?Vintage Planes for sale at the 2008 Woodworking in America hand tool conference in Berea, Kentucky

Achtung

02:02 on Monday, October 11, 2004 • 3 responses

A good friend of mine did his Ph.D. research on something I’d never be able to describe with any precision, but it had something to do with car frames and keeping them together. In any case, for quite some time, he was The Authority regarding all-things-car. He once explained, perhaps in jest, that the reason German cars were so safe was because German engineers would find the minimum thickness required to keep a cabin intact in a collision, then triple it.

After two weeks in Germany, I can say (without joking) that the same characteristic thoroughness my friend found in German car engineers is also found in German chefs. They find the exact amount of time to cook a vegetable perfectly—then triple it. They’ve honed this process to a science, and I couldn’t really feel more safe from the ever-lurking danger of undercooked produce.

Things are going well, though I miss the wife, the dogs, and the heirloom tomatoes I so carelessly neglected to savor before leaving California.

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3 responses

1

jon

Comment posted at 11:52 on Monday, October 11, 2004

In Heaven,

the lovers are Italian,

the cooks are French,

the cars are German,

the police are English,

and everything is run by the Swiss.

In Hell,

the lovers are Swiss,

the cooks are English,

the cars are French,

the police are German,

and everything is run by the Italians.

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2

Matthias

Comment posted at 03:10 on Thursday, October 14, 2004

Yep, that’s a fact.

It’s generally known as “german thoroughness” (deutsche Gründlichkeit) and applies to nearly everything we do, even the worse things…

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3

katen

Comment posted at 03:22 on Saturday, October 16, 2004

Hey matie…

Gosh you get about!

Whens Oz on the cards?

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