The people are  genuine, warm and mean it when they wish you happines...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Dec 20, 2011, 4:24 am
Snot The hashtag #dailydeutsch is a great source for learners of German who sport an English mother tongue.  It sometimes veers into philosophical issues, like whether there is an Englsih word for Schadenfreude—the conclusion was yes, and it's schadenfreude. Thanks to Gilly in Berlin, y...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Dec 16, 2011, 2:28 am
Outdoor Smoking Area, Shimbashi, Tokyo, 2006
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Dec 7, 2011, 1:12 am
We left Germany last month, to go to the supermarket. It was a public holiday, you see; the twenty-first Tag der Deutschen Einheit, or Unification Day.  Stores closed in Bavaria, but across the border in Austria, businesses opened as usual.  We share most holidays with our Austrian cousins—...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Oct 13, 2011, 2:48 am
Sitting at Starbucks in the Odeonsplatz.  The music is entirely sourced from my parent's record collection, it seems.  Including, to my surprise, this.    It is not, to put it mildly, easy listening.   But I smiled. Fuck.  I'm becoming my parents.
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Oct 11, 2011, 8:20 am
Where is he gay today? The Forecourt of the Kremlin. Working the pavement outside the Kremlin in June 2003, this young lady charged tourists several Roubles to take a photo with her reptiles.  Capitalism has triumphed!  
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Sep 30, 2011, 9:30 am
Where is he gay today? Rila Mountains, Bulgaria It reads: I'm a Virgin, But This is an Old Fresco. A belated Happy Blasphemy Day, everyone.  Hope you all managed to score a zinger on September 30th.   Alas, you couldn't have burned me at the stake this year.  No chance to flip the bir...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Sep 28, 2011, 2:14 am
It sounds preposterous.  But some actual Germans read Deutschland über Elvis.  I know this, because the fewer readers a blogger has, the more obsessively he checks his readership stats.  If one clicks through to the entry pages from Germany, one can see that many Deutsche let Google Transla...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Sep 20, 2011, 12:03 pm
The Wies'n under construction, August 2011 This is our fifth Oktoberfest in Munich.  It's a light one.  Only two lots of visitors from abroad.  In the past, our poor spare room scarcely had time to draw breath before getting stuffed to its rafters with the next mob of thirsty Ausländer.  M...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Sep 19, 2011, 12:44 am
Beaune, Burgundy, July 2011 Annecy, Haute Savoi, July 2011
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Sep 9, 2011, 11:23 pm
Woolloomooloo, Sydney, June 2002
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Sep 5, 2011, 12:00 am
Can you remember the last time you touched the earth?  I can't.  Maybe it was tending plants in a window box.  Maybe it was picking up a dropped fork at a backyard barbeque.  Maybe it was lying on the grass in the English Garden.  We live only a block from this urban miracle, yet the last ...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Sep 4, 2011, 7:39 am
Designers try to make cars look sexy.  And the sexiest car looks even sexier if you can show it in a tryst.  Though not as famous as the gull-wing SL of the fifties, the original Mercedes-Benz SLR (Sport Leicht Rennwagen, or Sport Light Racing Car) was devoted to victory on the track.  It he...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Aug 20, 2011, 2:22 pm
Morton Gould was a soul in anguish.  He couldn't work out if he wanted to be Charles Ives or Nelson Riddle.  Like most American composers of his day, Gould paid the bills through  pop music—he was the first musical director for Radio City Music Hall—but  also conducted every major Ame...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Aug 19, 2011, 1:26 am
  Schwabing, July 2009
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Aug 14, 2011, 3:31 am
A gold-plated camera, in an antique shop in the Ginza, 2001
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Aug 13, 2011, 12:50 pm
Cole Porter and Sergei Rachmaninov, showing a resemblance. "What's this doing here?" asked Master Right, with mild surprise. I could see nothing doing anything anywhere in our immediate surroundings.  Except for the gentle whizz of the CD player.  For the last several mintues, we'd...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jul 22, 2011, 2:30 am
Jodhpur, November 2003
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jul 15, 2011, 8:03 am
A take-away food store in Munich station
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jun 29, 2011, 8:16 am
  Kid: "In America our fridges are way bigger. Our steaks too. And you can buy potato salad ready-made". American Dad: "WOW.  We can't buy anything so delicious!"  German hostess: "Not here, either. It's home made."  American Dad: "I like home-hade!"  Announcer: "Season it with a little Wh...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jun 27, 2011, 5:42 pm
Where is he gay today?  National Car Parks Brewer Street Garage, WC1 Master Right and I did a stupid thing.  We actually drove into the center of London, which, for verisimillitude, we shall refer to as the centre of London.  Stupid for many reasons, but mostly because you need to park ...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jun 27, 2011, 5:23 am
Knollbrook's Sympathetic Beer.  That's what all beer is for, isn't it?
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jun 27, 2011, 2:20 am
On Sundays, the park near our place is Hound Central.   Everyone walks his dog.  You can spot the regulars, and I think they've even worked out the whole Alpha-Dog pack hierarchy issue. Our favourite dog doesn't play that game.  Rita introduced herself one day, when we were sitting on a par...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jun 26, 2011, 7:47 am
Matchbox cars were my drug of choice.  I would beg my mother to abandon her ironing board—an easy sell— so I could turn it into a miniature autopia.  The board's cloth surface maintained just the right amount of friction; a car could glide smoothly, but stay put when parked.  A hard sur...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jun 22, 2011, 5:39 am
Only cross with the green light.  Set an example to the children. We allow careful self-service ATTENTION: Only PARK within the dotted lines. Report to the office. Please pay the parking fee directly before your exit!  You are granted 15 minutes abstention after the payment sequence...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - May 8, 2011, 2:08 am
  By Fascinating Aida. A hat tip to Gulliver.
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - May 7, 2011, 12:05 pm
Many commenters on my previous post about the trappings of Easter were surprised at how a visit to a Catholic place of worship in Europe can unsettle you.  Nothing shows this so much as the display of relics.  A relic, in the technical sense, is some physical souvenir of the life of a saint.Â...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Apr 30, 2011, 1:15 am
Salzburg, September 2010
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Apr 26, 2011, 10:52 am
Though Master Right is a one-time trainee in the Shinto novitiate and I am an avowed atheist, we spend an awful lot of time in Christian churches.  That's where the music is.  German churches support a great deal of serious music, and provide a venue for many concerts and recitals. While list...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Apr 15, 2011, 4:59 am
New York Athletic Club, July 2002
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Apr 5, 2011, 12:39 am
We were at our favourite Greek resturant in Munich, speaking English with our Greek waiter. "There you are!" he said, as he presented my meal. "Thank you," I replied. He smiled.  "It's so nice to hear someone who can pronounce theta. Nobody in Germany can do it." Of course, he d...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Apr 4, 2011, 1:30 am
Part of the Aviation display at the Deutsches Museum, Munich December 2010 Languagesde>en YahooCE Blueskystudio2
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Mar 27, 2011, 5:05 am
Many have asked if our friends and loved ones are safe.  The answer, for the moment, is yes. Master Right's family live in western Japan, and our friends in Tokyo are shaken, but OK. We held fears for the family of a dear friend from Fukushima. Luckily her folk live in the inland hills, and so...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Mar 10, 2011, 2:15 am
Fossils! As you might expect, I attend dinner parties where both Europeans and Americans gather.  Guests often remark on the manner in which the natives of both continents use cutlery.  Here's the drill.  A European stabs his meat with a fork in the left hand, slices off a piece with a ...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Mar 8, 2011, 4:06 pm
Lots of people shitcan the Germans for having no sense of humour.  Bollocks, I say.  Germans have an exquisite sense of humour.  They invoke sarcasm.  They savour irony.   They ridicule any target worthy of it, and make sure no worthy target escapes. The official humour season in Ger...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Mar 4, 2011, 2:14 am
An unusually active Isar River, Munich, June 2010
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 24, 2011, 5:36 am
I'm a little late for last week's PhotoFriday, but it was an intriguing challenge.  Our New Year visit to the Salzburg Marionette Museum, and the fortress that contains it, showed quite a few different takes on the human form.
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 7, 2011, 5:16 am
About thirty miles from St. Moritz, in the Swiss Alps, we stumbled on a quiet village.  It had everything; a picturesque town square, great restaurants, a beautiful church, plenty of  ski lifts, and ice-skating on a frozen lake.  But even at the height of the ski season, we saw few crowds.  Mast...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Jan 4, 2011, 5:59 am
Look at the photo above.  What do you see?  Here's what I see.  A clean desk.  And absolutely no work being done! It astonishes me when self-righteous neat-freaks suggest that a desk with no sign of work upon it shows more evidence of industry than a desk which looks like it's actually...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Dec 15, 2010, 6:20 am
My personal feelings toward Christmas can be summed up in two words: bah and humbug.  But sometimes, even the biggest pshaw has to catch the spirit.  Blogging pal Neil Kramer is hosting his annual multi-belief holiday concert at Citizen of the Month.  He asks readers to record a short video in wh...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Dec 13, 2010, 6:01 pm
I have a crush on the lexicographers at Langenscheidt.  They make my favourite German-English dictionary—yes, I actually own one, you scoffing Deutschsprecher.  From their HQ here in Munich, they put some much needed excitement into the dull business of wordcraft.   The firm wittily trans...
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The Honourable Husband posted an article on Deutschland über Elvis - Dec 13, 2010, 9:25 am
This just reminds you why the ever-expanding Google should go back to school and take a subject called reading comprehension.  Note this excellent article as it appears in Google Reader below, and notice the ad which Google's algorithm chose to insert next to it. On the other hand, I await j...
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