It was only a matter of time for a bilingual blog like mine to pick up a myth shrouded in legend like the one we’re looking at today. Here’s the thing: According to stories that a lot of German teachers tell their students, German lost out to English in a vote on the official language of the United States in the 1776. Time for the myth-busting Philipp to check whether German really nearly made it as the official US language.

Is it true that we could have had the term VSA (V for vereinigt) instead of USA (U for united) on today’s maps?

like bad news (what a Modest Mouse reference) like conspiracy and deception about oh so accidental natural deaths, Terry Hatcher (and not just because she was Superman’s first choice), (somewhat) black humor evoked by acts of hypocrisy and backstabbing cellulite moms everybody would like to fool around with, and suburban garage sales where middle age women want to get rid of, say the waffle iron that turned out to be useful when killing their husband who they caught cheating with the 16-year-old babysitter with braces.

Guess what, Desperate Housewives are back on TV in good old Austria. Isn’t that exciting. They will start on 11 February, 9:05 pm. Do NOT miss it, since it will clear up a lot of the masterpiece cliffhanger finale of season three. No way, I won’t give anything away of what’s happening in the fourth season of the TV series with my favorite middle-aged suburban women. Let’s just hope that the author’s strike in America (WGA- Writers’ Guild America) is over soon, so the holding out for new episodes of Desperate Housewives is not as long as the wait in front of the Finding Nemo Ride in Disneyland (I hear, it’s good, though).

Oh, how could I forget Grey’s Anatomy is back too. I just decided that this series contains to much drama, drama and - oh did I mention - drama! This ever running on-and-off thing that Mrs Drama and MacDramaDreamy are practicing can be watched on Mondays too, after Desperate Housewives: 9:55 pm.

Oh, what a lovely connection. Innocent Scottish sheep meets kinky weirdo Austrian meets perfidiously maliciously megalomanic American. See the brand new bubblesnaps (link to a list of bubblesnaps entries on PHB) from December 07 and January 08.

Do you find yourself clueless when it comes to “Thanksgiving”? Well, maybe this can help you out. American traditions are surprisingly present in European culture due to the fact that America has been exporting holiday traditions by various means. For example, the majority of TV series covers at least one episode about festive holidays, such as Christmas (we do not need to elaborate on that topic) or Thanksgiving. Halloween, love it or hate it, has established after all. Are Europeans going to pick up that tradition, too? Well if you ask me, I’d say: “Not gonna happen”, but read more about the typically North American tradition…

Sputnik went “beep … beep” and yelled out loud: “IT’S ON”

Once upon a time, there was a satellite weighting 84 kilogram*. Produced by a country, that nobody would have ever expected to be able to kick off a competition, namely the Cold War (I am well aware that this was not the only reason why there was such a thing as the cold war, but still, I am sure it contributed to the whole broiling situation between the US and Sowjet Union). Russia was the first to send a satellite (that was capable of making “beep … beep … beep“) into the Earth’s orbit 50 years ago.

If you ask me the satellite wasn’t just sending “beep”s to Earth. It rather was screaming “It’s on” to Western space agency, NASA. In modern face-book-terms the Western world, considering themselves as more modern that anything else, was b!t@h-slapped. Their reaction? A Race For Space. Due to a lack of scientists, the government had to invest into reforming the school system putting an emphasis on science (Physics&Co, subjects that we take as granted). Their motivation was caused by a striving to catch up with the Sowjets. And wait, there’s a shocker: Both sides realized that satellites could (they are, indeed) useful for rocket launching/controlling.

Dealing with the question of where the money comes from once it ends up in my wallet is not the very first thing I’d do. Usually. But during my stay in the US of A, I came across with the depicted 1-Dollar-Bill. The Currency Tracking Study is obviously researching on where the money goes and comes from. Here is the statistic for the Dollar bill that I got at Fresh Planet, Santa Cruz (I crossed out the serial number to ensure that nobody messes up the tracking):

No Photoshopping here evidentially. Taken in San Francisco. I don’t think the island you can see is Alcatraz, but that is not the point of the picture. Love it as a wallpaper! relocationist, originally uploaded by antimethod.

“Looks Like I Can Fly…” click to enlarge

Am 3. Wochenende meines Aufenthalts gehts nach San Francisco. Die Strassen von Frisco (So sollte man die City nie im Leben nennen; manche Buerger der Stadt duerfen das bei Inside Jokes; sonst highly offensive, sag ich nur — Speaking of Frisco - es gibt eine Muenzwaescherei die heisst Don’t Call It Frisco) sind wirklich so huegelig wie man es von Crazy Taxi kennt (ich hab das spiel aus Blakes Spielekiste ausgegraben btw).