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Remember when shit started popping off in Boston on King Street, and George and Martha ran off to Ecuador to escape the turmoil? Yea, me neither. Stay and be part of the solution. Get your mug on some currency in 150 years. It is now time for all good men....ahh nevermind, I just got a Zillow notification about some fly beachside pad in Dominical.

What's the point of saving democracy if you keel over before the inauguration? But looks delicious tho.

Took my 18-year-old daughter with me to vote this morning. Was cool to be in the voting station next to her as she went through her choices.

Steam-powered chori-pan dude needs to throw some handsoap in the milk crate.

In capitalist America, Fruit Loops loop you.

Joust sayin “what up?”

My dumb ass thought the grocery store was out of Fruit Loops because of damn port strike hoarders.

Watched Bama beat Aggy by like 50 from somewhere in China about 10 years ago. Had my wife set up her IPad on a TV tray in front of the TV at home. Then I just FaceTimed with her. She moved the IPad until the TV screen filled my IPad screen and then she went shopping. Worked surprisingly well. No VPN needed. Just a good wifi signal in a hotel.

I may do Battista's tonight and sit at the bar since I am solo. Last time I sat at the bar there was this huge old guy sitting next to me and we started chatting as we were watching a baseball game. He had worked in casino management in Vegas and was working for a casino in Reno but here for a meeting with some mothership casino. Super interesting stories--but the best was that he had pitched in college for Arizona or Arizona State (can't remember); he also had a short stint in the pros. He was like Randy Johnson tall (not near as ugly). I suspect his release point was 9 foot when he pitched. He said he always hits up Battista's when he comes back as do most of his casino buddies.

Anyone conferencing out here this week? Fairly dead. But it's Tuesday....

Here are some more thoughts on things to do in Berlin. I will be a bit more succinct. Fight the urge to go to Check Point Charlie. You won't listen to me and you will go anyway. It's a waste. (There is a bit of an outdoor museum thing there that salvages it a bit). Tourist trap. Skip it. Berlin is spread out. I would do the Hop-on/Hop-off bus tour on my first day to get a lay of the land. The accompanying audioguide is fairly educational. From Brandenburg Gate you can walk west through a nice green area to the Victory Column. It's a nice stroll. You can also walk east along the main road and go past Humboldt Univ., the museum area, the cathedral, the Neue Wache monument and probably some book sellers. It's a nice stroll as well. You will eventually come to Alexanderplatz and the TV tower. There is a restaurant at the top of the TV tower. I have had several work functions up there. The food is not terrible and you get a nice view. It won't be your best meal, but... If you keep walking you will come to the Hofbrau Wirtshaus. Yes, it is a chain-type thing. It is also a lot of fun. The house band is fantastic. It gets rocking in there on Friday and Saturday nights. It is a fun stop. The big fried pig knuckle is pretty dang good with a beer. Also along that walk is another pretty good place for traditional German food. The Treffpunkt--on the corner of Friedrichstase and Mittelstrase. https://www.treffpunktberlin.com/ It's somewhat of a cross between a bar and a restaurant. They do traditional German pretty well--and it is fairly priced. Good lunch spot. The bathrooms are downstairs--go check out the markings on how they differentiate the men's from the women's rooms. Good stuff. There are many cool beer gardens in Berlin. I am not sure there are any I haven't visited. One of my favorites is Schleusenkrug. https://www.schleusenkrug.de/ It is near the zoo and is nice and green with a river view. Great place. Highly recommend. Prater Beer Garden is the one you hear about a lot. It is huge. It is a bit more difficult to get to but is somewhat iconic. All beer gardens have good beer-drinking food. Have beers and get some snacks. The museums are first class. Hit up many of them. The Pergamon is my favorite, but I think it is closed. Most of the museums are in the same area down by Alexanderplatz The one museum that is great that is off by itself is the Gemaldegalerie. It is the old masters museum and is fantastic. Near the Brandenburg Gate is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews. It is impressive. Go see it. The Wall Museum is good. Maybe get a private guide if you can. Stopping here for now. I will add one more thing. Go to Potsdam by train if you have an afternoon to kills. It is really nice. Beautiful grounds. Finally, carry some change. Many of the public bathrooms are pay-for-use.

@TxEX84 Thanks for the reminder. I used to work in Berlin quite a bit. I'm a huge fan. The city has a grit that reminds me a somewhat of Chicago--just seems very real. Here are some things I would hit up I you have time. The East Side Gallery. This is outside and free. You can just walk along and enjoy. The are several sections that get repainted so only some is historic, but it is always interesting. My recollection is that artists have to submit a plan for approval and then they get a time frame on a section. It is different everytime I am there. To get there probably best to just take the U to Warschauer Strause U stop. I think it is the last stop on that line. Neat old stop in a massive brick structure. In terms of public transportation, you generally don't scan in and out of turnstiles, etc. There is just an assumption that you have a pass. Don't get complacent though as everyonce in a while a transit officer will board a train car and ask to see everyone's pass. If you can't show yours, they will drag you off at the next stop. I don't know what happens to those people, but they always look pretty worried as the train pulls away. Ok. Now I have a low-rent rec near the ESG and the Warschauer Strause stop. The gallery is on the northside of the river. There is a bridge over the river just a bit east of the ESG. On the corner where you would turn south for the bridge is a guilty pleasure--Scheer's Schnitzel. It's a hole in the wall--basically a place that makes schnitzel and fries and that is about it. It's gritty, it's greasy, and it is fantastic. I have had schnitzel all over Germany and Austria, many at high end places like Figlmuller in Vienna. If I was told I could have only one more in my life, I would go get one from Scheer's served on a paper plate with a slice of lemon and one of their sauces from a squeeze bottle. I like the mayo/garlic one best, but many are good. From there, you can walk across that bridge to the south to hit up several of my other Berlin favorites. The walk across the bridge is a bit disgusting--lots of little nooks for people to piss in, and this section of town is a bit bar-driven so prepare your nose. The next stop down from Warschauer S is Schlesisches Tor U stop. You can ride the U if you want to skip the bridge stroll, but walking across the bridge gives you a good view of Molecule Men art installation that is in the river to the east. It's huge. You won't miss it. You can walk down to it on the southside of the river, but I am not sure it is any better up close--and that particular part of Berlin is sketchy--more on that later. All that side, I would walk across the bridge. It is better than waiting on the U. Now you are in a fun part of town that many locals go to for drinking and just being outside. Again, a bit gritty though. Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg--south. I have a few must do's here and one must avoid. Under the U tracks and just a bit north of the Schlesisches Tor U stop is Burgermeister--maybe the best burgers on the planet. Now you may still have a bellyfull of Scheer's so just come back here after you are drunk--more on that in the next paragraph. But, stop here you must at some point. It seems that all of Berlin ends up at Burgermeister at some point late in the night. There are several Burgermesiters around Berlin, but this is the one to hit up. https://burgermeister.com/our-story/?lang=en This one is the OG--and the stall is an old public toilet. There are no tables to sit out--in fact it is outside. It is basically a stall under the U tracks. You order from a green shack then you wait for your order. There are little round tables you can stand at to eat with whatever other person is also standing there. Everyone just shares tables. On Friday and Saturday nights there will be hundreds of people there laughing and talking and enjoying great burgers and fries. The shack doesn't sell booze but there is a liquor store right across the street and you can buy a tallboy beer and walk back to the table while your burger is grilling. I have met people from all over the world sharing a table. One of my favorite encounters was with some guys from Galway. They had just gotten of the plane and said they always went there first thing to get burgers before going to clubs. (The Matrix is one of those famous Berlin clubs and is back across the bridge), When I told them all I knew about Galway (I had not been to Galway then; I have now) came from Steve Earle imploring about his Galway girl and what could he do cuz her hair was black and her eyes were blue. One of the guys laughed and said well move over a bit and you get to meet a Galway girl--a blackhaired/blue-eyed stunningly beautiful girl then walked up with the sack of burgers for her boyfriend and the other two guys at our little table. Anyway, get a burger from Burgermeister after you hit up my favorite beer spot in Berlin--next paragraph. There are great beer gardens around Berlin, but they all have the standard German beer choices. You won't see any if at all local craft beer at a beer garden. And Berlin and Germany has some good craft beer; you just have to search it out. My favorite of these hidden craft places is just a few blocks from Burgermeister. The place is small and fantastic: Hopfenreich, located on Wrangelstrause. http://hopfenreich.de/ Great group of owners who are really into beer. It's not a big place but is comfortable and has inside and outside seating on a small residential street. The beer is great, the music is good and the taps/furniture are all really cool old repurposed industrial equipment and tools. The beer taps come out of a huge lathe, some of the tables still have vices and clamps attached. Just look around for cool stuff. I usually sit here for hours then go get a Burgermeister. The other really cool venue near there is Markthalle Neun. This is the old market hall (#9) for the area. It is huge. https://markthalleneun.de/ It is a great place to kill an hour or so and sample cheeses, breads, all kinds of food and other stuff depending on the day. In the summer on Thursday nights, they even bring in food trucks and it gets packed. Super fun. In the back left corner is a small beer nook--this place has great beer and one of the other places in Berlin to get some craft. Can't recommend Markthalle Neun highly enough. Maybe even get dinner there. There are lots of choices and it is fun. Communal tables--eat and then go to Hopfenreich. There are other cool places in that neighborhood including a great icecream place that is also busy in the evenings. But you can just explore around. The one place to avoid though is Görlitzer Park . This is a bad scene. Drug fiends and a bad crowd in general. When you have heard of bad shit going down in Berlin--people getting attacked by mobs and such--it likely happened here. I ended up walking though Gorli with my wife one Sunday afternoon,and it is the only time in all my travels around the world where I honestly thought we were in danger. We got surrounded by a group of about a dozen youngish punks, and I am not sure why they finally let us walk away. I have since seen numerous stories about that exact thing happening to people with terrible outcomes. Don't go over there. Ok. I will add some more stuff in a bit.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFRpaXMr/

fewer...

My brother-in-law and I (both 50s) watching Gameday this weekend: "This show is unwatchable now that McAfee is on the set." 21-year-old nephew walks in: "McAfee made this show watchable finally." Me:

Can I delete the top 2?

I agree, but....