Michael Recently, we routinely drove past the location of our second car, Perly Perlman, which was parked on the street, and I couldn't believe my eyes: Perly was no longer in the spot where I had parked it two days earlier.

Angelika Tomorrow, on March 6th, the so-called "Super Tuesday" will take place, as primaries for the Republican Party's presidential nomination will be held in a variety of states, including Ohio. Currently, the candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul are still in the race, with Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney running neck and neck in Ohio according to opinion polls.

Angelika San Francisco is known to be an expensive place, especially when it comes to buying houses or renting. This is nothing new for our long-time newsletter readers, but lately, the rental market has been going through the roof, and we are approaching New York City Manhattan levels. According to our neighborhood newspaper Noe Valley Voice , rent Noe Valley is now between $2100 and $6000, and the average rent in January of this year was $3525 per month. In January 2011, the average monthly rent in our neighborhood was still $2745.

Michael Recently, I was walking down 24th Street and was astonished to notice a protest booth displaying an image of Obama with a Hitler mustache. Allegedly, Obama's healthcare reform is bringing Hitler-like conditions to America. Under the freedom of speech that applies in the USA, anyone is allowed to say such things, and most people simply ignored the booth with a smirk.

Michael In the USA, if someone sees sharply like an eagle even without glasses, they are said to have 20/20 vision . The first "twenty" in the vision test indicates the distance of the person from the eye chart in feet. "20" therefore stands for 20 feet, which is approximately 6 meters. The second "twenty" indicates the distance from the eye chart at which a person with normal vision can still read the letters of the respective line (whose size varies). For the scientists among you, this is the distance at which the letter height corresponds exactly to one arcminute.

Michael We live in a city where there is a relentless battle for parking spaces. I can spot a parking space from 500 meters away. Over the years, you quickly learn to notice when a pedestrian isn't just strolling along but is actually heading towards a parked car. You slam on the brakes with tires screeching, possibly make a quick U-turn, and immediately position yourself with the turn signal on until the other person leaves and you can maneuver into the parking spot. I can park in the tightest spaces, on streets with up to 30% inclines, on the left side of one-way streets, and if necessary, even directly in front of sleeping homeless people or a social housing project in a troubled area. Whenever we're on vacation driving a rental car in a city where the competition is less fierce, I almost feel sorry for the other parking seekers when they lose out because I employ my big-city repertoire. I only have respect for New Yorkers since I saw the video of a super parker .

Michael Switching your internet provider is risky because being without internet even for a few days is not feasible nowadays. However, after the phone company AT&T had annoyed me for years by charging $10 just to tell me the calling number (Caller ID), I was practically waiting to get back at the sluggish monopoly.

Michael In the newspaper "New York Times," there was recently an interesting article on customer research at the department store chain Target . Since Americans often pay with credit cards, Target knows which products customers purchase over long periods of time and can draw conclusions about their living conditions. For example, if a woman suddenly buys a lot more unscented lotion and cotton balls, according to the mathematicians at Target, there is an 80% chance that she is pregnant.

Michael The custom seems to originate from the time of the Wild West, where people would, out of exuberance, during festive occasions be firing gunshots into the air . However, this is now prohibited, at least in California, because the fired bullets come back down and have already caused injuries and fatalities.

Angelika Every time we fly somewhere from San Francisco, the following ritual takes place at the security check: After we've placed our backpacks and similar items on the conveyor belt, emptied everything from our pockets, and taken off our shoes, the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) officers want to scan us with the full-body scanner, commonly known as the "naked scanner" or "body scanner."

Angelika Recently, we spent another 10 days on the Hawaiian island of Oahu to relax in the wonderful tropical climate. While we were stocking up on sunscreen and the like at Costco (yes, there is a Costco in Hawaii too), we discovered a sales stand offering a reddish fruit juice drink called Kona Red . When the friendly saleswoman, who looked as if she had just emerged from the waves with her surfboard, informed us that the juice is extracted from the fruit of the coffee plant, there was no stopping me. As is well known, I am an absolute coffee fan and particularly love the one brewed from 100% Kona beans, which seems to taste three times better when you're on vacation in Hawaii. However, Kona coffee doesn't come directly from Oahu but from the island of Big Island (also called Hawaii). Just as the wine "Bordeaux" can only be called Bordeaux if it comes from the French region with the same name, real Kona coffee only comes from the Kona region of the Big Island. Due to the volcanic, fertile soil and the mild climate there, coffee plants thrive particularly well in this region.

Angelika We have written about car rentals in the USA quite a few times. There are several things to consider, and it can often be confusing for foreign tourists because, in my opinion, car rental companies all operate somewhat unscrupulously and often rip off customers. But I digress.

Michael When invited to a party in America, you are almost certain to drink from red plastic cups. These very sturdy "Red Plastic Cups" are part of the standard repertoire of any celebration. Drinks don't taste as bad from them as they do from white plastic cups, but of course, no educated European would subject their guests to such proletarian vessels.