It was a good time in Philly! It was nice to finally see your place, H!
JP - good to see you too. The beard is a bit mountain-man'y, tho... Heh.
Dad - good to see you as well! I'm glad you liked the Grambling State/Southern football game - they show that match-up on TV every year. We'll have to watch it again next year!
Thanks also for the early Christmas money, Dad!
H- I'm in favor of Amazon wish lists, and I have something else for you guys, too.

Some news from Germany, and I admit I'm still somewhat annoyed at the German media's coverage of the August 2003 black-out, which lasted for a couple of days:
Germany struggles to restore power after storm
A heavy snowstorm near Muenster brought down hundreds of power lines and 50 pylons. About 250,000 people lost power for about 5 days.
Davids Medienkritik has some pictures of the broken power towers - pretty scary.
Davids Medienkritik also re-wrote SPIEGEL TV's description of the 8/2003 black-out in the U.S. to show how this 11/2005 black-out in Germany would be covered, if SPIEGEL TV used the same type of language. Pretty funny:
"BLACKOUT IN GERMANY - The dazed European power was plunged into chaos by the largest blackout in the economic super power's recent history: Cities in the dark, planes on the ground, and a nation marching single-file like geese through the darkness. The land of social justice was shut off by a couple of inches of snow. A European power between perception and reality - SPIEGEL TV with observations from a country whose lights have gone out."

C

UPDATE: Here's a cheery tidbit from an article entitled German pride slogan shamed by its Nazi past:
Studies show that Germans are among the world's most pessimistic and unhappy nations. The gloom stems mainly from economic woes and chronically high unemployment.
I really do think we were lucky enough to live in Germany when it was at its peak - before it went into decline. And I can't think of anything that realistically can stop the downward spiral, at least not in the short-to-medium term...
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 12/01/2005 12:39:00 PM