„Dekorative Gestaltung statt Optischer Lasten“ – Agenda 21 Fürth
Führung durch die Fußgängerzone am Mittwoch, 27. Juni 2007 zwischen 18.00-19.30
Roland Loock, Fachlehrer für visuelles Marketing und Sabine Gauditz, Unternehmensberaterin, Visuelles Marketing (Arte Perfectum) zeigen, was wir eigentlich schon immer wussten: Entgegen kommerzieller Trends sind die Menschen letztlich doch Ästheten.

I recently found myself on this tour of the city centre. It was interesting to hear some problems discussed by people who had thought about these things in a wider context.

Some points made:

1. We all have everything, so shopping in the inner city should be fun and encourage you to shop (I think that’s why I like department stores, which we haven’t got, and bookshops, where you can look at things properly)

2. It needs more green, and running water (I was relieved they didn’t suggest turning the whole thing over to growing vegetables)

3. Note this non-convivial seating (cold to sit on, I am told, and btw with matching bike stands – in background – and tree guards, all with 70s-style bronze effect). My belief that the intention is for people not to sit down, especially in the evening, and not to converse in groups, seemed to be shared.

4. Places where people love shopping, like Wertheim Village, have fake historical architecture. Fürth has genuine historical architecture and should make the most of this. (I have a feeling there are more differences between Fürth and Wertheim Village, but let’s overlook that). Some shops have a projecting roof, no longer necessary, which blocks the view to the ornate façades. These ought to be removed. This is good (and they liked the colours):

Fielmann at the far left good, Backwerk and Vodaphone at the right bad. And the Vodaphone sign interferes with the architecture:

5. I had the feeling Vatan Kommunikation wasn’t really appreciated:

For more on the situation in the inner city, see the Oberbürgermeisterchat transcript on 15 May.

bq. Engel: Ich find nicht das in der FuZo viele schicke läden sind, es gibt vielleicht viel Bäcker, Händyläden und 1Euro läden und die guten Geschäfte kann man an einer Hand abzählen!!!
OB Jung: Wir können natürlich nicht mit der Maximilianstr. in München mithalten, aber spontan fallen mir Beispiele wie das neue street one oder die Schuhläden La Pelle und Wetsch ein. Auch Chocolate and More oder der Juwelier Weigmann, Bonakdar, Scherneck Lederwaren… sind chice Läden.
Handy-Geschäfte dominieren alle Fußgängerzonen in Deutschlan, da die einfach am meisten bezahlen.

The trouble with Scherneck – I bought a purse there recently and it was completely empty apart from the owner and two assistants. It felt like going onto a stage to be interviewed in public. I think I got out of the habit of personal service in England.

Next OB chat on July 24th at 6 p.m.

In search of information on St. John the Baptist, I came across what I thought was a serious religious site, Ship of Fools.

Minister: Therefore let us stub out our cigarettes with gladness, and cast off the works of darkness by joining together in the words of the Smoker’s Prayer.
All: Can you give us a light?

and later

THE DISMISSAL
Minister: God hates fags.
All: In the English sense of that word.
Minister: May the marketing of St Peter Stuyvesant, St Benson and St Hedges not be with us all, evermore.
All: Amen.

The site, a kind of newspaper, has some interesting regular features. I was particularly taken by the Mystery Worshipper, a column of reports on secretly visited church services. Here from a report on St. Columba’s, Anfield, Liverpool:

Did anything distract you?
This must be the best-heated church in Christendom and by the end we felt we had been in a sauna. More distracting than the heat, though, was the noise of the fans which were pushing it out. Other distractions were the cocktail-bar altar and wondering which saints were being veiled from sight by the Passiontide drapes (presumably Our Lady and St Columba).
Was the worship stiff-upper-lip, happy clappy, or what?
Modern Anglo-Catholic liturgy (Common Worship Order 1) with incense. The ceremonial was neither fussy nor sloppy; priest and servers – in particular the young girls who served as thurifer and boat-bearer – seemed relaxed and at ease as if worshipping God was the most natural thing possible. The priest, however, during some of the prayers, sounded if he were addressing a class of slightly slow children rather than Almighty God.

I suppose this fits well with the Vatican’s Ten Commandments for Motorists.

It’s puzzled me for many years why so many legal dictionaries translate Gesetz (later addition: in the sense of ‘statute’) as law. The term Act (capital A required) is OK for Britain and the USA both. We use law as a superordinate term for both statutes and delegated legislation. One theory a colleague of mine had was that German lawyers simply think Gesetz means law and so that must be the translation. Another theory is that the procedure for passing a Gesetz in Germany and an Act in the UK are so radically different that never the twain shall meet.

Working Languages reports that we have been saved from a change in EU law terminology that was intended in the constitutional treaty. The intention was to change regulation (Verordnung) and directive (Richtlinie) into law and framework law respectively.

I’m glad I didn’t hear of this earlier. Working Languages discusses the problems of these terms and also the term European law. There is also an excellent link to a House of Lords select committee report on the matter.

I mentioned this before. But I don’t think you get the full shock from that angle. Try this photo taken this afternoon:

How could they do that to that lovely roof in front? I thought town councillors had moved on since the 1970s.

Besprechung auf Deutsch bei zonebattler hier.

In an old entry, life in translation mentions the problem of keeping -or and -ee apart, for example, writing lessor instead of lessee. It’s surprisingly easy to confuse parties in documents, and lawyers do it as well as translators.

Then there are difficult words like mortgagor (Hypothekenschuldner) and mortgagee (Hypothekengläubiger).

It’s not as simple as active and passive (employer, employee; divorcee (used some years ago for women)). So I can’t logically complain about attendees. There’s been a discussion on the Lexicography List. Urdang, I gather, also mentioned amputee (recipient of the result of an action), patentee (a person furnished with the thing named by the root) and escapee (a person performing the action named by the root).

There’s a paper on the topic, entitled Episodic -ee in English:
A thematic role constraint on new word formation
Chris Barker
University of California, San Diego

Some superfluous EEs gathering in Kensington (near ITI conference, April 2007):

Ausschnitt aus ARD Morgenmagazin: Kinder fragen Politiker zu ihren Computern. Mit erstaunlich schwachen Antworten.

Markus Trapp introduces a video clip (in German) from a German breakfast TV show, in which children interview German politicians on their computer use, and the politicians are not very well informed.