Archiv der Kategorie: oddly enough

oddly enough, photoblogging

Land Of Confusion.

thai-massage-pussy-magazine

Around the corner from a friend’s place is a new thai-massage parlor – quite a luxurious one, judging from looking through their shopwindow at night time. And also one where actual thai massages take place. So, in order to clearly position themselves on the employment market for certified thai masseuses, the job-ad hanging in their window clearly states “no sex”. Unfortunately, I’m sure the magazine lying on the waiting room table next to the window with the ad might confuse at least a few potential applicants…

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oddly enough

Poped out.

German takes over a Pole's job.Today, a fellow afoe blogger stated in an email that he was a little “poped out” – somehow I get the feeling most people are. So I will end the introductory pontifical coverage with a photo I saw on flickr, one apparently depicing a paragraph published in the German satire magazine “Titanic”.

For those among you who don’t read German, here’s the translation: “Hartz IV (the German labour market reforms) show first results: German takes over a Pole’s job.” Actually, “Polenjob” is a little derogatory, so it’s a little funnier in German than in English…

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Germany, oddly enough, traveling

The Need For Speed.

speed.gifThe German Embassy to the United States publishes a newsletter called TWIG (as in “This Week in Germany”), mainly aimed at the American public, that more often than not features little known gems, news that’s news only in the eyes of true connaisseurs – like you my gentle reades.

Last Friday, TWIG published a story about Germany becoming an important destination for nascent Chinese mass tourism – as Germany is the first Chinese-government-tourism-approved European country. A fact in itself somewhat contradicting the Financial Times’ Berlin correspondent who, according to another government sponsored article, can see Germany becoming

“‘the new France,’ a country where joie de vivre has not yet been unraveled by atrocious prices and the danger of airline strikes.

Claims like this always make me cite Elle Woods, the only person who can counter such statements on the appropriate level – “Whoever said that Orange is the new Pink was seriously disturbed”.

Now, Chinese masses tucking into Sauerkraut may not in itself be a sufficiently interesting subject for a mainly American audience. So no wonder, the article’s hook is something as famous in the US as it apparently is in China: the Geman Autobahn. I once had a vivid discussion with an American friend about the mythology of German motorways, while driving on an American one that is just as famous over here: Highway 66.

In the end, I wasn’t able to convince my friend that German highways are – for the most part – speed regulated. That most German cars aren’t Porsches, and that, while Michael Schuhmacher may be distorting the average, most Germans haven’t driven a car at 200+ km/h.

But then again, so much has been demystified about Germany that it might not be a bad thing to keep some legends alive… (whole story in the extended section).
Weiterlesen →

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Iraq, oddly enough, US Politics

Irony…

ironyLast Wednesday, at the anti-Bush demonstration during the President’s visit to Mainz, Germany: This demonstrator’s “subtle” statement about murderous, and militaristic foreign policy allegedly exhibited by a well known remaining superpower that “everyone, except ‘us'” (whoever us may be) allegedly participated in, is, ironically, just as subtly contradicted by a portrait of a certain Mr. Kruger printed on his jacket…

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almost a diary, oddly enough

Dis-Gus-Ting

Well, tomorrow I’m going to attend a little talk and discussion about the hijab with Germany’s most prominent feminista, Alica Schwarzer. So I’ve been reading up a little on the web about her and the history of feminism, and feminist positions on a variety of things… so – click, click, click – I find myself on the English wikipedia page on prostitution where I was stunned to read the following about certain oral under-the-table services apparently included with the price of a drink (sic!) in certain Thai clubs –

“To not make a mess, it is common that the bars require the women to swallow the sperm. It is also not uncommon for the women not to eat before coming to work on an expected busy night and expecting to be full by the end of that night on sperm alone.”

Quite frankly, there are a lot of disgusting things that can be done by consenting adults (assuming for the time being that’s what the article was in reference to) – but … ewww. I am at loss for words. Dis-gus-ting.

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