Germany trip: Munich
We arrived in Munich at 8am local time at Franz Josef Strauss Airport. The airport (like the one in Frankfurt) accomplishes a feat that eludes many American airports -- arriving passengers can get nearly anywhere in the metropolitan area by commuter train with relative ease. Especially if you meet a nice old man whose hobby appears to be helping jet-lagged visitors with the somewhat confusing automatic train ticket kiosk.

The train ride to Pasing was notable only in that it was my first good look at Germany in nine years. The region is more or less flat as a pancake, but pleasant enough: lots of mustard and corn fields, and the telltale neat divisions between farmland and town or city. There was a circus tent at one point that became a familiar fixture over the next couple of days.

We eventually connected with my cousin and her husband, got to their place, and collapsed until the mid afternoon. Then we visited the Blutenburg and Nymphenburg castles, although to tell the truth we just walked around and didn't have much of a look inside either one, except for a rather nice little chapel in the Blutenburg castle. You could pick and eat pretty decent apples on the grounds there too, a nice snack on a cool autumn day.

The next day we first headed into the Marienplatz; the subway exits can put you right in the picture to the right. We caught the "Glockenspiel" at noon on the "Neues Rathaus" (new city hall) clock tower, and then were drawn by child-magnetic-force to the "Spielzeugmuseum," a toy museum in a tower attached to the "Altes Rathaus" (old city hall) building.* It has lots of antique "Steiff" teddy bears, Maerklin train sets, and the like. One thing that stood out for me: there was a pretty zany collection of little "Martian" soldiers made in the 1920s, each carrying a little Martian rifle. Many of the toys had little features that you just knew were a huge hit once upon a time: blow a whistle on the little car and it moves automatically! Gotta have it!!

It was Sunday, and given our schedule we decided to take in some of the museums in town, which are generally closed on Mondays. Cricket went to the Alte Pinakothek, probably the jewel in the crown in that respect, with Duerer and Cranach paintings she wanted to see. My cousin and I visited the Lenbach Haus, a museum that has a fantastic Expressionist collection with paintings by Vassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Muenter, Alexej Jawlensky, Franz Marc and others of the so-called "Blaue Reiter" (Blue Rider) artist movement.

On our final day in Munich, we said goodbye to our hosts in the morning, and then returned to the city for some final sightseeing. We visited the Frauenkirche, taking an elevator to the top for the view. We also did a little shopping, including some Bayern Muenchen accessories to keep Maddie warm, and gifts for a second cousin and his soon-to-be born little sister. Maybe I don't go shopping enough, but it seemed like the Kaufhof we visited was a kind of wonderful throwback to department stores of old in America: everything for sale, lots of floor help, a gift wrapping department. I bought some hot sugared almonds outside for Maddie and me. It felt like Christmas -- great fun.

We hadn't begun to do the city justice. And I've left out a great deal we did manage -- fine meals, good beer, and friendly conversations in town and at home with my cousin and her husband -- but we had to head north to see more of Germany and more of our relatives.


[Germany 2004 travelogue: home] [next post]
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* It's taken me until now to figure out I had them reversed. The new city hall ("Neues Rathaus") seemed older to me because of its pseudo-Gothic decorations and old-fashioned Glockenspiel (bell tower figure dance), but it was actually completed in 1908. Both it and the old city hall ("Altes Rathaus") were badly damaged in World War II bombings; the latter was reconstructed to its 1462 specifications in 1972 -- and lately they've added a webcam. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:00:00 PM -- |    

 
Friday Night Lights
If the movie is half as good as the book was, you should get a look as soon as you can. posted by Thomas Nephew at 11:35:00 PM -- |    

 
Light bulb joke
How many members of the Bush administration does it take to change a light bulb?

None. 'There's nothing wrong with that light bulb. It has served us honorably. When you say it's burned out, you're giving encouragement to the forces of darkness. Once we install a light bulb, we never, ever change it. Real men don't need artificial light.

...by Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune, via Charles Kuffner, with links to more. posted by Thomas Nephew at 6:30:00 PM -- |    

 
Calling Port Charlotte, Florida for Kerry/Edwards
On Monday evening I tried my hand at phone bank work at the Kerry/Edwards campaign office in downtown DC. The plan was to call voters considered undecided, ask them to support the Kerry ticket, and record their preferences.

Methods
I arrived at the building around 6pm and signed in as a visitor (company: "Kerry"). I was directed to the 7th floor, and from there to the 6th floor where phone banking was already underway. I was given a short "persuasion" script that provided a few suggestions about why I, the caller, was supporting Kerry/Edwards, but was encouraged to use my own words instead. After that explanation, the script read "Can we count on your to vote for John Kerry and John Edwards on November 2nd?"

The list of names I was given were all from Port Charlotte, Florida -- one of the towns hard hit by at least one of Florida's hurricanes this year.

Results
By 8:30 or so I'd attempted 61 calls. Of those, 11 were strong Kerry supporters, 9 were strong Bush supporters, 3 were undecided, and 1 each were leaning to Kerry or to Bush. So not many undecideds -- even less than it seemed because I recorded a couple of "I don't want to tell you" as "undecided." There were also 20 "not homes"; I left a brief message on the answering machine when this happened. Finally, there were 16 cases where I couldn't even leave a message -- "not in service at this time," or no answering machine. That seemed like a lot -- possibly a hurricane effect? I hope not.

The dangers of straying off script: when I told one Bush supporter "well, sorry to hear that" (instead of just "thanks for your time"), I got a "well, I'm sorry you're working for Kerry, a**hole!" That was mean! I'm going to cry! On the other hand -- ulp -- that might have been the election right there. Sorry, everyone. Seriously, stay loose but respectful if you do this, I should have stuck to the script in that respect.

Try it yourself
Sounds fun, right? Right! Call (202) 712-3000 for information about volunteering for the Kerry/Edwards phonebank operation in the DC area. They're open 9 am to 10 pm Monday through Thursday and 9 am to 6pm Friday for the duration -- out-of-time-zone calls and other work once it gets late -- and from 10am until 5pm Saturdays and 12pm to 5pm on Sundays. Alternatively, I'm told there's active phonebanking for Kerry/Edwards and other races as well at the DNC down by the South Capitol Metro stop, at 430 South Capitol Street, SE -- a little out of the way for me. I don't know what their hours are, but their phone number is (202) 863-8000.


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EDIT, 10/6: Kerry campaign hours updated.



A note to faithful readers
Preparations at the Nephew manor and estates have reached fever pitch for our upcoming trip to sunny Germany, from October 8 through October 18. My promised reassessment may have to wait until after that -- a huge disappointment to all of us, I'm sure. Also, blogging will be sparse to nonexistent while we're gone.

Apres moi, le deluge -- I want everyone else's readership to decline, too! If you're blogging or reading blogs a lot, consider cutting back for a while and joining the real world: volunteer for Kerry/Edwards, for the Democratic National Committee, or better yet at your local Kerry/Edwards or Democratic campaign! They'll need your help with phone banking, canvassing, and "get out the vote" efforts on Election Day.
posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:53:00 AM -- |    

 
A straight line through Berlin
German bloggers Hans "Peithenen" and "the Frank" have done an unusual and rather nice photographic line transect survey of Berlin: starting in the former East Berlin, they followed a more or less straight line through the city for the better part of a day, taking pictures they liked as they went. Pretty cool. The commentary is drily entertaining as well, but the pictures tell a story by themselves: the possibly-never-before- and possibly-never-again-to-be-photographed unremarkable, bizarre, seedy, funny, familiar, unfamiliar, particular sights of hometown Berlin. Place + persons = photographs + text.

Via Peter Praschl at "le sofa blog."
posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:36:00 AM -- |    

 
Edwards-Cheney debate reaction
Edwards did fine, and hit Cheney on most of what Cheney deserved to be hit on -- Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and a long resume does not equal good judgment by any means.

With some exceptions. For Dick "F you" Cheney to sit there and sadly shake his head about the loss of bipartisanship and collegiality was pretty rich, as was trotting out Zell Miller as 'reaching out' to the Democratic side. Edwards missed a chance, I think, to really put Cheney away late in the debate with any number of examples of Republicans' -- and Cheney's own -- brass-knuckles approach over the last four years.

Neither vice presidential candidate imploded -- so what we have is an aging vice president not sinking his befuddled boss's campaign, and an energetic opponent who proved he was up to the challenge of meeting the old codger head on. I'll take it. I think this is a close race, but one with some Democratic momentum, from the Kerry debate to the huge voter registration numbers being reported around the country. Edwards didn't need to win it by himself tonight.

But returning to bipartisanship: I'll foreshadow at least one "why" in the reassessment I've promised. That is the unfounded, really naive faith I had that there was a professionalism and patriotism in the halls of government that would trump partisanship, that would prevent tragedies and challenges being parlayed into partisan gain. I thus found it hard to credit that respected figures, even ones I opposed politically, would twist and misrepresent what they knew and what they did not know about Iraq as effectively as it turns out they did.

What was I thinking? How stupid could I possibly be? I really should have known better by February 2003, given the 2002 elections that saw, for example, a zero like Saxby Chambliss replace a hero like Max Cleland in the Senate. Instead, I literally took the issue of Bush administration's partisanship and strained relationship with the truth off the table -- "argument dismissed." But that's never an argument to dismiss, and I won't make that mistake again. posted by Thomas Nephew at 11:56:00 PM -- |    

 
A reassessment
Full disclosure for most readers dropping by the front page these days: despite initially opposing it, I decided to support the Iraq war in the months and weeks before it began. In February of 2003, I finally laid out my arguments in a lengthy piece titled "With Regrets: For War on Saddam." I stuck with that position for quite a while.

But my fundamental concern -- WMD and WMD development in Iraq -- was a mirage, and I have to say that had I known then what I know now, I would not have supported this war. So a reassessment is long overdue, and I'm going to try to do that over the next few days: how wrong was I? Why was I wrong?

I'll try to have one or two posts that try to answer these questions soon. For most, this might be about as interesting as watching paint dry; for others it will be disappointing, and for still others it will be too little, too late. But I ought to do this, and I will.
posted by Thomas Nephew at 8:50:00 AM -- |    

 
61 to 19
Wow. Bush campaign pollsters probably won't tell their guy, but the technical term for a result like this is "getting your ass kicked into orbit." From the Newsweek poll writeup, via "Swing State Project":

Sixty-one percent of Americans who watched the first presidential debate on September 30 say Sen. John Kerry won; 19 percent say President George W. Bush won and 16 percent say they tied, according to the latest Newsweek Poll which was conducted after the debate ended. Fifty-six percent say Kerry did better than they expected; 11 percent say so for Bush. Thirty-eight percent say Bush did worse than expected; 3 percent say so for Kerry, the poll shows.

The debate erased the lead the Bush/Cheney ticket has held over Kerry/Edwards in the Newsweek Poll since the Republican convention. In a three-way trial heat including Ralph Nader/Peter Camejo, among registered voters Kerry/Edwards leads Bush/Cheney 47 percent v. 45 percent with 2 percent for Nader/Camejo. In a two-way heat, Kerry/Edwards leads 49 percent v. 46 percent for Bush/Cheney, the poll shows.

Well, that's fine, but it needs to get better. Like Yglesias says, overconfidence won't help, and a lot can still happen-- the expectations game in the remaining debates will cut the other way, for one thing. So work, work, work.
posted by Thomas Nephew at 2:19:00 AM -- |