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A dog walker is talking to another dog walker about the C-topic. He loves to throw in one-word sentences. "So." he says to emphasise he just proved a point and he is now about to make another one. "Aber." (But.) This to announce he is about to nuance the point he just made. And a bit later this is followed by: "Ich habe immer schon gesagt..." ("I've always said...")
A father gives advice to his little daughter who is learning to walk: "Beim Laufen nach vorne gucken hilft!" (It helps when you look ahead while walking!)
Three young women are sitting together on a bench. One says she learnt not to try to entertain (men) and keep a conversation going if she doesn't feel like it. Now, she just lets the conversation die down. She gives two examples: "Schön..." (Nice...) and "Cool..."
There is a community garden near to my house, which started up in 1915. There is also a garden tavern where elderly Berliner are sitting around on plastic chairs. My neighbour tells me she asked what kind of drinks they sell. "Na, alles was es so gibt in einem Café! (Na, everything that is usually on offer in a café!). "Cappuccino?" my neighbour asked. "Nee, das nicht." (No, not that one.)
Did you know that Andy Warhol loved drinking cappuccino? I read so in Blake Gopnik's new 961 pages long biography on Warhol. Here on page 146: "Warhol was addicted to cappuccino - the drink was still 'a symbol of subversive sophistication'- and so became such a regular at Serendipity that word got out he was a part owner. He offered the actual owners his finest ideas for retailing- for instance, that they should sell real Hollywood stars' underwear, used and new - but he was probably of more use as a one-man revenue stream. Within a few years, he was running up a yearly tab in the thousands."
A tree in the park is taken over by worms. My friend C is concerned and goes to the district office to report the infestation. "I feel so German," she tells me. The day afterwards on my walk through the park I notice that a red and white tape now barricades the tree. A very German answer to a German request.
My neighbour complains about the bird calls around the house. According to her, we have only birds that have ugly voices, like the sparrows (tsip tsip tsip), the pigeons (coo roo-coo-coo), the crows (caw). New arrivals for summer are the swifts, which are known for their flight but not for their song: "sriih-sriih!"
This week, every morning at 5:30am, the crows seem to have some issues. They are fighting loudly with hoarse caws. I record the sound and ask my friend W, who knows everything about birds, what they are fighting about. "Sie wollen ihre Anwesenheit kundtun," W says. (They want to announce their presence.) On the internet I read that crows sometimes kill other crows, defending their mates, food and territory boundaries. It's also interesting to know that a group of crows is called a "murder."
E who lives in Scotland, tells me that she saw a friend today who was so happy to see for the first time a person who is not framed by a rectangle. Then they discovered that E is standing in the doorway of her house, which is also a rectangle.
