Inspired by Thomas Klotz’s series of Unsere schönsten Amtsgerichte, I am unable to match the court in Hamburg, but I present Amtsgericht Fürth:

That’s during the Kirchweih. That is one side of the building, but the front looks just the same. Inside the door (omitting the No Photographs sign):

Fürth-Wiki.

Unclutterer thinks we carry too many keys with us. Sure enough, I have one on my keyring that I can’t even identify, although I think I had it made myself. It may belong to a bicycle I got rid of in 1998.

So, take a moment today to look at your keys even if you think you need them all. Just look at them one by one and ask yourself if you really need them.

What I am wondering about are the keys I don’t carry around with me. Here are the keys I was given when I moved into this flat:

Two are new ones belonging to a proper lock that the office insurance policy wanted me to install, but three are missing because a friend has them, and the one for the back yard is in my handbag. Two are for the cellar and one for the attic, two for the main building doors, one for my letterbox, two for my flat, but I don’t know about the rest.

(Indirectly via zonebattler’s homezone)

This is dreadful.

Der Schnöozenseat
noun (schnoo’-zen-seat)

In Business Class, the comfort of your own PrivateBed.

Welcome aboard. You’re about to discover a quality of service and an attention to detail so outstanding, it’s almost beyond words. That’s why we’ve created a few of our own words to describe the Lufthansa experience. Browse through our language and learn more about the service and style that’s uniquely Lufthansa.

(Via Away With Words)

There are a number of small bidirectional German-English law dictionaries on the market. (Click on links to amazon.de in the extended entry)

A commenter asked recently whether one would be useful for someone studying translation with law as their main subject. That depends what the student wants it for. If you want a dictionary to use in translation tests where dictionaries are allowed, it would be worth getting used to using the largest possible, Dietl or Romain. Doesn’t have to be the latest edition. The other dictionaries are all too small. But their price is popular! If you want something to supplement classes, a monolingual dictionary is worth considering.

Then there are interpreters who want a dictionary to carry with them to court. And German law students learning legal English. They all need something different.

But the first thing a legal translator needs is monolingual encyclopaedic works and textbooks.

To read a few superficial remarks about some of these dictionaries, see overleaf (as it were). Continue reading →

Someone has been lying to the Fürther Nachrichten again, in this case to Volker Dittmar about the lockers at the new thermal baths:

Natürlich ist das Fürthermare eine Klasse für sich. Dazu gehört die Körper und Geist gleichermaßen fordernde Aufnahmeprüfung. Wer es geschafft hat, mit der eingesprungenen Waage die Türen der Umkleidekabine zuzudrücken und gleichzeitig den Schließbügel umzulegen, hat praktisch das Vordiplom schon in der Tasche. Er braucht dann nur noch den Intelligenztest, mit dem Magnetismus des Spindschlosses zu bestehen, um die höheren Fürthermare-Weihen zu erhalten. Weil aller guten Dinge drei sind, muss man allerdings die Schranknummer auf der persönlichen Festplatte speichern, um nach erfolgreichem Einweichen wieder an die deponierten Kleider zu kommen – was bei etlichen hundert identischen Türen schon eine reife Kulturleistung darstellt. Allerdings gibt es eine wunderbare Absicherung gegen Gedächtnislücken: Auf dem Belegzettel, den man am Eingang zusammen mit dem Sesam-öffne-dich-Chip in die Flossen gedrückt bekommt, ist ein Code vermerkt, über den der belegte Kleiderschrank ausfindig gemacht werden kann. Pech nur, wenn der Beleg im Spind deponiert wurde. Dann bewahrheitet sich einmal mehr der Spruch, dass Fürth nicht anzieht, aber festhält.

He is quite right that closing both doors of the cubicle simultaneously is more than a warm-up exercise. But my experience with the locker was completely different: I got a plastic wristband with a chip embedded. I used this to open a locker, number 454. After I’d closed it, I wondered if I could remember the number. But there is a device you hold the armband against that shows you the number. I intend to choose an easy number like 200 or 300 next time in case this device ever breaks down. It took a while to find someone to tell me which lockers were not in use and how to open the ones that weren’t. And I have been to a number of thermal baths once only, but their systems were always easier to use than this (possibly because you can buy extra things with your chip, like food or entrance to the sauna or the Solegrotte.

But the FN quote above says that the number of your locker is on your receipt. Is that true? Maybe it is, and you can keep the receipt outside the locker.

It’s unfortunate IMO that there is so much rivalry with the place in Stein that now calls itself Kristall Palm Beach and has a bizarre mixture of Hawaii / ancient Egypt / stones and crystals imagery. The competition seems to drive both enterprises in the direction of giant saunas, where Palm Beach just happened to open what it calls the largest sauna in the world yesterday. Nürnberger Nachrichten:

Im Saunadorf des Spaßbades «Palm Beach» in Stein bei Nürnberg haben 526 Gäste zusammen einen Weltrekord im Saunabaden aufgestellt. … Fünf Saunaöfen, deren Leistung zum Beheizen von zehn Einfamilienhäusern ausreicht, hatten den Raum auf 70 Grad temperiert. Nach einem Aufguss mussten die dicht Gedrängten fünf Minuten lang in der Hitze ausharren. Ein Notar bezeugte anschließend den Erfolg des Rekordversuchs.

I wonder what a notary’s fee is for confirming that 526 people stayed in a sauna for 5 minutes.