That's not where Angela works

I took the bus to the main train station this morning to catch a train to one of my many talks I give around the country. I was upstairs on the double bus, there were only 4 of us there. One was a young girl, maybe 14 or 15, with a video camera. She was filming the entire ride and telling her camera what she was seeing right now.

Except that she was getting it wrong.

After the Reichstag she trained the camera on the Paul-Löbe-Haus, an office building, and started to describe this as being where Angela Merkel works and has her official guests like the Prince of Wales and all. This was too much for the rather disheveled gentleman sitting across the aisle from her. "No!" he said, "she lives on the other side of the road!"

The girl looked shocked, and she didn't want to believe the guy. I came to his rescue, said: "He's right, she lives and works over here." He grinned, and the girl dashed over to the other side of the bus, apologizing to the camera that she had made a mistake and that Angela worked over here.

Anyone want to bet that the video is now on YouTube?

No Chairs

Last week I complained to the powers-that-be through our magic web-site complaint form that I needed more chairs in my lecture hall. I have 48 people and there are only 40 chairs on a good day. As much as I like having good-looking young men looking up at me, I think they need chairs to learn properly.

The custodian came to my office to explain the problem yesterday. In the electronic system for lecture halls the room is listed as having 44 seats. There is only one lecture hall that has more chairs, and it is booked solid. Saturdays at 8.00 anyone?

According to the security engineer, the room is only designed for 40 people. So theoretically I should count noses and request that the 8 people who come in last go home.

Just as I finished saying this at the start of class, the last 8 people walked in and started complaining that there were no chairs.....

Move your butt

Bizarre scene on the bus:

I was just hopping down a few stops (a transferable monthly pass is great) on the bus to get a present, so I didn't sit down but stood, leaning against a railing. There's a cushion there, with an integrated seat. An older man (I can't really call him a gentleman) was sitting on the seat up front for the elderly. A very old woman got on and requested that seat, so he got up, complaining that he needed to sit, too, but loudly stating that a gentleman of course gave up a seat for a lady.

I was expecting him to ask me if he could use the seat, but I wasn't expecting it like this. He patted my rear-end (!) and said "Move your butt, I want to sit down!"

I was shocked! I said to him sternly that it was sufficient for him to ask me for the seat, he did not have to involve my posterior. He shot back that he did ask me and I have to give it to him. The lady standing next to me just shook her head, but the middle-aged guy across the aisle jumped in.

"You shut your trap! You have no right to act this way!". The older guy kept muttering that he had the right to sit down, etc.

I was happy that we reached my stop and I could get off this crazy bus.

Torn Curtain

At the Hitchcock exhibition we saw a lot of bits and pieces of the movie Torn Curtain, which was partially filmed in Berlin. So we decided to watch it this evening, as it was in our complete collection of Hitchcock DVDs.

As many have said - it is not the best film by Hitchcock. I keep expecting Julie Andrews to burst out in "The hills are alive" everytime she is on camera. Paul Newmann looks gorgeous, but I don't see him as a physicist.

The film was mostly shot in studio, as they could not film in East Berlin, although there is a scene with some "Plattenbau" that I think can only be found in East Berlin. Only a few of the actors speak correct German (or Swedish, in the final scene). They appear to be American actors pretending to be Germans.

I would love to have a clear view of the mathematics to see what they are writing. They just mumble "omega" on occasion, and Prof. Lindt does, actually, write a small omega on camera.

A rather contrived spy story, but not bad for a Friday evening movie.

Lonesome Socks

In a fit of housewifely energy I attacked the sock basket. This is where we throw all clean socks that cannot immediately be paired. I managed to match up quite a few of the myriad black sock collection (many years ago we got 12 pairs of identical socks for WiseKid. That made this job very easy for his socks).

This is what was left. All these lonesome socks. Where are their partners?

O Canada

This is really quite bizarre. It does, indeed, seem as if I woke up Canadian this past Friday, on account of my mother having been a Canadian citizen when I was born. The next brother on down is in the same state, for our youngest brother it will depend on how they interpret it. Since she is now again Canadian by decree, he might still be considered Canadian, too.

So things Canadian are coming back to me - songs, visits to Canada, my mom going on and on about the symbolism in the Canadian maple leaf flag (although, according to the Canadian Heritage site the eleven points do not stand for the 10 provinces and 1 territory), Canadian holidays like Dominion Day, and saying "eh" at the end of every other sentence.

My Mom had to obtain American citizenship in order to teach, and she had to be married to an American for four years in order to apply for citizenship. The Americans at that time, like the Germans today, made people give up their old citizenship. Canada also officially reinstated the citizenship of all Canadians who were forced to give up their citizenship. So it's pretty much just my Dad left out of this!

WiseMan remarked this evening that I change my citizenship more often than WiseKid changes his underpants, which is a gross exaggeration.

Anyway, I printed out a Canadian flag for my office door this morning, and wore Mom's maple leaf pin.

Waking up Canadian

Just discovered that I woke up Canadian on Friday. Rather bizarre.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDeDQpIQFD0