DDT Filled Mormons

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 12:57:58 +0200, Martin <[email protected]> wrote:

    >On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 17:02:21 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
    ><[email protected]> wrote:
    >>Martin wrote:
    >>> On Sat, 09 Jul 2005 11:37:34 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
    >>> <[email protected]> wrote:
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>>[email protected] wrote:
    >>>>>Tom Peel wrote:
    >>>>>>We asked our visiting Mexican students. The answer was:
    >>>>>>1. In Germany, the mustard.
    >>>>>surprised, how ?
    >>>>They probably were accustomed to the smooth, bright yellow
    >>>>paste that is most familiar in the U.S. (and evidently
    >>>>Mexico). Not only is the appearance of German mustard
    >>>>drastically different, the taste differs radically, too.
    >>>
    >>>
    >>> and they weren't surprised by the beer?
    >>These were Mexican students - Mexican beer isn't nearly so
    >>bad as American! (Also, depending upon their ages, in a
    >>chaperoned group they may not have been exposed to German beer.)
    >Corona is as bad as anything I have ever drunk.

But with a twist of lemon, it becomes much more interesting.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

DDT Filled Mormons

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 11:25:20 +0100, Keith Anderson
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:55:00 +0200, Martin <[email protected]> wrote:
    >>On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 12:55:52 +0200, Ralph Holz <[email protected]>
    >>wrote:
    >>>Hi,
    >>>Juliana L Holm wrote:
    >>>> 1. The amazingly low cost for great food in the french countryside.
    >>>>
    >>>> 2. The way Germans queue (or fail to)
    >>>I noticed that, too, when abroad. It seem we lack the gene.
    >>Only a few nationalities do queue.
    >One of the most orderly queues I've ever seen was in Germany. It was
    >in Pankow (E Berlin) inn DDR times.
    >I was wandering along, minding my own business, and in front of me
    >were two people carring bananas in a string bag. Passers-by were
    >staring at them - then running. I followed the runners to a fruit and
    >vegetable shop (probably called "Obst & Gemüse 27" or something like
    >that).where a long, rather excited queue had formed. A small truck
    >arrived shortly afterwards with the bananas. But there was no pushing
    >and shoving - but there again, it might have been because a Vopo
    >arrived to keep an eye on things.
    >There were often queues in DDR restaurants, too.

Tell me again why the world fell out of love with communism?
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Martin

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:45:10 +0100, "JohnT"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    >news:[email protected].. .
    >> On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 17:02:21 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
    >> <[email protected]> wrote:
    >>>Martin wrote:
    >>>> On Sat, 09 Jul 2005 11:37:34 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
    >>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
    >>>>>[email protected] wrote:
    >>>>>>Tom Peel wrote:
    >>>>>>>We asked our visiting Mexican students. The answer was:
    >>>>>>>1. In Germany, the mustard.
    >>>>>>surprised, how ?
    >>>>>They probably were accustomed to the smooth, bright yellow
    >>>>>paste that is most familiar in the U.S. (and evidently
    >>>>>Mexico). Not only is the appearance of German mustard
    >>>>>drastically different, the taste differs radically, too.
    >>>> and they weren't surprised by the beer?
    >>>These were Mexican students - Mexican beer isn't nearly so
    >>>bad as American! (Also, depending upon their ages, in a
    >>>chaperoned group they may not have been exposed to German beer.)
    >> Corona is as bad as anything I have ever drunk.
    >> --
    >> Martin
    >It is at least a million times better than American Budweiser.

Score 1 on a scale of 1 to 100 then :-)

    >Are you sure
    >that you are not confusing Corona with Sol?

I doubt it, I have never heard of Sol.
--
Martin

Martin

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:01:49 GMT, DDT Filled Mormons
<deepfreudmoors@eITmISaACTUALLYiREAL!l.nu> wrote:

    >On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 12:57:58 +0200, Martin <[email protected]> wrote:
    >>On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 17:02:21 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
    >><[email protected]> wrote:
    >>>Martin wrote:
    >>>> On Sat, 09 Jul 2005 11:37:34 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
    >>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
    >>>>
    >>>>
    >>>>>[email protected] wrote:
    >>>>>>Tom Peel wrote:
    >>>>>>>We asked our visiting Mexican students. The answer was:
    >>>>>>>1. In Germany, the mustard.
    >>>>>>surprised, how ?
    >>>>>They probably were accustomed to the smooth, bright yellow
    >>>>>paste that is most familiar in the U.S. (and evidently
    >>>>>Mexico). Not only is the appearance of German mustard
    >>>>>drastically different, the taste differs radically, too.
    >>>>
    >>>>
    >>>> and they weren't surprised by the beer?
    >>>These were Mexican students - Mexican beer isn't nearly so
    >>>bad as American! (Also, depending upon their ages, in a
    >>>chaperoned group they may not have been exposed to German beer.)
    >>Corona is as bad as anything I have ever drunk.
    >But with a twist of lemon, it becomes much more interesting.

So does sparkling water, but it doesn't make it into beer.
--
Martin

Goalie of the Century

In message <[email protected]>, DDT Filled
Mormons <deepfreudmoors@eITmISaACTUALLYiREAL!l.nu> writes
    >On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 11:25:20 +0100, Keith Anderson
    ><[email protected]> wrote:

    >>There were often queues in DDR restaurants, too.
    >Tell me again why the world fell out of love with communism?

On my first visit to the USA, I was SURPRISED to have to queue at
Denny's on a Sunday morning. The food was surprisingly ordinary too.
--
Goalie of the Century

Martin

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:29:16 GMT, Goalie of the Century
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >In message <[email protected]>, DDT Filled
    >Mormons <deepfreudmoors@eITmISaACTUALLYiREAL!l.nu> writes
    >>On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 11:25:20 +0100, Keith Anderson
    >><[email protected]> wrote:
    >>>There were often queues in DDR restaurants, too.
    >>Tell me again why the world fell out of love with communism?
    >On my first visit to the USA, I was SURPRISED to have to queue at
    >Denny's on a Sunday morning. The food was surprisingly ordinary too.

Not to mention the vast queues at Disneyland.
--
Martin

Mimi

"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 09:54:13 +0100, The Reids
    > <[email protected]> wrote:
    >>Following up to Padraig Breathnach
    >>>I react the same way when I come back to Ireland from France. I think
    >>>that most drivers quickly become habituated to driving on the other
    >>>side of the road, and that it's about as difficult to revert to one's
    >>>home habit -- just more surprising.
    >>If you hire a car its easy, the problem is to do with having a
    >>wrong side car, adjusting, then re adjusting.
    > and changing gear using the window winder.

I feared opening the door.

Marianne

DDT Filled Mormons

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 15:32:36 +0200, Martin <[email protected]> wrote:

    >On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:29:16 GMT, Goalie of the Century
    ><[email protected]> wrote:
    >>In message <[email protected]>, DDT Filled
    >>Mormons <deepfreudmoors@eITmISaACTUALLYiREAL!l.nu> writes
    >>>On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 11:25:20 +0100, Keith Anderson
    >>><[email protected]> wrote:
    >>>>There were often queues in DDR restaurants, too.
    >>>Tell me again why the world fell out of love with communism?
    >>On my first visit to the USA, I was SURPRISED to have to queue at
    >>Denny's on a Sunday morning. The food was surprisingly ordinary too.
    >Not to mention the vast queues at Disneyland.

For bananas?
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Keith Anderson

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:04:06 GMT, DDT Filled Mormons
<deepfreudmoors@eITmISaACTUALLYiREAL!l.nu> wrote:


    >>There were often queues in DDR restaurants, too.
    >Tell me again why the world fell out of love with communism?

'Cos the food tasted like English school dinners of the 1950s and
60's. An abuse of basic human rights, individual liberty, and a brutal
attack on the digestive system, especially if flushed down by a beer
from the local VEB Getränkekombinat.


Keith, Bristol, UK

DE-MUNG for email replies

Gregory Morrow

Keith Anderson wrote:

    > On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:55:00 +0200, Martin <[email protected]> wrote:
    > >On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 12:55:52 +0200, Ralph Holz <[email protected]>
    > >wrote:
    > >
    > >>Hi,
    > >>
    > >>Juliana L Holm wrote:
    > >>> 1. The amazingly low cost for great food in the french countryside.
    > >>>
    > >>> 2. The way Germans queue (or fail to)
    > >>
    > >>I noticed that, too, when abroad. It seem we lack the gene.
    > >
    > >Only a few nationalities do queue.
    > One of the most orderly queues I've ever seen was in Germany. It was
    > in Pankow (E Berlin) inn DDR times.
    > I was wandering along, minding my own business, and in front of me
    > were two people carring bananas in a string bag. Passers-by were
    > staring at them - then running. I followed the runners to a fruit and
    > vegetable shop (probably called "Obst & Gemüse 27" or something like
    > that).where a long, rather excited queue had formed. A small truck
    > arrived shortly afterwards with the bananas. But there was no pushing
    > and shoving - but there again, it might have been because a Vopo
    > arrived to keep an eye on things.


Bananas were a rare item in the old Eastern Bloc, typically they and citrus
fruit would only be "plentiful" around the Christmas/New Year's holidays...

After the Wall fell, East Germans went on a banana - buying frenzy, they
seemingly could not get enough. They we were kind of a "forbidden" fruit!


I remember this kind of thing from my visits to the DDR and Czechoslovakia
in the late 70's...

Queues would form seemingly out of nowhere in stores when something nice
would appear. Once I saw a big line of people in the Kotva department store
in Prague, they were anxiously awaiting their turn to buy Japanese portable
radio/cassette recorders. Other times I'd see people lined up to buy
Italian handbags, decent tomatoes, cherries, etc...

The Czechs at that time imported a number of western consumer goods, this
was done partly to "pacify" a sullen population that was kept under control
by Soviet troops...

A friend in Prague travelled all the way to Bratislava overnight by train,
he'd heard that a consignment of Minolta cameras was for sale in that city.
He returned triumphant, camera in hand. This same family regularly
travelled to Budapest to buy things, e.g. nice jeans, etc. that were in
short supply in Prague. East Germans would come to Prague to buy up things
they couldn't find in the DDR (unlike the CSSR, there were practically no
imported things for sale in the DDR [excepting in the hard currency - only
Intershops, of course])...

One well - placed Czech friend boasted that they had a real *Italian* Fiat
car, not one of those crummy Russian Lada knock - offs. She and her husband
were Party members, they had access to a whole range of things that ordinary
people didn't...


    > There were often queues in DDR restaurants, too.


Those can best be described as mob scenes, especially at busy times...

--
Best
Greg

Gregory Morrow

DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

    > Tell me again why the world fell out of love with communism?


The *constant* scrounging for decent things to buy took up a lot of peoples'
time, it created a very *materialist* mentality among the population, the
exact opposite of what their rulers proclaimed.

There was a LOT of black market activity, graft, corruption, stealing from
workplaces. One wonders how the system managed to creak along as far as it
did...

This was the case in relatively prosperous places like East Germany and
Czechoslovakia, both of which had a decent standard of living, I simply
can't imagine what life would have been like in a poor place such as
Romania, USSR, etc.

A Czech friend visited Ukraine on business once, a person there wanted to
"buy" the shoes he was wearing - in trade for a big slab of fatty bacon.
Being Czech, he was of course appalled at the low standard of civilisation
in such a place :-)

--
Best
Greg

Gregory Morrow

DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

    > On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 15:32:36 +0200, Martin <[email protected]> wrote:
    > >On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:29:16 GMT, Goalie of the Century
    > ><[email protected]> wrote:
    > >
    > >>In message <[email protected]>, DDT Filled
    > >>Mormons <deepfreudmoors@eITmISaACTUALLYiREAL!l.nu> writes
    > >>>On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 11:25:20 +0100, Keith Anderson
    > >>><[email protected]> wrote:
    > >>
    > >>>>There were often queues in DDR restaurants, too.
    > >>>
    > >>>Tell me again why the world fell out of love with communism?
    > >>
    > >>On my first visit to the USA, I was SURPRISED to have to queue at
    > >>Denny's on a Sunday morning. The food was surprisingly ordinary too.
    > >
    > >Not to mention the vast queues at Disneyland.
    > For bananas?


This joker is having us on, DFM ;-)

--
Best
Greg

Gregory Morrow

Keith Anderson wrote:

    > On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:04:06 GMT, DDT Filled Mormons
    > <deepfreudmoors@eITmISaACTUALLYiREAL!l.nu> wrote:
    > >>
    > >>There were often queues in DDR restaurants, too.
    > >
    > >Tell me again why the world fell out of love with communism?
    > 'Cos the food tasted like English school dinners of the 1950s and
    > 60's. An abuse of basic human rights, individual liberty, and a brutal
    > attack on the digestive system, especially if flushed down by a beer
    > from the local VEB Getränkekombinat.


Don't forget the "HO" organisations :-)

The thing was most all restaurants were divided into price "categories" and
the menus in each of these categories were all exactly the same...

[In the 80's the DDR built some luxury hotels for hard - currency travellers
from the West, these places had decent food, they even had French and
Japanese restos, etc. Of course, ordinary DDR citizens were barred from
such places]

Culinary school in the DDR, etc. must have been really "interesting"...

For most workers the main meal was lunch served at their workplace canteen.
I ate at a friend's work canteen at his hospital in Dresden (he was a
physician's assistant). Yeah, memories of school food, e.g. lot of macaroni
served plain, "stews", and bread...starch city!

--
Best
Greg

Martin

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 07:43:39 -0700, "Mimi" <[email protected]>
wrote:

    >"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    >news:[email protected].. .
    >> On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 09:54:13 +0100, The Reids
    >> <[email protected]> wrote:
    >>>Following up to Padraig Breathnach
    >>>>I react the same way when I come back to Ireland from France. I think
    >>>>that most drivers quickly become habituated to driving on the other
    >>>>side of the road, and that it's about as difficult to revert to one's
    >>>>home habit -- just more surprising.
    >>>If you hire a car its easy, the problem is to do with having a
    >>>wrong side car, adjusting, then re adjusting.
    >> and changing gear using the window winder.
    >I feared opening the door.

You are not alone.
--
Martin

Tim

"Gregory Morrow"
<gregorymorrowEMERGENCYCANCELLATIONARCHIMEDES@eart hlink.net> wrote in
message news:[email protected] ink.net...

    > Italian handbags, decent tomatoes, cherries, etc...

Oddly these (cherries) were one of the few things that were
easily available on my only trip to the Eastern Block before
the wall came down.

tim