Once upon a time a young boy named Johnny learned how to play chess. He didn't have frequent opportunities to play, but he acquired a few chess books and played occasionally with friends. Once he visited his great-uncle Clark . Clark had a truly remarkable library, the likes of which Johnny had never seen. Johnny hoped to have a library like his great-uncle some day (a wish which has never come quite true). Clark had a number of books about chess, and generously gave several to Johnny. Johnny read the books and practiced the openings and endgames shown in them. Johnny never forgot Great-Uncle Clark! A few years later Johnny's family moved. Across the street lived a family with twin daughters a year younger than Johnny. The girls' father (we'll call him Mr. W) was a good chess player, and Johnny finally had a regular chess partner. Johnny couldn't beat Mr. W in those days; Mr. W was a patient chess partner and gave Johnny valuable pointers about the art of chess. At ...

Judging by the feedback I had last year, my readership is in the vicinity of a Serbo-Croation translation of the New Testament in Kabul. Undaunted by indifference, here goes the chronicle of 2008 as seen through the lives of John & Anja: January The winter of 2007-2008 was another warm, dry one in Munich, with very little snowfall after a promising start in December. We celebrated Anja's birthday with a fine dinner at a small Munich French restaurant, Atelier Gourmet . The number of years marked by this birthday will be provided upon receipt of a self-addressed, stamped envelope (German stamps only please!) accompanied by a suitable donation. Since my birthday was what is known in German as "round" (not referring to the birthday boy), I threw, uncharacteristically, a small party in our local Bavarian restaurant, the Franziskaner Garten . Just about a mile from our apartment in nearly suburban Munich, we have had many a fine meal here (and a few less memorable ones ala...

Having lived in Germany since 1988, I haven't seen too many football games in past years. Americans may not believe this, but American football games are rarely shown on German TV. Oh, the Super Bowl is usually shown, but since it's usually on at 2 in the morning I haven't bothered watching very often. It's not much fun watching a game alone at 2 AM. Anyone who thinks my dear wife would stay up and watch the Super Bowl with me, raise your hand! You back there? Wrong! Go to the back of the class. Well, a few weeks ago I ordered digital cable and it was activated just in time for the Seattle Seahawks first-round playoff game against the Washington Redskins. I didn't know when I ordered digital cable, but Kabel Deutschland includes NASN, North American Sports Network. And they show all the important games. My wife is sure I ordered digital cable just so I could watch football games, but I really didn't know it would work out that way. Really, I didn't. So I rec...

Everybody is doing Christmas letters. Driven by guilt pangs, I've decided to join the crowd. Not having children, there are fewer events to list here - no PTA meetings, youth baseball games, or, as many of my former classmates report (are we that old?), graduations, weddings, or grandchildren. If this is boring - too bad. Stop reading now. In January Anja & I celebrated our birthdays (inevitably, but as I always say, it beats the alternative). The winter of 2006-2007 saw very little snow, but we were able to spend the first week of February on our traditional winter vacation in Mittenwald, a beautiful town in the Bavarian Alps. Note: this photo is from 2005! This year we had the pleasure of having our nephew Randolf Carr spend the week with us. Randolf proved an accomplished and daring skier, and we very much enjoyed his company during the week. Too bad he doesn't have any winter vacation this year! There was just enough snow to ski, but this year we'll be spending our ...

Why don't Germans get as excited about high taxes as Americans? The coalition government in Berlin is increasing the national value-added tax from 16% to 19% on January 1 2007 (imagine paying a hidden sales tax of 19% on nearly everything you buy), gasoline prices, much higher than in the US anyway (how would you like to pay $6 a gallon? We do over here), are going to rise another 6 Euro cents a liter on January 1st (that's $0.27 a gallon), the tax deduction for interest income is being sharply cut - the list goes on and on. And yet no one seems to notice very much. No American politician who voted to increase taxes like that would be re-elected.

As a native-born Seattleite who's been living in Germany since 1988 and in Munich since 2000, I plan on occasionally commenting on German and American culture and politics, from the perspective of one with a foot in each country.