... and this is it (it's a lot longer than I remembered).
It's almost unbelievable to me that 1.) after a few decades, this still pops into my head randomly and while, well, counting and 2.) this must be true for a large fraction of Americans in my age bracket.
And just for kicks, here is the Family Guy version.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Counting has a theme song ...
Monday, February 19, 2007
Karneval (Monday)
So I won the fight against my intrinsic laziness and made the trek to Cologne. Here are some pictures; I'm a little short on text, but maybe I'll add more later.
Leaving the train station, I saw a bunch of bumblebees. You can't tell but they've stopped for a beer and a smoke.
I was worried about finding the parade route, but it turns out the parade route seems to snake all around the old city. We crossed the route twice just to get to this spot.
A float.
Some sort of bubble blowing dragon?
My favorite, the chicken people.
At our spot, the crowd wasn't overly drunken (although there was plenty of beer) and there were significant numbers of kids (and the paraders made a particular effort to give candy to them). It also didn't seem to be particularly German (many Chinese faces and I heard plenty of English), but certainly German enough to yell the appropriate cheers and sustain singing along with the music.
These people have a good spot on the roof of a nearby building.
The floats throw out candy and flowers and sometimes toys to the crowd. Women tend to get a flower along with a kiss.
The nurses on the float are men, I think.
And what exactly is going on in this float?
The floats seem to satirize politics and current events. Also, I saw one float which I won't describe, but the point of which can be summarized by 'Köln rules, Dusselfdorf drools.'
We called it quits after nearly three hours, although the parade was still going strong. Closer to the Cathedral, there were a lot more people in the windows of the buildings and barricades to prevent us from crossing, making it a long, confusing trek to find our way back to the train station.
The groups sometimes throw candy with the name of their organization (and their president's name).
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Karneval (Sunday)
I'd heard that on the Sunday of Karneval, there was some sort of symbolic storming on the old Town Hall. When I got the appropriate plaza, however, not much was going on and there was no sign of when the action would really begin, so I took a couple pictures and went back home.
Here's a bunch of marchers, getting ready for their act -- which was rather cute.
Here's the building I thought was to be stormed -- they've cleared the area and set up a platform, but nothing is happening. 
Remember my praise of Feuerzangenbowle? Well, here's a picture of two large vats of it being made over a fire (yeah, those lumps on top are giant chunks of sugar). 
I found this website which describes the Karneval activities in Bonn and has pictures of previous years festivities.
So, Cologne is the place to be for Karneval in Germany, or at least so it seems. Do I have the energy to take the 30 minute train ride there tomorrow for the big parade, just so I can get trampled by drunk Germans? I'm not feeling it right now, but we'll see.
Karneval (Saturday)
On Saturday, I went across the field to Messdorf, visiting some friends and getting pictures of the neighborhood Karneval parade. At the end of their street is a car dealership which keeps its bathrooms open for the parade, and, hence, the spot for all the local kids to stand around and drink. Here's the crowd:
Right in front of our spot on the sidewalk were a bunch of obnoxious teenagers, but what is that guy on the left dressed up as? 
As the floats are driven very slowly by, the guys on top throw out candy to the spectators, who shout "kamelle!" 
This kid seems to think he's totally cool for having found a spot to sit above the crowd. He's also wearing a tiger suit.
In addition to floats, there are a bunch of marching bands and an adorable little kid dressed as a jester.
Pig costumes.
What do you think those guys on the right are discussing? 
After the parade passes and the crowd dissipates, there's an incredible amount of broken glass on the ground.
Saturday was also the eve of the Chinese New Year, so I caught the most crowded bus I've been on in Germany (there was drunken Karneval singing and the bus passed many a stop, surprising and annoying the people waiting for it) and headed across town to Tannenbusch for an incredible meal made by a bunch of Chinese and Taiwanese students (and assorted people).
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Karneval (Thursday)
Sadly, no pictures today (my camera's out of batteries and nothing is open until tomorrow), but I've been told that today marks the beginning of the Karneval madness that lasts through Monday (but oddly enough, not Tuesday). Today is Weiberfastnacht, the women's day. I've read that the women symbolically take over the town hall across the river in Beuel. I missed the big stuff (all events start at 11:11 in the morning), though, and by the time I got out (beautiful day today, 50 F and blue skies) to look around, all there was left was people in costumes, crowded around the pubs, eating and drinking. Today is also the day that women can go around and cut off the ties worn by men (I did see one man wearing the remnants of a tie at the train station!).
As for the costumes, rest assured I will get pictures this weekend, but it seems like people will dress as a group with their friends, with popular costumes being animals (full animal suits!), clowns, soldiers, and monks. I also saw a bunch of Pippi Longstockings. I also saw at least one group carrying fake handguns, which seemed really odd to me (I'm pretty sure waving around a fake handgun on the street in the U.S. will get you shot). Also no sign of any public drinking laws in Germany.
One more thing, at the pub this week, one of the students explained to me that while Karneval had a religious component and origin, a good portion of the festivities are designed to make fun of the French. So it's not just an American thing.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
I'd Like My Parade Now ...
Yesterday, there was a PhD defense (actually, there were three in the last two days, but only one on this side, the astronomy side, of the building). The actual thesis defense in Germany sounds pretty grueling -- 60-90 minutes of questions from your committee after your talk -- but in compensation, there's this:
Before your defense, your friends get together and make you a hat and decorate it with stuff about you (e.g., poker or weak lensing). Then, when all is said and done and the congratulating begins, they put a ratty old academic robe on you and put your hat on your head. There's a cart (really a dolly with a chair on top, decorated with colored paper and balloons) and you sit in the cart and they push you all around the building, as everyone follows behind making noise (mostly jangling their keys). That's right. You get your own parade.
Now it's too late for me, but not for all of you: go demand your own parade, now, while you still have chance.
Anyway, I would have taken more pictures to illustrate the awesomeness of the whole thing, but I felt a little ashamed to be using someone's celebration for anthropological purposes; I'll try to get more at the next defense.
Friday, February 02, 2007
I'm Not Even Sure What To Say About This
George Washington
Maybe when my brain recovers I'll think of something.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Terrible Guilt
A week and a half since my last post and the guilt is starting to become crippling (although I tried to convince myself that I could wait until the Super Bowl). Anyway, for lack of anything else blogworthy, I have just three words: Bose QuietComfort3 headphones.
The light on the side of my face isn't sunlight, its the warm glow of satisfaction.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Bears v. Pats, Part II
I was going to wait until after this weekend's games to post this, but it's too good. I was speaking to my sister this afternoon, discussing the possibility that this year will feature a Super Bowl XX rematch of the Chicago Bears v. the New England Patriots. One of the most memorable parts of that 1985 football season was the absolute hilarity of the 'Super Bowl Shuffle,' the rap song and video recorded by members of the 1985 Chicago Bears football team. I pointed out that they recorded the song well before the playoffs had begun, and my sister pointed out that there had been a New England Patriots response song. Let the Googling and YouTube-ing begin:
The New England Patriots song is called 'New England, the Patriots, and Me.'
Unfortunately, YouTube seems to have cracked down on copies of the 'Super Bowl Shuffle,' so there's no possibility of a side-by-side comparison (here's a nice summary of the song). Let's just say that both are incredibly cheesy and short on 1.) production values and 2.) musical ability on the part of the performers and the composers. The Bears song features members of the team in their uniforms, pretending to play instruments and dancing, while 'singing' about how awesome they are. The Patriots song intercuts scenes of 'singers' in the studio, folks on the street, players, and what I presume are local celebrities 'singing' the song, along with a few shots of the Patriots playing and hugging each other. By the way the end of the line, 'New England, the Patriots, and Me' is 'rolling on to victory.'
While both these songs are terrible, as a loyal Chicagoan, I must say that the 'Super Bowl Shuffle' benefits from a clarity of purpose that the New England song lacks. It is about how awesome the Bears and that's it. The Bears 'sing' and 'dance' and each player gets a verse about their particular brand of awesomeness. The Patriots song, in contrast, is rather muddied; is it about New England or football, and what exactly is your contribution to victory? The song itself? I hope not.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
What the ... ? Is that a dead cat?
I turned on the TV to watch some coverage of the winter storm affecting Germany and saw this. I get that the microphones are designed to cut wind noise and my unfamiliarity with them is probably because I've never had cable, and cable news, before, but I think this is incredibly hilarious. (By the way, I took these pictures with the built-in iSight camera on my Macbook, so they're pretty terrible, but I'm pretty impressed with myself for lining up a tiny camera on a 5lb laptop with my TV):
Saturday, January 13, 2007
German Walk Signals Are Psychologically Unsatisfying
Here's a picture of a typical walk signal button in Bonn:
Notice something about it? It's not easy to tell from the photo, but there's no actual button, just a little red circle with the outline of a hand on it and instructions to touch the red button. In the United States, there would be a button which you could push to your heart's content and which may or may not have any effect on the actual walk signal. Here, I'd say that a surprising fraction of the time, the lights immediately change upon touching the button. But the action of touching the button is fraught with uncertainty. Did I touch it too hard, not hard enough, not long enough? Who knows?
To sum up. United States: ineffective but psychologically satisfying. Germany: effective but psychologically unsatisfying.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Another Ivy League Education Gone to Waste
There's a small selection of English language books in the lounge at work, and I picked up The Rule of Four the other day. I recalled reading a -- mostly positive -- review of the book when it came out, describing it as a Da Vinci Code-ish novel (although I haven't read The Da Vinci Code), an academic mystery / suspense set at Princeton University, written by two Princeton grads as a way to keep in touch after graduation (which I thought totally dorky, but maybe a little cute).
You know those guys that you went to college with, who were maybe a little too articulate for their own good and who were super-excited to be at "X" institution and could enumerate the reasons why, but only in the most intellectually superficial way? (Yeah, douchebag, Schroedinger's cat is awesome.) Yeah, the book is written by those guys. I hate those guys. And while, clearly, people who I might not like if I knew them in person can write some really good stuff (for one, I'm pretty sure that Dave Eggers is the guy at the bar who won't shut up about 'how awesome would it be if we ...?'), these aren't those guys.
The book is clubby, pretentious, exceptionalist, shallow, and romantic about life and love in the self-absorbed way that must seem very profound and gratifying for a couple of Princeton guys with not many female friends, but that no one over the age of 24 should be. In short, everything I always assumed about Princeton students but never had proof of. Before. Also, the mystery isn't very interesting.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Momofuku Ando
Since everyone I know is addicted to the New York Times, I'm sure you all have seen this. But if, for some reason, you haven't read the Jan. 9, 2007 editorial (hurry, before it leaves the free site) in appreciation of Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen, you should. The finest two lines are the last (written by Lawrence Downes):
Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Give him ramen noodles, and you don’t have to teach him anything.
Somewhere, Jorge Cham is kicking himself for not thinking of those sentences first.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Happy New Year
It's going to be tough getting rolling on the blog after the winter break, but I'm going to try to ramp up production of posts. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of blogworthy stuff going on right now. At work, people are just now trickling back from vacation and we're still a month away from what people assure me is the craziness of Carnival. Also, my plan for January involves kicking some substructure lensing ass -- you know, if it had one -- the details of which I will spare everyone.
I was thinking about blogging about the 400g giant gummy bear (larger than my hand) that I bought Sean at the gummy bear store. I don't have any pictures of it, however, and after Googling, I saw the pictures of the 13lb gummy bear and my gummy bear didn't seem so exciting.
And before anyone asks, I did nothing on New Year's Eve, but I did notice that New Year's Eve in Bonn is a lot like the 4th of July in Hyde Park -- lots of fireworks going off from every direction. And after reading this article a couple of years ago, it was nice to see that they do indeed broadcast that on German TV (more than one channel) on New Year's Eve (the internet didn't lie to me!).
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Feuerzangenbowle
So after wandering the Weinachtmarkt all afternoon Saturday, I headed over to some friends for Feuerzangenbowle. At the Christmas market, they sell Glühwein (hot spiced wine) sometimes with rum or other stuff. For Feuerzangenbowle, red wine with spices (definitely including zimt (cinnamon)) is heated until it is steaming but not boiling. A scoop shaped rack is placed over the pot and a zuckerhat (sugar cone/loaf) is placed on the rack. A bottle of high alcohol content (at least 45%, this was 54%) rum is opened and the sugar is bathed in rum until it is soaked through. The sugar is lit on fire ('fire makes it good!') and the sugar is continually bathed in rum to keep the fire going (by the way, the whole pot was on fire too). The flaming sugar and rum carmelizes and falls into the pot. When the sugar is gone, stir and serve. It's pretty awesome.
Weinachtmarkt
Here's a massive update before I head out-of-town. I took all these pictures on Saturday.
I bought a bike a week ago and have been very timorously biking to work:
It's a folding bike (Bruce would be so proud!).
The garage down the street is split-level but while Sean was here it was never apparent. It was open yesterday, so I thought I needed some photographic proof:
Here's the window of the violin maker that I mentioned before:
So in the Zentrum (center), a Christmas market (Weinachtmarkt) has sprung up, and formerly cute little plazas have become even cuter little villages of stands that sell food, drinks, arts and crafts, etc. If you notice that some of the pictures aren't so great, it's because it's crazily crowded at the Christmas market.
Here's the most important stand, the roasted chestnut stand:
Here's the busiest stand, the one that sells alcoholic drinks. By the way, although the food often comes on little paper plates, Germans don't seem to believe in paper or plastic cups. All the drinks come in glasses or mugs and you put down 1.50 euros or so in deposit which you get back after you return your cup (although, if I were a tourist, I'd just steal the cups as souvenirs).
They've put up little Christmas trees up everywhere, but it seems sufficient just to prop them against things instead of putting them upright. Here's one against a light pole:
And here's a bunch leaning against a fence:
There's also some kiddie rides that blast mostly American Christmas songs:
A few stands sell cotton candy, popcorn, candied nuts (made there! smells so good!), and these giant gingerbread hearts that say things like 'I love you.' I saw at least one embarassed looking middle-aged woman wearing one around her neck.
This stand apparently sells wooden spoons:
And this one sells brushes for some reason (and I've seen plently of people proudly carrying wire bottle brushes they've purchased. Odd, huh?).
Uh-oh. Creepy puppets.
Another popular item are these paper lanterns shaped like stars.
And, of course, candles:
If you're looking for money, having a dog seems mandatory. These people are apparently soliciting for charity, but I've also seen street performers (a dog circus!) and beggars with dogs.
Speaking of street performers, there's a bunch. This guy is playing the accordian:
These two are rocking 'The Four Seasons' with just a violin and an accordian:
There's also an old lady with an accordian, a couple of kids with trumpets, the guy who plays 'Behind Blue Eyes' with his guitar, the typical set of guys with ponchos and playing some sort of pipes (are they supposed to be Peruvian or something? I'm never sure.), and more than one brass band. Here's one mostly made up of kids:
Past the old gate, there's Friesenplatz, where they've set up a mini ice-rink (also, if you squint, you can see Citibank behind the tree. So that's where it was!).
Sean thinks that Bonn looks like Epcot Center. I can kind of see that in this picture (are all the buildings 3/4 sized?).
One of the plazas has a regular outdoor produce market:
Finally, creepy Santa Claus:
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