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  Edition # 98  
San Francisco, 11-03-2012
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Figure [1]: Sticker for the presidential elections in 2012 Photo: League of Women Voters of California

Angelika Upcoming November 6th is the big day, when we'll have elections from which a new President will emerge. Undoubtedly, by now you've heard that this final leg of the race is between the republican candidate Mitt Romney and the incumbent President, democrat Barack Obama. We've been following along the election campaigns for months and months now. Highlights in October were the public debates, a total of three between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama and another one between the two potential future vice Presidents, Joe Biden und Paul Ryan.

Televised debates follow a strict format. The first exchange between Obama and Romney focused on domestic policy and happened at the University of Denver in Colorado, moderated by journalist Jim Lehrer of PBS, one of the last "public" TV stations. The debate went on for a total of six segments, each about 15 minutes long. Jim Lehrer openened each one with one of his questions, and each candidate had the opportunity to address it for a total of two minutes. All the potential topics, but not Lehrer's questions in particular, were published up front, so that both politicians could prepare their responses.

Figure [2]: Campaign bumper stickers seen on a parked car in San Francisco.

The second presidential debate happened in the state of New York, at Hostra University of Hempstead, and it resembled at public hearing. A group of 82 preselected voters had the opportunity to quiz the candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. The questions were previously determined and known to the television station CNN, but not to the candidates. Again, both polititians had two minutes to address each question with the audience, and then another minute for a followup discussion. The third and final debate between Romney and Obama revolved around American foreign policy. The setting was identical with the first debate, except this time moderated by CBS reporter Bob Schieffer. It happened at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Vice presidents Ryan and Biden, on the other hand, argued about domestic and foreign policy at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

Figure [3]: Some Obama posters in a window of someone's San Francisco home.

I've watched all the debates and have to say that they were somewhat disappointing. Obama and Romney kept reiterating the same arguments regarding the economic situation, taxes, tax breaks for the middle class, and Obamacare. Even when the topic changed to foreign policy, both steered the discussion back to the economic situation in the U.S. and the job market.

None of the topics was really being discussed thoroughly, and many issues were not even brought up in the first place, like climate change or the Euro crisis. It's safe to say that these debates have turned into promotional events, dominated by the most talented topic peddlers. Mitt Romney seems to apply marketing and sales tactics in his election campaign and is willing to offer anything the voters desire. In the primary elections, he was posing as a dogmatist stickler to draw the conservative party base onto his side, and now he's switched to get the more liberal voters on board, because he realized that he can't possibly win the election without them.

The debate about foreign politics then revealed that there's hardly any difference between Romney and Obama. It was surprising to see that Romney was quite eloquent, while Obama looked tired and passive, which he then overcompensated for in the second debate, where he appeared almost too aggressive. Obama is no longer pushing grand ideas, and it's quite evident that he's frustrated about not being able to change Washington and now having to play along in order to accomplish anything at all.

The most interesting part started when they accepted questions from voters. The audience asked Romney what distinguished him from Bush and wanted to know what Obama had accomplished in terms of stricter control of specific types of firearms. The debate between Ryan and Biden was quite entertaining. Biden is known for speaking his mind regardless of what his advisers tell him. He was blatantly rolling his eyes while listening to some of Ryan's statements, or interjected with comments like "that's a bizarre statement".

Figure [4]: Republican presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Foto: Mark Mathosian

In any case, according to surveys, Romney and Obama will be running neck-to-neck, and neither side has enthusiastic supporters. Many democrats are disappointed by Obama, mainly because he abandoned many of his 2008 election promises, like closing Guantanamo Bay or initiating an overhaul to immigration law. We think he lost face in how he handled the Osama Bin Laden killing, ignoring international law, but we would still vote for him, because he delivered Obamacare, which Romney threatens to roll back. But, just as a reminder, as green card holders, we're not eligible to vote, although we'd be allowed to make donations benefiting political parties.

Super PACs

Figure [5]: "Priorities USA Action" is Obama's Super PAC website

Angelika If you've read Michael's treatise on PACs (Political Action Committees, Rundbrief 06/2011), you're probably wondering what these "Super PACs" are about that are all over the news these days. What's going on there?

Usually, a PAC is a group of people pooling their donations as well as solicitating new donations to support a candidate in order to help change course in a political election. By law, political contributions by an individual are limited to $2500 per candidate. A traditonal PAC, on the other hand, may donate up to $5000 to a committee supporting a candidate (Political contribution limits).

For this reason, until the year 2010, no interest group run by companies, associations or unions could donate unlimited amounts to politicians or political parties. A recent decision by the United States Supreme Court, however, put an end to this. In the case "Citizen United vs. Federal Election Commission", the judges ruled that according to the constitutional right of freedom of expression, groups and associations may donate unlimited amounts to political causes.

It all started with a "documentary" featuring Hillary Clinton during the last election campaign in 2008. The conservative organization "United Citizen" produced and financed the movie "Hillary -- The Movie", in which they presented the New York senator as a liberal political threat. The movie was about to air shortly before the 2008 primaries, but then got pulled by officials, allegedly because it conflicted with the "McCain Feingold Act" of 2002 regulating contributions to political campaigns. Alas, United Citizen proceeded to the Supreme Court and won there, with the majority of judges arguing that financing and distributing a movie is a form of exercising one's freedom of speech rights.

In another court case, "SpeechNow.org vs. Federal Election Commission", a federal appeals court ruled that PACs are allowed to accept unlimited contributions by individuals, groups, or associations, if they don't directly forward the proceeds to candidates or political parties. As an additional requirement, PACs aren't allowed to align their campaigns with the candidates'. That's how the Super PACs came into existence.

Funds donated to Super PACs usually go into producing election campaign spots for their favorite candidates and publicizing them across various media. In the ongoing election campaign, Super PACs mainly purchased air time on TV stations in the so-called "swing states".

Figure [6]: There's not many election campaign posters anywhere in California, because it's not a swing state.

Swing states are states without an established record of voting for republican or democratic candidates. They are crucial in elections, and their outcome can tip the scale, as in most states all electoral delegates votes go to the winner ("winner takes all"). In a tight race, like the one we have this year, swing states can make or break the election for a candidate. Florida and Ohio are good examples. On the other hand, California, despite its huge number of electoral delegates, won't have much impact, as it's been democratic for ages, and it's safe to assume that Obama has already won it.

But back to the Super PACs: Romney gets support from Restore our Future and American Crossroads; while Obama benefits from Priorities USA Action and American Bridge 21st Century. Whoever will win this election, one thing has already been established by now: it's been one of the most expensive election campaigns in history. Each candidate's campaign will receive about a billion dollars. Casino owner and billionaire Sheldon Adelson alone donated 10 million dollars to Super PAC "Restore our Future", to help Romney win. Money talks.

Creating German "Spezi" in the U.S.

Figure [7]: If you want German "Spezi" in the U.S., here's my recipe.

Michael In Germany, "Spezi" is a popular designated driver drink, but it's nowhere to be found on supermarked shelves within the U.S., and neither are similar German products like "Mezzo-Mix". By accident, I recently found a combination of American ingredients that create an astonishingly great tasting interpretation: Ice cubes, a slice of organic lemon including skin, 4/5 of Coke Zero and 1/5 of American regular Fanta.

Fanta in the U.S. is quite different from the Fanta sold in Europe. It contains loads of unreal bright orange dye, and tastes a lot sweeter due to the added corn syrup which is heavily subsidized by U.S. tax payers. Careful, it's so sweet, it wouldn't surprise me to see unsuspecting Europeans go into a serious episode of hyperglycaemia! Coke Zero, on the other hand, contains a somewhat controversial artificial sweetener, similar to Diet Coke, but at least Coke Zero tastes almost like Coke and not like cardboard.

It might sound unlikely that he mixture above actually closely resembles the taste of "Spezi", but believe me, I've got fine-tuned taste buds for this kind of thing. I demand that German restaurants like the "Suppenküche" in San Francisco quickly put this fabulous drink on their menu!

American Pharmacies

Figure [8]: You can find the pharmacy chain Walgreens all over the U.S.

Michael If you're visiting from Europe and receive a prescription from a doctor in the U.S., you might be wondering where to pick up the prescribed meds. There's hardly any small pharmacy anywhere, but all you need to do is enter one of these big Walgreens chain stores and walk past all the shelves, all the way to the end of the center aisle until you arrive at a window counter at the back wall.

Looking through the hole in the wall, there's a pharmacist on duty. And while you might be used to the typical supermarket employee not being very knowledgable about particular products, except in which aisle they're located, these pharamacists are educated experts in their domain. You hand them your prescription and they start rummaging through the jars in the back, and if your meds are in stock, you'll receive them only minutes later in a generic bottle (Figure 10). Walgreens pharmacists also know about risks and side effects of prescriptions and will advise on how to ingest certain medications.

Figure [9]: Walk through the aisles, until the very end, until you hit a window with a pharmacist behind it.

You've read that correctly: Generic prescription pills at Walgreens don't come in the original manufacturer's packaging with fancy logos. Rather, the pharmacist behind the counter will repackage them by pouring pills from giant glass jars into tiny transparent plastic cylinder-shaped containers with an orange-yellowish tint for the individual patient. Then they simply slap on a Walgreens-branded adhesive label with instructions. This label has the patient's first and last name printed on it as well, so, if you're one of these people who like to snoop around in their host's medicine cabinets while paying a visit to the bathroom at a party, you get a pretty good idea on who is taking which prescription medicine.

The label also lists the number of allowed refills, which means that if all pills are used up, there's no need to go back to the doctor and get a new prescription. If the number of refills is still within the limits stated on the label, simply take the empty container back to Walgreens, and they'll pour more pills into it from their giant jar. To confirm it's really you receiving the meds, they ask for your address and compare your answer to the data about you that is stored in the computer along with the prescription. The computer is smart enough to trigger an alert if the used amount is way off the daily dose, and the pharmacist won't allow a premature refill in this case.

Figure [10]: The generic label on medications sold in the U.S. states the number of refills the pharmacist is allowed to perform.

Insured Patients typically don't pay the full amount for prescription drugs, but rather a fixed co-pay of a few dollars. Walgreens then gets the remaining amount from the health insurer. On some refills, the patient won't be charged a co-pay.

Doctors sometimes issue prescriptions electronically. The patient states where they prefer to pick up the meds, and the doctor then uses his computer to beam the prescription there. The pharmacy then calls the patient when the meds are ready to be picked up. Walgreen's robo dialers even call again a few days later to check in on the patient, and a computer voice asks if the medication is working as expected.

Top Product: The Israeli Gas Mask

Figure [11]: Michael is cleaning the sink with an anti-fungicide and is wearing an Israeli gas mask for protection.

Michael We're just about 2.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and you can tell the proximity by the high air humidity in our household. Salt quickly starts clotting in the shaker, and if bathroom tiles aren't being scrubbed down on a regular basis, ugly black mold quickly starts to accumulate. This plague needs to be tackled every couple of months with a cleaning solution from hell called "Tilex Mildew Root Penetrator". Pump a few times with the spray bottle, and work in the foam with a brush. Let it soak for 5 minutes and watch the tile grout turn white again. Downside is that the solution contains bleach, so you better keep it away from colored fabrics (siehe Rundbrief 05/2010), and it reeks of chlorine like there's no tomorrow.

Figure [12]: Amazon carries the gas mask for only 20 Dollars.

This violent stench seems to be downright unhealthy, as every time I was exposed to it, I seemed to develop a raging headache. First, I tried to combat it with dust masks from the hardware store, but when that didn't work, I remembered that back in the day when I was in the German Armed Forces, we had these rubber gasmasks, so I bought one on Amazon, including a hazardous gas filter. This mask works wonders!

The bad chlorine odor is indeed fully blocked by the filter, and I'm no longer getting headaches. The mask is only $20 on Amazon, apparently an Israeli military surplus item. The filter had a Hebrew imprint on it that I couldn't read. The black rubber upper part is very soft and comfortable to wear, and it even has a small drinking hose attached, just in case you get thirsty. Top product!

Figure [13]: Wearing gas masks has become fashionable thanks to the TV series "Breaking Bad". It looks great with a fancy hazmat suit!

Speaking of gas masks: They're also popular items on Halloween for all kinds of scary outfits. On October 31st, one of my colleagues at Yahoo came to work dressed up as "Walter White". You know, the chemistry teacher turned meth cook from the TV series "Breaking Bad" (Figure 13), wearing a yellow hazmat suit and a gas mask. If you haven't seen it, that's a great show for the entire family, all four seasons highly recommended!

American stove burners

Figure [14]: The typical American spiral stove burners.

Michael In German households, you'll mostly find high-end stoves with Ceran cooktops these days, but in a typical U.S. rental unit, it's not uncommon to see traditional stove models that still feature old-fashioned burners (Figure 14). They generate heat by running electrical current through spiral-shaped metal coils, which often turn bright red if the dial is set to max. They might not be the latest tech, but they offer one unbeatable advantage: If you make a big mess, e.g. by letting milk spill over, you can disassemble these burners and clean them separately, no tools required. The coils come right off and also the underlying metal plate, which prevents any spillage from entering the inner parts of the stove, can be removed and scrubbed clean.

Figure [15]: Coil and drip pan can be pulled out for cleaning.

Figure 15 shows how to remove the (hopefully cooled down) coil by pulling it upwards out of the two-prong electrical socket at an angle, which exposes the underlying drip pan (Figure 16), which then can also be extracted and even run through the dishwasher.

Figure [16]: New drip pans are just a few bucks at the hardware store.

Let's assume now that hypothetically the drip pans haven't been cleaned in years and there's a thick layer of charred crusty food pieces stuck on them that no one will ever be able to scrape off -- don't dispair, you can simply buy a new set of four at every hardware store for about 10 Dollars. You'll get two small and two big drip pans, and their diameter is exactly the same on all major stove brands. Even the coils are standard and can be replaced by new ones from the hardware store if needed for very little money. That's what I call convenience!

10 Cents for a Grocery Bag

Figure [17]: It's real: Starting October, shops charge 10c per paper bag in San Francisco.

Angelika On October 1st 2012, San Francisco banned plastic bags at all store registers. Even before that, since 2007, there's been an ordinance in place to prohibit supermarkets and drug stores from bagging merchandise in plastic bags, only paper bags are permitted Rundbrief 04/2007). Now, the plastic ban has been expanded to all stores in San Francisco, and only bakeries and restaurants are exempt until 2013. What's more is that stores are required to charge 10c per provided paper bag. Customers who don't want to pay for bags need to bring their own, preferably reusable bags.

As you might know, this process has been well established in Germany since the 1970ies, when supermarkets started charging for plastic bags at the register. But over there, typically, only grocery stores charge the fee, while department stores still hand out bags at no cost. Unlike in San Francisco, plastic bags haven't vanished yet in Germany, so California is clearly ahead in this area. The 10 Cent fee in San Francisco was introduced in order to discourage customers from even getting paper bags at the register. And, I've got to say, this has indeed changed people's behavior since it was introduced, and many are bringing their own reusable fabric bags to the grocery store now.

You might want to inquire how this new system works with the grocery baggers, as you know, it's customary in the U.S. that there's extra employees at the register taking care of stuffing your items into bags. Simply place the reusable bag you brought onto the conveyor belt along with the merchanize and the cashier will hand it to the bagger who will then stuff it with your items. In the meantime, almost 50 cities in California followed suit with similar but less far reaching regulations. On the other hand, if we only leave city limits, and drive down to the suburbs of South San Francisco, they're still using plastic bags free of charge. Reason is that they're part of a different county, San Mateo, which apparently was left behind regarding going green.

Figure [18]: Das Kleingedruckte zum neuen Tütengesetz.

As you might have expected, this didn't go over without legal battles. The "Save the Plastic Bag Coalition" tried to stop the plastic ban, but failed. They argued that paper bags aren't necessarily less harmful to the environment than plastic bags. And, curiously, that San Francisco is attracting a great number of tourists, who aren't exactly known to bring reusable bags along with them. The initiative argued that tourists will receive paper bags which then will end up in the trash when they leave. So let me reach out to all our beloved tourists: Please bring your reusable bags with you when you come visit San Francisco, or purchase a nice one here and take it home with you as a souvenir!

The newly-rich are driving my hairdresser away

Figure [19]: My long-established barber is forced to move because a newly-rich bought the building.

Michael It's been 16 years since we arrived here to San Francisco, and I vividly remember how hard it was to find a skilled barber. Back then, I was working in the Italian neighborhood of North Beach, and one day by accident stumbled into a small barber shop on Columbus Street. I loved the haircut I got there and have been coming back to this shop all this time, even after I got a new job in Silicon Valley.

Every time I need a haircut, I'm driving from our place in San Francisco all over town to North Beach, which only professional cab drivers and myself can manage in 20 minutes. It has always been worthwhile, both for the haircut and the gossip exchanged. For example, did you know that famous director Francis Ford Coppola ("The Godfather", "Apocalypse Now") owns a restaurant across the street from the barber and that he once came over to get a haircut? Or one day, a bunch of tech nerds from Google stopped by and booked the entire shop for a few hours to shoot photos for some barber related web product, because they liked the original look of the barber chairs with their red upholstery.

Figure [20]: Both Francis Ford Coppola and myself have received haircuts in this chair.

Unfortunately, a few months ago, a newly-rich person bought the building with the barber shop, and my barber who's way over 60 had to find a new location. He found a salon around the corner, where he rented a chair. I haven't been to the new place yet, but on my next visit, I'll have the photo in Figure 19 printed and framed. It shows my barber standing in front of his old shop waving, and I'll hand it to him as a present from a loyal customer.

This story illustrates how neighborhoods have been changing recently: The old barber shop will probably become another useless realty office. New money moves in, and originality and taste fall by the wayside.

Hiring Professionals to Wait in Line

Figure [21]: Apple fanboys are lining up at the store to purchase a new product. Foto: Shane Curcuru

Michael I'm sure you've seen reports on TV about people lining up in front of the Apple store when a new product first goes on sale. They desperately want to be the first to own it, and when the iPhone 5 came out, they went as far as camping outside the store overnight!

But it goes without saying that in a country with a functioning service economy like the U.S., you don't have to tackle unpleasant chores yourself, but can pay others to do them for you. That's not limited to hiring house cleaners, but extends to dog walkers, workers mowing your lawn, grocery shoppers, or people going to the DMV for you to get your paperwork done. In this day and age, these services can be booked on the Internet, for example on taskrabbit.com, where, according to an article on Bloomberg News, you can even hire professionals to stand in line for you! For a fee of $55, someone will hold your place in line for up to four hours, and then switch places with you, so that you can enter the store chipper and well-rested in the morning to purchase your new mobile phone.

Figure [22]: Taskrabbit professionals will do unpleasant chores for you for a fee.

According to Task Rabbit, one of the most often booked services on their site is for assembling Ikea furniture. For $42, a more or less professional handyman will bring his own tools to your house and deal with those dreaded assembly instructions for furniture kits sold at the well-known Scandinavian megastore.

California bans Foie Gras

Figure [23]: Pan-fried Foie Gras, jambo! Foto: Stuart Spivack

Angelika Starting July 1st, California has banned the sale of fattened duck liver. This culinary delicacy is known as Foie Gras, in the U.S. and France alike. Fattening the livers of geese and ducks is accomplished by force-feeding, and animal rights activists consider it cruelty to animals. The ban passed legislation all the way back in 2004, but for the following eight years, a transition and grace period was granted. According to estimates, up to 400 restaurants had the item on their menus in California. We've seen foie gras on many Napa Valley restaurant menus and must admit that we've always enjoyed eating it.

Allegedly, most restaurants now comply with the ban. But the law is somewhat ambiguous, as it only states that foie gras can't be sold, what led a few chefs to offer it for free. In this way, one restaurant had a "brioche" (pastry) on the menu for $21, that came with a free serving of foie gras. Although the fines are enormous ($1000 per violation per day) it seems as if the new law is hard to enforce, as the "Department of Animal Care and Control" in charge of the matter is chronically understaffed.

By the way, California is the only state in the entire U.S. prohibiting the sale of foie gras. There was a similar effort in Chicago a few years ago, which failed because the chefs there put up fierce resistance. Here in California, as you might have expected, we now have an ongoing battle between gourmets and animal rights activists. Shortly before the ban started, some Californian chefs presented eight course menus, each of which included some form of foie gras. Another example is the restaurant "Goos and Gander" in Napa Valley, which offered a foie gras dish named after the name of the ban legislation: "Senate Bill 1520". They took the item off the menu, however, when the press started reporting on it. Probably there's soon going to be an underground economy, similar to during prohibition times, when foie gras will only be available in dark speakeasy restaurants, if patrons know the secret code?

Speedy Gonzales

Figure [24]: The controversial cartoon character Speedy Gonzales.

Michael Who's the the fastest mouse in all Mexico? If you're about our age, you know the answer: Speedy Gonzales. The carton series ran on German TV during the 70ies of the previous century and was greedily absorbed by the editorial team bringing you these lines. "Arriba, arriba, andalé, andalé!" the mouse kept screaming in Spanish, which means "Let's go" or "Hurry up", well, does this ring a bell now? The sombrero wearing mouse zoomed through the stories at breakneck speed and kept outwitting and outlasting the slower cat Sylvester.

Figure [25]: The Song "Speedy Gonzales" by Pat Boone.

Warner Brothers produced the cartoon back then in the U.S., but today they're keeping the formerly successful series under wraps. None of the major broadcasting channels in North America shows it anymore. Reason is that the series cultivates prevalent preconceptions about South Americans. Speedy talks with a mexican accent, he's lazy, likes chasing women, and his friends are heavy drinking crooks.

Singer Pat Boone released a song named "Speedy Gonzales" in 1962, which made the number 6 spot on the Billboard Charts. The lyrics go "You better come home Speedy Gonzales, away from tannery row. Stop all of your drinking with that floosie named Flo!".

However, Speedy Gonzales fans can still watch many episodes on Youtube. And, ironically, it's still a big hit on South American TV today.

Greetings from the storm-shaken (only on the East Coast, not us) country during the hot phase of the election campaign:

Angelika & Michael

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