While listening to North German radio station NDR2, I discovered that Germans are now celebrating Halloween. In listening to random snipits of the NDR braodcast, I discover that Germans say "sweet or sour" as opposed to "trick or treat". I'm not entirely clear if the German phrase means "if you don't give me something sweet I'll become sour (angry)", if you don't give me something sweet, I'll make you sour (again, angry)", or whether people may give sweets or sour things away. I'm sure the latter would make dentists happier. To make things even more confusing, I find out that there is a movement to designate October 31st, Martin Luther day, the day that he nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg door.
In thinking about trick or treating in this coutry, I am often reminded that when I was 3 years old, and did not speak English yet, I refused an apple handed out by a kindly neighbor women. I told her in German that I only accepted sweets. "Ich nehme bloss Bonbons."
Because Budweiser made up the vast majority of the roadside trash that I gathered in my neighborhood (see previous posting), I thought I would honor them with a new crown. In fact, if you add up all the Anheuser-Busch products (Natural Ice, Natural Light, Michelob, and Bud Extra) the total trash items goes from 33 to 40 items. Considering that I picked up 79 pieces of trash total, that means Anheuser-Busch made up over half of all the trash that I found in my neighborhood. It makes me wonder why that is. Are drinkers of other brands of beer more conscientious? Is there something about the brand that attracts certain people? Is there something in the Budweiser message that communicates, "drink me and then throw me out your car window". Well, that brings up yet another disconcerting idea. Given that I haven't noticed any pedestrians carrying beer cans, why are all these people drinking beer in their cars? Is it just my neighborhood? What does your litter look like?