Germany's July 4th: Mine Eyes Glazeth Over

So worn out are Bavarins by the two-week Oktoberfest celebration (still going on!) that they took a national holiday yesterday to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of German reunification. Stores, offices, agencies, schools: all shuttered tight for the observance. Instead of the beer halls and midway rides, the entertainment featured stem-winding politicians (Spankenze Spain! Kickenze Greece!), tents for promoting the products of each German state (precast concrete from Hesse; corn from Westphalia; eco friendly paint from Saxony, etc), and debate teams squaring off over contentious public policy issues (Is Germany's future with solar power? Or wind?). Bavarians dutifully turned out in droves. The streets were impassible. The line out the Baden-Württemburg tent for the winter squash display stretched for eight blocks. You probably think I'm making all of this up. And maybe the corn was from Saxony and the paint from Westphalia, but there's a grain of truth to what I'm saying.

Guy in a traditional Bavarian hat

Overloaded by all the regional GDP fact sheets, my attention eventually turned to documenting the slogans--cobbled together from a grab-bag of English words--that are so popular on t-shirts around here:

Who-Care-For-The-Constraints Of-Substance When-You-Gots-Styles

Yeah. Who care?

Bit Mix Little Up A Things

I'll say.

This next picture isn't about the t-shirt, but the tattoo on the back of guy's neck that says Timebomb. I wanted to get a lot closer, but I thought, If he has a short fuse, it might not end well for me:

An apparently infrequent flyer with girl friend

Capping off the day was our discovery of an astroturf curling sheet--I'm talking here about the shuffleboard-like Winter Olympic sport, minus the best parts in this case (ice, brooms, frenzied Canadian fans). Tobias and I played a round (he won), then he and Hannah fortified themselves with a soft pretzel the size of Rhode Island for the arduous 3-minute subway ride back to the house, and that was about it. 

Low carbon footprint curling