Thursday, January 1, 2009

The Day After



The pyrotechnic display last night was astounding. I read just recently that Germans use a total of 100 million candles during the holiday season. After last night, I think I'd make a conservative estimate that the number of Feuerwerkskörper used during a 15 minute period right after midnight on December 31 is about the same.

Today, with almost all stores, museums and restaurants closed, I decided to walk to Gelsenkirchen. Along the way, I saw the aftermath of the frenzy from last night. It wasn't particularly ordentlich and provided just one more paradoxical piece of info to be reconciled with the stereotype of "typisch deutch."

I did get to try the Lebkuchen. Not bad. Sort of a sophisticated ginger bread.

And the blog poll to find out how many Forschungsjahr followers have read one or more of the Tintenwelt books? A complete failure. Only three of more than 250 visitors voted. Clearly blog readers do not care about interactive content. I'm not blaming anyone here. I didn't bother to vote either. Of those that did vote, 33% had read all three books. 66% hadn't read any of them. Not particularly exciting results, but thanks to all who participated.

2 comments:

Em said...

I don't think I saw the poll, but had similarly displeasing poll results on my blog some time ago. Nobody took it seriously, and voted that I purchase a pony.
But you can now know one more person whom has read none of the Tintenwelt books.

Christopher T. Terry said...

Emily,

I think the poll didn't even load for many readers. For the record, I say, buy yourself a pony. You only go around once. ct