Further information:

bq. His grandfather was a tailor, his grandmother a school teacher. Rehnquist grew up in Wisconsin, the son of paper salesman and a translator. …

bq. In 1952, he graduated first in his class at Stanford University’s law school, where he briefly dated O’Connor, the high court’s first female justice.

bq. Rehnquist caused great amusement when he departed from tradition by adding four shiny gold stripes to each sleeve of his black robe in 1995. The flourish was inspired by a costume in a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.

How did I miss this for so long?

Erstes Wiener Gemüseorchester

I wonder how many of those CDs they sell?

Via mimi smartypants, who writes:

bq. The first vegetable orchestra, which I actually found by Googling “vegetable orchestra” for no reason at all. You can read it in English by clicking at the top of the page. I just think the German page is funnier, somehow, even though I do not speak or read German.

It has been reported that Chief Justice William Rehnquist has died at the age of 80. There had been speculations as to his retiring on account of thyroid cancer.
Hearings are about to start for Judge John Roberts, nominated by President Bush to replace Sandra Day O’Connor.

See Jurist, Wikipedia

But why was he called William Hubbs Rehnquist when he was born William Donald Rehnquist? Here is a partial answer:

bq. On the bench one day, the chief justice also divulged a long-kept secret. During an oral argument, a question arose about someone’s middle name. Chief Justice Rehnquist scribbled a note to his colleagues and passed it along. He was not born William Hubbs Rehnquist, the name the world knows him by.
“I was once William D. (Donald) until I changed my middle name in high school to H (Hubbs — my grandmother’s maiden name,” he wrote.

(Handakte WebLAWg)

I was tempted last year by the Pocket Opera Company doing Purcell and Bussotti in the abandoned Fürth waste incineration plant (operational for only 4 weeks, with one serious incident). I think the audience have to do some climbing and moving around too, though. But it’s ‘Germany’s largest opera house’, and you mustn’t wear full evening attire.

LTU says hallo (in Stern):

CSU says goodbye:

The Germans call Happy Families Quartett.

Here is a German legal Happy Families game (Spiegel, maker).

The Germans also have a game they invented called Mensch Ärgere Dich Nicht. This seems to be a variation of ludo.