KFC (and I don't mean Kaiserslautern!)

Boy do I wish I had a picture for you today. I guess you'll just have to believe me on this.... We found a Kentucky Fried Chicken! It's in Saarbruecken, about 30 minutes west of here near the French border. We spotted it from the Autobahn and decided to zero in for a closer look. Sure enough, it was a genuine KFC, so we stopped for lunch. It's no exaggeration when I say walking in there was like walking into the U.S. again. It was a carbon copy of an American KFC, except, of course, for the semi-German language menu. There was a mixture of English (for example, "Chicken Wrap" and "cole slaw") and German (once we figured out that "Kartoffelpuree" is mashed potatoes we had no problem ordering everything our greasy little chicken hearts desired.)

Having spent a little time in the local German McDonald's, we've come to expect that the seating will be limited and the menu will incorporate non-McDonald-like food items (Jalapeno Poppers? Really?) The KFC, however, takes the Beaver Award for staying true to the original. The food was good, the chicken crispy and the service was friendly. For what more could one ask?

I have to add one more thing about our KFC side-trip, though. You might want to sit down for this one. They used real silverware and glass dishes. Yep, it's true. They may get our award for staying true to the original, but they can't circumvent Germany's commitment to the environment. There was very little to throw away other than our drink cups and a couple of paper wrappers. Everything else went in the stack for the dishwasher. Amazing, huh? We wondered as we walked out of the restaurant if the United States could ever change its ways so drastically as to trust customers with real silverware and glass dishes at fast food restaurants. Just think, McDonald's alone has 30,000 restaurants worldwide; the amount of trash they could prevent from going to the landfills would be enormous if they did away with the paper packaging and offered everything on a plate. It would be a big change, but wouldn't it be worth it?

Enjoy your day and think of us the next time you see that big red and white bucket in the sky!

Germany's "Obamamania"

I'll say it up front: I'm no political analyst. I've even done my best to avoid all teachings of history and/or government in my long and addled college career. So it stands to reason that I've been kind of baffled by the fact that German friends and acquaintances have asked me a number of times over the past year how I feel about Obama and whether I think America will vote for him. (I must add that they originally asked me about Hillary up until she mercifully called it quits.) I'm still baffled, but this article gave me a few thoughts to ponder on the subject.

The article refers to a German opinion poll saying, "72 percent of Germans would vote for him over Republican John McCain in the Nov. 4 election if they could." Which isn't all that strange given that this is a rather liberal country (they support same-sex marriage, they have socialized medicine and they are extremely environmentally conscious.) While the ones I talk to seem to be pleased with their own (female) selection of Chancellor Angela Merkel, they nevertheless tend to recoil from any government leader that might bring on that rock star feeling (understandable, given their history.) So why are they so supportive of Obama?

I'm not sure the article fully explains it, especially since it quotes only one German and one American living in Germany (how's that for a cross-section!?) Even so, I think it does serve to shed a little light on why my neighbors are so interested in our election this year.