Angelika While President Obama was battling with healthcare reform and its critics in recent weeks, something else groundbreaking happened. In early August, the Senate confirmed the appointment of a new Supreme Court Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States: Sonia Sotomayor is not only the third woman to hold this position, but also the first person of Latin American descent in the 220-year history of the court.

Michael Recently, I had to attend the Perl Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for work. Grumbling, I boarded the plane on Sunday afternoon, which didn't even fly directly to Pittsburgh, but only to Cleveland, Ohio, 60 miles away. From there, a propeller plane (!) took me to Pittsburgh. What century do we live in, anyway?

Angelika In Germany, you have known it for a long time: the ominous scrappage bonus, which is intended to drive potential buyers into car dealerships to exchange their old cars for newer, more environmentally friendly models. After much back and forth, America followed suit with the "Cash for Clunkers" campaign, officially called the "Car Allowance Rebate System."

Angelika Every tourist is familiar with the spectacular American national parks that are spread across the entire USA. My goal is to visit each of these national parks at least once. And although Michael and I have already visited quite a few, there are still several we haven't seen. In addition to the national parks, we also enjoy spending time in the so-called state parks, which can be found in every American state. The idea behind the state park system is also to make scenic or historically significant areas or buildings accessible to the public and to preserve them for future generations. California alone boasts 278 state parks with different focuses, including 300 miles of coastline. On average, almost 80 million people visit the various California state parks each year. So, it is quite a popular leisure activity. State parks are smaller compared to national parks: a beach, a forest, a lake, a lighthouse, a mission church.

Michael We have also become quite old and sluggish by now and have recently started going to the same place in Hawaii every year. In the little town of Kailua on the east side of the main island of Oahu, there is a huge crescent-shaped beach with only gentle waves. We always stay, as we did this year at the end of May, in a small vacation apartment from which you can walk barefoot along a 100-meter private pathway to the beach.

Angelika California has not only hit some economic turbulence but has also suffered a loss of image as a pioneering state, at least when it comes to same-sex marriages. In the meantime, six American states--Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Iowa--now allow same-sex couples to marry, while the California Supreme Court judges decided on May 26 of this year that Proposition 8 is legally valid.

Michael And here is our series "English Words That No One Knows." Today: "Jazz Hands." You will probably rub your eyes in disbelief, but even after 12 years of living in the USA, it happens that I come across an English word I've never heard before, which every American child knows. Recently, I was chatting via instant messenger with a colleague who was working from home and was reporting live that a crazy homeless person was wandering around in front of his apartment in sunny San Diego, singing, clapping, and doing "Jazz Hands." Puzzled, I asked what on earth "Jazz Hands" were. My colleague, equally astonished, explained to me that it is a pose where a Broadway actor in a musical shows ten splayed fingers to the audience. Who would have thought there was a word for that! Undoubtedly another shortcoming in the catastrophic English lessons of my English teacher Haueisen at Gymnasium Neusäß, which was not exactly short on catastrophic shortcomings.

Michael On the fourth of July, the American national holiday, it's well-known that Americans flock to public parks in droves, to fire up the barbeque. This year, July 4th also happened to fall on a Saturday, so Friday was declared a holiday as well. On these days, the leisurely traveler must avoid public parks and campgrounds like the plague, so we settled into a cozy cottage in "Gold Country." This is the area in California where the Gold Rush took place in 1849, but nowadays it serves more touristy purposes with lovingly renovated Wild West buildings.

Michael Good thing we had our newly acquired portable deck chairs in the trunk! I had bought the two foldable gizmos with integrated sunshades a few weeks ago at the mountaineering outfitter REI in San Francisco. The product is absolutely amazing. You can easily strap two of them onto your back, and the two sunshades can be folded into disc-shaped structures with a radius of about 50 cm. Each chair weighs about 4 kg and comfortably accommodates an adult.

Michael Recently, Angelika came home with a huge crack in the windshield of our car. Apparently, a car in front of her had kicked up a small rock, causing a tiny chip that expanded over several days into a 30 cm long crack that could no longer be repaired. Windshields are expensive; I had heard something about $800! Our circle of acquaintances couldn't recommend a repair shop, so I did what everyone does these days when they need a service and want to get recommendations from complete strangers: I turned to yelp.com .