Obama trinkt kein Bier

This totally cracked me up:

(Photo credit: Gero Breloer/European Pressphoto Agency)

Those wacky Germans!

I wish Barack was hip enough to wear red suspenders and carry around 7 large beers. Unfortunately he is busy doing rotten things like supporting the Telecom Amnesty Bill instead.

The trashiest place in Delaware?

This, for those of you who didn't know, is a glimpse of our nation's first state. Like many people, I'd imagine, I've never paid much attention to Delaware, thinking of it as a brief strip of land that connects New Jersey to points south--a brief stopover before one travels on to Baltimore or DC or even Florida.

Upon further exploration, however, I found much to recommend it. There are scenic old mills:



















Rustic diners:



















Charming (if underexposed) ice houses:



















And, of course, the requisite nudie bar:
























I was kind of fascinated by many elements of life in Delaware. Firstly, the community pictured in the first photo is called "Leipsic." Obviously this is a derivation of the more Germanic-sounding Leipzig...but why alter the name like that? Secondly, how long has that nudie bar been there? Frighteningly enough, it appeared to be operational, as evidenced by the open door, beckoning purveyors of nudity within. Who goes there? What are the dancers like? A brief search of the internet turned up intriguing clues...like "amputees," "lack of teeth" and "the trashiest place in Delaware." Dang!

Lip-smackin' good

Aside from the unrelenting humidity, I really like summertime in New York. Yeah, yeah, so the streets smell and there are ten million tourists clogging up the sidewalks with their fannypacked cluelessness. These drawbacks are easily offset by the opportunities to see free performances by Rachid Taha:















And to stroll around the Arthur Avenue market with luminaries such as Chazz Palminteri. (He is not pictured in these photos, but he really was there, holding court with a bunch of admirers and eating...I dunno, figs or something.)


















Despite my semi-regular travels to the Bronx, I'd never been in the market before. It was kind of weird. I wasn't sure what to make of the cigar-makers who sit there all day rolling cigars, or the legions of men who seemed to be just sitting around drinking cappuccinos. It was almost as though I had wandered into a movie set, and everyone was busying themselves trying to look "authentic" rather than actually being authentic. Before I snapped the pic above, a number of Italian tourists had been sitting in the pine-colored chairs, and I wondered what they thought of the Disney-style Italianness on display there. I'd imagine it was very confusing.

Eh, whatever. The pistachio gelatto was delectable, the day was sunny, and overall, gee it was good.