Merry Christmas

Klaus Schütz, Rest in Peace

Klaus Schütz, mayor of west-Berlin from 1967–1977 has passed away at the age of 86.

For four years, he was the ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Israel. In 1981 he took over the directorship of the Deutsche Welle, and in 1988, he was appointed director of the National Institute of Broadcasting in North Rhine-Westphalia. After his retirement in 1992 Klaus Schütz returned to Berlin to take up journalistic tasks and activities as president of the Berlin State Association of the German Red Cross.

He was active in postwar coping and formation politics when being a democratic socialist still actually meant something, at least as far as human freedom was concerned:

1946 Klaus Schütz enrolled at Berlin's Humboldt University majoring in History and German Literature. He joined the Association of Social Democratic students in 1947 and belonged to the student council. Soon thereafter, he was a delegate to the National Committee of Young Socialists in Wilmersdorf (a neighborhood in west-Berlin) for the SPD. When, in June 1948, three students were expelled by the administration for plagiarism at Humboldt University (in the Soviet sector, and under suspicious motives) he along with other members of the student council took action and and moved to the Free University in the American sector. From 1949-50, he completed a political science postgraduate studies at Harvard University.

The years that he was in the Mayor’s office were relevant ones. A kind of détente was developing, and border crossings opened in earnest as a reliable fixture in the public’s lives, which relieved some of the hardship separated families endured. A political kinsman of Willy Brandt, he aided in the building of the fine political line between defiance to the DDR and Soviet policies, and an unavoidable need to engage with them. They were the years a kind of normality was developed in the life of West-Berlin, albeit one that eternally seemed temporary, even at the hands of DDR inspired western radicals who went so far as to kidnap his election opponent, and then make demands of him, not to mention the cruel practices of a totalitarian state.

If You Say So

On the Vikings' Jared Allen:

Mullets are awesome, let's be honest.

There's GOT to be Another Way!

A Chirpractor is Growing a mullet to save lives Agassiz-Harrison Observer:

An Agassiz chiropractor is donning a mullet these days, and he's itching to be rid of it. Dr. Darren Paul has dropped his modern, clean cut look for the summer and is growing out his hair in the shaggy style more suited to the 1980s.

Berlin's Langen Nacht der Museen

Berlin's "Museum Night" is tomorrow, the 25th of August.

In fact there's an App for that !

The Wisdom of our Elders

A little old lady walking with a cane asked the pilot as she disembarked the plane after a rough landing:

"Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Why, no Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?"
"Did we land, or were we shot down?"

The Abuse, Forshame the Abuse!

Australia: Boy tied to tree, has mullet cut off.

A Sydney 14-year-old boy has been tied to a tree and had his mullet hair cut off in what is believed to be a school retaliation. Police said the boy was riding his BMX bike through Tandarra Reserve at Shalvey, in Sydney's west, when he was ambushed by four males...

Four males indeed... Mullet attack: woman and three teens charged over boy's bashing.

Keep on Truckin’

As if U-Bahn, S-Bahn, and shoe leather weren’t enough.

Alert the Media!

Oh, wait. It IS the media. Derek Holland plans to shave mustache

Derek Holland, who cut his hair prior to his previous start, plans on shaving his mustache Wednesday morning. "I think it's gone long enough," Holland said.

Stunningly, this was not a reference to the press.

Non-Crisis and Non-Cause-for-Alarm Forces PR Jokers into High Gear

Plan Bee.. how City banks are trying to save the humble bee

There is an acute bee crisis in the UK so putting them on top of the Stock Exchange seemed to make sense,"

Stunningly bad alliterations aside, no more than anywhere else, but, like, whatever.

Cronicles of Pointless People

Carrie Keagan Wants to Rock Nicki Minaj's "Backwards Mullet" Hair:

Carrie Keagan, host of VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live chats with Us Weekly about the history of hair in music. From Joan Jett's shag 'do, Cyndi Lauper's "highlighter yellow" hair color and Macy Grey's afro,

Be Helden Every Day