Smart. Very Smart (an occasional series).

Goodness knows, I spend a good part of my time blogging about how different and strange it is here. There are, however, quite a few things the Germans and Europeans do right, from smart parking garages to little things like this: You can purchase certain items without the unnecessary packaging. What you see here is my selection at the grocery store for the same item-- you can purchase this toothpaste with its cardboard box for €1.99, or the same exact thing (with tamper-evident seals) without the box for €1.29-€1.39. The only difference is the box-- something that's going to be tossed in the recycling bin anyways. Save some money, save some trees.

Mail Call

This is a familiar sight to all city dwellers here-- a yellow German Post office (Deutsche Post) bicycle. The outrigger front wheels drop down and retract like a kickstand to keep the bike upright whenever the postal worker is on a delivery. In all my time here, I don't ever recall seeing mail carriers delivering in trucks-- that owes a lot to the way the cities are laid out, how busy traffic can get and just how lousy the parking situation is.

Duetsche Post is not the only game in town however. I often see the red bikes of NordbayernPost (North Bavaria Post) plying the streets. Unlike the USA, as of 2008 mail delivery in Germany is not a government monopoly, and NordbayernPost is one of the many small--and not so small-- private companies looking to make waves. Deutsche Post is also notable in that they own the DHL shipping and freight company, and a lot of their branches have a bank inside (the Deutsche Post-owned Postbank). I sort of like the bank idea-- it's convenient as all get-out, and that's 2 places where standing in line is a common occurrence (post offices and banks).

Small Car Week Continues!

This photo was shot one day after I took the pics of the Ligier (see post below), and is another, altogether more successful European "city car." It's the Fiat 500, a model that was produced from 1957-1975, with running style and equipment upgrades throughout the years-- I'm thinking this is a model from the early 1960's. Click on picture to enlarge-- it's waiting at the light next to a current Honda Civic hatchback-- this car is tiny. It may not be any more highway-worthy than the Ligier, but it is a much better looking machine. Fiat has done the retro-new thing with the "Nuovo 500"-- New 500 (think VW New Beetle or Mini), and it's a smash hit-- you see the new 500's all over the place here. And now that Fiat has bought Chrysler, you should start seeing versions of this car in the USA. One word of caution: Much as it pains me to say this, Fiat's reputation for, ahem, variable quality remains so buyer beware. Shame, seeing as this new 500 is one of the few Fiats I would ever consider.

For Those Who Think The Smart Car Is Too Big...

That's actually not a car in the eyes of Johnny Law here-- it's something called a quadricycle, which is to say, it's a 4-wheeled covered scooter. What we have here is a Ligier (say "li-zhay") Excellence, and hot damn, it is tiny-- that Mercedes A-Class parked in front of it is actually more than a foot shorter than a Volkswagen Golf to give you an idea. The concept of quadricycles is to give the driver an errand car for getting around the city (they apparently have a small market being sold as a vehicle to tow behind your Winnebago), and they can not be taken out on the open road-- indeed, the maximum allowable speed limit is 30 km/h (a tick under 19 mph), and there are a lot of scooters that have larger engines than this clown car. For the expense (the current version of this vehicle sells in England for the equivalent of $16K), lack of space, and near zero safety (not being classified as cars allows quadricycles to skirt safety regulations, and their bodies are largely plastic) this thing gives, you may as well just buy a good used car.

Race car companies like Ferrari, Panoz and Maserati use the cachet of their on-track success to sell road vehicles. Formula One geeks like me remember that back in the day Ligier had a modest degree of success in the race arenas, which they parlayed into, um, this. Go figure. To find out more about the wonderful world of quadricycling, check out Ligier's website.

A Leftover From 2006

You may have to click on the pic for a closeup, but the paintjob done to this particular lightpost (located just outside the Altstadt near the Plärrer transit corral) hearkens back to 2006 when Germany hosted the World Cup soccer tournament and Nuremberg was one of the 12 cities where the games were played. The World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715 million people(!?!) watching the 2006 final, and the qualifying games are well under way for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa-- 204 national teams are playing in tournaments to winnow that number down to the 32 squads that will head to Africa next summer. For more information of Nuremberg's part in the 2006 World Cup, match scores and participants and a good pic of Nuremberg's curious elongated octagonal stadium, Frankenstadion click here for an archived recap.

Ah, The Joys Of Freelance Work

With the economy still a little shakey and with B holding down a very good-paying job, I really can't complain about things TOO much, but I figured I'd share my experiences anyway. As a freelance copywriter and consultant I do feel very lucky and blessed to have a part-time source of income and a slowly-increasing portfolio of clients, and I quite like the fact that I'm getting to branch out a bit and do some different things (corporate communications, research, translation-interpretation and even sourcing rare automotive parts-- quite the resume expander, eh?). But as is the nature of the beast, the work is feast-or-famine and usually last-minute deadline driven. For example, for my last major project I was contacted 4:00pm on a Thursday to do a labor-intensive assignment with the deadline of Midnight Friday. Don't get me wrong, the pay was great but it necessitated completely clearing my schedule, and was the only significant work I received in about 3 weeks. I know it's all about building your base, paying your dues and getting a reputation as a super-sub or ASAP-king before your name gets put in the front of the Rolodex, but it gets aggravating at times.

To bridge the gap, even out the peaks and valleys of the pay cycle and stay busy I applied to one of the several web-content providers out there-- the folks who employ the armies of freelance writers, editors, filmmakers, and so forth whose work you see all the time when surfing the web (when you go to YouTube to see a film on how to zest lemons; when you type in an inquiry about what wine goes with Mexican food, etc.). After several weeks and a few tests (semantical obstacle courses), I was awarded the plum role as an editor of sorts, the guy who checks to make sure the title of the articles is both descriptive enough when casting about for writers/experts to create the text, and has proper keywords for when Joe Web Surfer looks it up. Heady stuff, and an incredibly cheap feeling of power-- I am the gatekeeper of web content!! Ahem. Cheap indeed-- after going through all of the applications and tests, it was only then revealed that these content providers pay peanuts, and can do so because there are tens of thousands of folks who are willing to do this sort of thing. So writing an article about how to sew buttons on your jacket may net the writer all of $2-3 with zero royalties, and folks like me get paid $0.01 per title. That's not a misprint: one cent. And it's taxable! So to make $50, I'd have to submit (and have approved) 5000 titles. I found it all amusing, and maybe I'll actually start doing something with these guys just for snicks, and make, like, a quarter a day just to boost my CV. But being a freelancer isn't all just setting up shop in a coffeehouse with your laptop and a Latte Mocciatto-- it involves hustling, a lot of networking, and a fair amount of luck. The good news is that all of my freelance income (the stuff that actually pays, not this penny ante crap) is heading straight into our retirement account, so we're doing OK.

It Was 20 Years Ago Today...

I would be most remiss if I did not note the anniversary of one of the more dramatic events in recent history (German or otherwise): On November 9, 1989 the Wall came down, and Germany was on the path to unification. It's impossible to ignore the local news coverage reminding us of this day/event, and obviously, the world press is mentioning this anniversary as well. Viewing this as an outsider, there still seems to be a gap between "Ossis" and "Wessis" (East and West Germans) one full generation later, but that is slowly fading. I'll leave the analysis and reporting to the experts, though it is interesting to note that the fall of the wall (or at least its initial opening) was due to miscommunication and a series of mistakes. All I can remember is that I was still in my senior year of college wondering where my life was going to take me, and Germany was just some place on the far side of the globe. For an excellent computer simulation and mini-documentary of the German wall, I heartily encourage you to check out this link for a 10-minute movie produced by the Deutsche Welle news network (this film is in English)-- the lengths the East Germans went to to prevent escape (14 cm spikes embedded in the ground?!?!) is pretty harrowing stuff. While "official" German unification was not completed until October 1990, its beginning was 20 years ago today.

God Save Us From Don King

The eyes of the sporting world turn ever-so-momentarily to our adopted hometown of Nuremberg tomorrow night. Fans of the sweet science already know this but for everybody else, the World Boxing Association (WBA) Heavyweight Title will be contested here. Frankly, I'm really not sure exactly why it's going to be here, seeing as the champ, 7'2" 300+ pound Nikolai "The Russian Giant" Valuev is from St. Petersburg, and is fighting British motormouth and former undisputed Cruiserweight champ David "The Hayemaker" Haye. I mean, I think the Russkie speaks a bit of German, but as to why this medium sized city in Northern Bavaria was chosen for a worldwide televised championship fight is anybody's guess. Still, it's nice to see Nuremberg in the sporting news once more-- the soccer team's glory years were in the mid-late 1960's, the basketball team folded 2 seasons ago, the hockey team is middling at best, and currently, the best known athlete from Nuremberg is this guy. But... seeing as there will be TV cameras rolling and he's promoting the fight, I'm sure Don King will be in town for a spell as well, doing his darndest to set back German-American relations by a couple decades. I'll be on the lookout for him, that's for sure. For more photos and typical Fleet Street news coverage of the bout, check here-- that Russian is huge!