Greenhaddock is an Englishman living in Germany, whose blog is new to me. Here is his advent calendar:
Those are very German figures on there.
Via PapaScott
And here’s a Swiss advent calendar. The entry for December 1st starts with an unacknowledged translation from Hamlet.
These ceramic figures of Volker Heißmann and Martin Rassau, the local comedians, will be sold on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, the closer you get, the less lifelike they are. Maybe they were inspired by Otmar Hörl’s hares and owls. The local rag got better photos.
This is a Sandgrasnelke which I photographed last Sunday. I don’t know what it is, except that it is a kind of pink or carnation and its leaves and stems are covered with wax to withstand a dry climate. I don’t think it should be flowering in November, somehow.
LATER NOTE: it’s armeria elongata, not a carnation at all. Armeria maritima is thrift, and is similar – this is a subspecies.
One of the desirable jobs in the English legal world is that of the impresario-like figure of the barrister’s clerk. A clerk and his (are there any women?) assistants arrange the diaries of the barristers in whose chambers they are employed, in return for a cut.
Professor John Flood (no, Germanists, this is the other Professor John Flood) specializes in studying lawyers. He has studied and taught in Britain and the U.S.A.
My first major study was of barristers’ clerks, which is about to be revisited. This was followed by an ethnography of a large law firm in Chicago looking at the organisation of the law firm and the relationships between lawyers and clients. …The most recent research, funded by the German Science Foundation at Bremen University, will examine cross-border lawmaking in large law firms.
This is interesting stuff on which we must keep an eye. Professor Flood even has a weblog, Random Academic Thoughts (RATs for short).
His 1983 book on barristers’ clerks is online as a PDF and looks like an enjoyable read. The first appendix describes the experience of researching barristers’ chambers from the inside.
From a review on amazon.de (three stars out of five):
Was mir jedoch nicht gefallen hat, ist der fürchterliche Schreibstil des Autors, der sich hinter dem Pseudonym “Gesetzgeber” versteckt (ich glaube, ich weiß nun auch endlich, welcher Autor das berühmte Schild in deutschen Aufzügen verfasst hat*). In Frankreich habe ich in einem ganz ähnlichen Buch einen weit flüssigeren, eleganteren Stil und vor allem eine tadellosere Grammatik vorgefunden.
*Für Aufzugvermeider: Der Text lautet “Es ist verboten, Personen in Aufzügen zu befördern, in denen das Befördern von Personen verboten ist.”
Google Books reveals Wullschläger’s 1856 dictionary for missionaries (spotted by Trevor).
I always find it bizarre to find German written in Fraktur and the other language not.
jdn. als Koch anstellen: potti hem na koki
der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm: aranja (od. manja) no fadóm fárawei vo hem boom
das Bein brechen: broko hem foetoe
das Gesetz brechen: broko da wet
Eingang: doro
einheimische Kräuter: krioro wiwiri
Deutsch: opo-duisi
Dickbein:bigi-foetoe
Furz: popòe; winti
Geschwätz: taki taki; taki
Nebel: smoko vo gron; dampoe; smoko