I’ve touched upon the German chimney sweeps before. Mausi has explained in even more detail about them. Today, the New York Times has an article about how the EU is busting up the monopoly enjoyed by German chimney sweeps.

Few trades are as encrusted with tradition as that of schornsteinfeger, or chimney sweep. Revered as a source of good luck, with their black hats and sooty faces delighting children, chimney sweeps are a link to a vanishing past. They are also, critics say, old-fashioned monopolists.

Europe has been trying to break open the monopoly since 2003, contending that it violates laws that permit any qualified citizen of a European Union member to set up shop in any other member state. With Germany dragging its heels, the commission recently sent it a legal opinion ? a prelude to taking it to the European Court of Justice.

Is nothing sacred?

That’s right! I wish I was partying in St. Louis right now. I remember when they won in 1982 and how exciting it was for a little kid to be in the middle of all that enthusiasm and “Cardinal Fever”. At the time the theme song for the series was “Celebration” by Cool & the Gang. Actually, I’m not even sure if it was officially linked to the Cardinals in any way, it’s just that the song was played constantly everywhere whenever the game was on or when they ran highlights on TV or radio. It just sort of permeated my memories of that time and I always associate it with the 1982 World Series.

Ah yes! After taking out the New York Mets in an amazing 7th game, the St. Louis Cardinals are going to the the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. Awesome!

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Things are calming down. We are all moved in and almost everything is put in its place. Last weekend M. ran in the Cologne Marathon and crossed the finish line at a respectable 5:11:34. Musically, I’ve been helping a local band, Tussika, record a demo DVD. That has been fun. I’ll write more just as soon as I can clear my head.

And they still are it seems.

UPDATE: Pictures of Willie’s stash

…damn, dude.

I’ve been doing something in the new apartment almost every day for 2 weeks. I only go home in order to sleep. Yesterday I put down about 40m² of laminate flooring and my knees and hands are really sore. Today I hung some blinds. Tomorrow I might hang some light fixtures. Soon my room will be finished and I will be able to start moving stuff in.

An article about humor under the Nazis.

Some funny stuff. You wanna make Germans laugh about the Nazis? While sitting in a bodenständige Kneipe, take the cellophane from a pack of cigarettes and put it over your index and middle finger. Spread your fingers to make the plastic taut and put your fingers up to your lips. Ta-Da!! Instant Volksempfänger!! Same principal as a kazoo.

Now you can create your own personlized speech from the Führer or his henchmen. Just make sure you play up your most stereotypical German accent.

“From now on, all men who do not or can not emulate the Führer’s moustache, will be required to glue a fuzzy caterpillar under their noses. Caterpillars will be provided at the nearest caterpillar distribution center upon the presentation of the properly filled out forms.”

As stupid as that sounds, it’s a hit.

I know, I know. You’d think they would have sent me home by now.

If you’ve never been to Amsterdam, you need to go. Everything you heard about it is true x10. I’d get into seedy details but what happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam.

The Dutch are great people. Super friendly and helpful. However, I couldn’t help but notice that things aren’t as efficient there as I am used to. The train station and tourist info office were a madhouse because of the way they were run. Orders in restaurants were often wrong or they just created confusion. Maybe I’m just spoiled from living in Germany for so long. It was kind of like Italy but they spoke English.

The city center is crazy and fun and sometimes dangerous, but once you move away from the tourist fed stench of whore and hash, it is a very beautiful city. The canals and the houseboats are amazing. We saw the Jazz Festival. We saw crazy hen- and stag-parties. It was a good time.

Now we start renovating the new apartment. Hopefully we can get it all done before we move in at the end of the month.

Well we had a great couple of days in Berlin. Lots of all-night parties and crazy antics. We met the girl who does the female voice-over for MTV Germany. She got us on the guestlist for a swinging club. It was sweet. Now we are off to Amsterdam.

Bob and I were walking from Hamburg Hauptbahnhof towards the Rathaus where were saw a guy, who was obviously crazy, go off on this rant that started off with the sentence,”How would you like to see a film in which a man loves a woman from behind”. It was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time and has become one of this trips running gags.