The Swedish Ambassador

It is a few days before the most important Swedish holiday, Midsommer. Or, if you prefer, one of the major drinking occasions.

The new Swedish ambassador to Germany is an economist by trade - and another one of those Alpha Women. She invited WiseMan to the party she was throwing, and he took me along for company. Nothing like standing around with a bunch of strangers waiting for the food.

The new ambassador is very charming, bubbles over with enthusiasm, enjoys a good laugh - and is quite a networking person. It was a pleasure to watch her work the crowd, dragging men in ties across the lawn to be introduced to other men in ties, or calling them to come over. She herself, replete in a summer dress and a flower in her black hair, was actually barefoot most of the evening, having discarded her shoes for dancing around the Midsommar pole.

I joined right in that, I love folk dancing like this. In Sweden this involves dancing in a circle, singing children's songs that include doing gestures like playing the violin or being a rabbit. Rabbits play an important part in many drinking songs as well.

The food was traditional: Swedish flat bread, new potatoes, sour cream and chives, smoked salmon, and four different kinds of herring. The ambassador announced that her cook - a fascinating guy in a white cook's uniform but with his wild black hair bound up in a black and white pirate's headband and wearing scruffy sneakers - had flown up to Sweden the other day to get the ingredients. And to get the snaps.

Swedes are soooo chauvinistic about their potatoes. They think that only real, Swedish, potatoes taste any good. These were great, where ever they came from! The herring was so good, I liked the mustard herring best, washed down with some Skåne Aquavit.

I met some interesting people: folks at the embassy, journalists, diverse VIPs, and the Alpha-Woman-Husband, who is a professor for literature. One of the VIPs is also an Alpha-Woman-Husband, I joked that they should round up Angela Merkel's husband (a professor in Berlin) and start their own club. Actually, I was only half joking, as they need to be defining their role. Do they fade into the woodwork, like Merkel's? He should have been in Heiligendamm, entertaining Cherie Blair and Laura Bush. Do they run around worrying about the food and the help? Do they do their own thing? They need a support group, I think!

The mosquitoes were as bad as any Swedish summer, this they could have left out of an otherwise wonderful evening.

The Alpha Girls

The German newsweekly Der Spiegel has the topic of "Alpha-Mädchen", alpha girls, on its cover this week. Sheesh, they can't even do this without being condescending and calling us "girls". Isn't online yet, so I shall have to go out an purchase it, I suppose.

After the G8 conference many journalists discovered that our chancelor (who happens to be a woman) was actually capable of running the show, and she was clearly the dominant person while speaking with the little boys Putin and Bush. Gosh. Maybe women can run countries after all.

My favorite English-language magazine Ex-Berliner has commentary on the same topic this month: My Mom looks like Angela Merkel. Konrad Werner decides that "menopausal German women are the best demographic group in the world for running countries." So there you have it. Don't know if I prefer "menopausal" or "older". How about just "experienced"?

I was at my old college for the "Long University Night" (a rather crazy Berlin-wide university open house at night which is so popular, it is in its ninth year) and met up with lots of women colleagues during the hour or so I was there. They just had elections, the two female vice-presidents were confirmed in their positions, they've hired some more women professors and are doing a pretty good job at attracting women students. As one of the VPs said to me: Us wimmen are on our way up.

Watch out, guys, we are alphas now, too!