Why are there no direct flights from NYC to Prague? :-)

Why is there no high speed line into Czechia?

Why do they make it hard to visit the land of boobs?

"Rich Men North of Richmond" sounds awfully Confederacy friendly. :-/

That weird German devotion to the environment is driving your land crazy... :-/

In contrast, nobody cares about that stuff around here when it comes to existing single family homes. Those with large apartments, OTOH, can be spooked when the city raises standards for heating units, but the solution is generally seen as an expensive retrofit. Nobody is tearing down their century old apartment building for a more efficient building.

So he escaped Communism...because he was married to the former occupier in 1945...

Oof. You only see rich immigrant types do that around here.

Otherwise, a tear down is the province of developers who know how to beat the town or city building codes and deal with awful building departments. Most people don't have that skill, so it's easier to buy the pre-nice house from the developer at some inflated price.

It's weird. I remember you mentioning visiting, and that your mom wanted the land back, but not the fact that you still had family there, or that you visited during Communism.

I'm somewhat biased given that I've seen my parents and an aunt die before retirement age, and a decent number of the older people in my life somewhat wonky health issues. So I'm inclined to support enjoying your youth because the retirement that's shown on TV can be a myth for some families.

My mom was in that cohort. Do not recommend.

OTOH, my niece and nephew knew their grandparents *and* a great-grandparent.

I have no kids, and my friend with a kid said I dress like a dad.

So it's quite possible to be in a weird state where you feel old, yet not feel like an adult.

I would have argued that's lame, but after a whole bunch of hard fought three day weekends where I did nothing and felt so unaccomplished, I'm going to celebrate your productive use of time.

You had relatives on the other side?

One day shall be story telling time. :-)

*but the workers keep going down*

I have to admit, I wonder how the Japanese get away with it. They use insane amounts of warm bodies compared to the Europeans.

OTOH, I've seen some old looking dudes at construction sites and driving cabs in Tokyo...

Which leads to a fun "where do the parts come from" question? Is it stuff sourced from other parts of Germany, Europe, or overseas?

It's been a while since I've been in the Bundesrepublik, but how common are those things?

In ethnic supermarkets, they don't exist yet, while in the big chains, they've been there for almost 15 years. I've seen one 24/7 market turn them off after 10 PM forcing everybody to use the checkout lane, while another market leaves them as the only option in the last hour before closing.

I'm still fearful for NYC given that commercial real estate paid so much in property taxes, and the bourgeois talk of just converting it all to residential is silly given that the buildings aren't designed for that purpose, and residential generally pays less in property tax in comparison. NYC will have to raise taxes to paper over this, and while there's something to give in a NYC, places like Baltimore have even less runway for something like that.

It's as if a whole generation of growth and future promise was wiped away in 2020.

And this explains why you're online discussing Bitcoin, Catholicism, etc. There's no one in the real world to discuss that stuff with at your level. :-(

I suspect it's easier for you because you're very intelligent and have the intellectual capability to discuss and understand *ideas*.

Some of us in the "smart enough but not as intelligent" cohort eventually realize our limitations, especially as we age in comparison to your cohort.

So you're a unicorn? :-)

I think there's some weird desire to have the marriage feel like dating (or at minimum pre-children marriage) to keep things "exciting" or in reality "youthful". I don't know if hobbies can fill that niche, especially if your partner isn't as interested.