German female here. Going to a gynecologist will be much easier than pro familia or walk-in clinics. Just go to any gynecologist's practice, tell the nice lady at the counter that you only need a pill perscription (and that you've taken that pill for some time and have no problems with it), and most likely you will get it after some time of waiting. At worst, you will be asked to come back the next day.

Profamilia is a organisation you would visit if you needed an... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 10:27 AM on October 8, 2008

I get constipated from milk and some kinds of cheese. Cold or warm doesn't make a difference. Haven't done a test, but I guess it's a kind of mild Lactose Intolerance.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 1:08 AM on August 27, 2008

Goldfish are cute, but what is the OP to do with dozens of goldfish after the project? Their lifespan can be up to 20 years... Not sure whether that's such a good idea.

Tadpoles are too sensitive, I think, apart from the problem that you probably can't buy them at the pet store. Also, many species of frogs/toads are endangered so catching their babies in the wild might not be advisable. Eponysterical, I know.

I would go with mealworms. You can... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 9:15 AM on August 6, 2008

Many cats I knew didn't like water fresh from the tap. They would drink from tepid watering cans or the toilet bowl, but never out of their freshly refilled bowl. I don't think that this is about the temperature of the wather, though, because they also didn't like lukewarm water fresh from the tap.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 2:05 AM on July 25, 2008

In German, a less euphemistic and quite common expression for sex ed is "Aufklärung", which, confusingly, also is the term for "Enlightenment" (in the historic sense).

[Funny thing, as a kid, I already knew that this expression was for a vaguely taboo subject, but not what exactly it was all about. Also, I knew nothing about history. Naturally, I was shocked when my mother one day started reading a book... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 6:09 AM on July 24, 2008

Thanks all! That was very helpful!

So I'll get the usual German brands... "Clausthalle" is "Clausthaler" I guess, that's actually quite good, I'm not such a big fan of Beck's and Erdinger (better than drinking coke, though).
I'll try and find this "Kaliber" stuff, maybe I'm lucky!

genghis: I just looked it up, apparently, drinks marketed as "Non-Alcoholic" in Europe must not contain more than 0.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 5:50 AM on July 15, 2008

I do that, but not for baking in the oven but for very short in-oven grilling. E.g., I start my frittata in a skillet on my stove and finish it under the oven grill (very high, direct heat from above, for about 3-4 minutes). Before putting the skillet under the grill, I wrap the plastic handle in aluminium foil. I always had the impression that the foil is insulating it quite well for some minutes - I can actually touch the handle with bare hands when I take it out, although the metal parts of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 1:34 AM on June 3, 2008

Germany doesn't have spelling bees. Also, I've never heard of grammar-, spelling- or dictionary-contests in German-speaking countries.
(The German word for "spelling bee" would be well suited for a contest of that kind, though - try spelling Buchstabierwettbewerb!)
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 2:37 PM on May 31, 2008

What about This Book will save your Life (A.M. Homes)? Refreshingly surreal fiction, definitely about fate/destiny, infinite possibilities and quite life-affirming.
Also, Walden always works for me, but YMMV.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 1:53 AM on May 31, 2008

Wow. That was quick! Thanks guys! The hive mind never disappoints.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 10:24 AM on April 29, 2008

Most strange reaction:
"I do moral philosophy/ethics." - "Huh. Surprising. I always thought ethics is totally out of date nowadays. I mean people don't have any morals anymore, right?"

Most common reaction:
"So, what you gonna do when you finish your PhD - drive a cab?")
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 7:02 AM on April 29, 2008

Toytown Germany is an english-speaking expat community site. This thread on "Room and apartment rental websites in Germany" might interest you. You could also ask in the forums for specific cities/regions, they're usually very helpful.

If you speak a little bit of German, I would recommend "WG-Gesucht". As ubersturm mentioned, it's in German, but most people will understand you if you email them in English.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 10:07 AM on April 14, 2008 marked best answer

Have you opened a new bottle of lens solution lately? I had the exactly same problem, apparently because the formula of the brand I had always used had been slightly changed - I was puzzled for quite some time because I was, after all, still using the same brand, and also thought that the new lenses must be the problem! As soon as I switched solutions, I was fine (actually, my eyes seem to like cheap brands best, the fancy stuff tends not to work so well with me, all those "special... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 2:43 AM on April 6, 2008

I (female, 28) get about 10 - 20 explicit expressions of love per day in my 5 year relationship. In the beginning, it was a bit less, also, the declarations of love were less specific (more "You're cute!", less "Let's stay together for the rest of our lives!"). I myself am not as extremely vocal about my feelings, so I guess he gets about 5-10 explicit I-love-yous or similar expressions. But he gets a lot of kisses and well-cooked meals, which he says is totally ok with him.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 2:00 PM on March 27, 2008

I use the Microsoft Office Tool, called "Microsoft Office Picture Manager", for exactly this. If they have Office installed, this might be the easiest option.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 1:07 AM on March 27, 2008

As for a Netflix clone, Lovefilm supposedly has more stuff, and more current stuff, than amazon.de. I haven't tried Lovefilm, but I use the German amazon dvd service and am somewhat disappointed with what they have to offer.
Bookstores: amazon.de is ok and very fast, but I can also recommend Abebooks for relatively cheap second hand (English) books. Books are expensive in Germany.

I am German, but not very familiar with the Essen area. The... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 10:44 AM on March 18, 2008

If French is an option, "La puissance d'exister - Manifeste Hédoniste" by Philosopher Michel Onfray has a chilling autobiographical prologue on the author's experiences in a normandy orphanage managed by the Salesian Order.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 6:37 AM on March 17, 2008

I'm German and have found that information about Scientology in Germany is hard to come by (except extremely biased, undocumented stuff - from both sides, obviously).
As a first step: Why don't you just call them? I'm quite sure they speak English. The number of "Scientology Kirche Berlin" is +49 30 30640760. Probably not very helpful, but least they will tell you what public events they are organizing at the moment.
Also, it might be a good idea to ask in the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 2:02 AM on March 17, 2008

Another idea: the Berlin city council apparently runs a citizen information center on quasi-religious groups (e.g. Scientology, sketchy "psycho-esoteric groups", or sects). You can send them an email with questions on this contact page. I'm sure they speak (at least a bit of) English and can help you with your questions, from a probably rather COS-critical perspective.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 2:20 AM on March 17, 2008

Gelassenheit. There's even a whole book with texts about Gelassenheit by Heidegger. Here's a text in English about Heidegger on Gelassenheit, I have no idea whether what he says could in any way be applied to coffee:
"...the concept of Gelassenheit experienced as the essence of thinking, a thinking that is not intended as representing, as self-determining thinking, but is conceptualized as “meditative thinking.”
I imagine you can probably drink... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 1:39 AM on March 8, 2008 marked best answer

The German term "Haarspalterei" means exactly that (i.e. hair-splitting), it is synonymous to "Korinthenkackerei", but a bit less colloquial. Both terms have a built-in affective, derogatory component.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 1:29 AM on March 8, 2008

OP here - very helpful comments so far! As I'm not planning to do fiction writing for publication (just for fun), the "more audience" point is moot, but I've also found it easier to look for creative writing tips and excercises, support forums, etc. in English rather than in German. The anglo-saxon approach here seems to be much more accessible than the German one, where creative writing is seen as something impenetrable that's "reserved" for real talents (rather than a hobby... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 9:56 AM on February 11, 2008

Katullus: very interesting aspect! In fact, I prefer to write stuff that is not very realistic, or oriented towards specific time/place, at the moment. One reason for that is that writing about German people in English would seem extremely strange to me. If I wanted to do something more realistic (and involving German characters), I would probably simply have to do it in German, even if my writing is not intended for any specific audience.

spaceman spiff: I live in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 5:44 AM on February 12, 2008

German, 28, female: I and my brother also used to play this, but the floor would usually be "acid" instead of lava, if I remember correctly.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 9:12 AM on February 4, 2008

"We are under the reign of reason, and must not forget and not diminish [minimize?] in all our maxims our subordinateness to reason, and, likewise, to laws (although we possess rationality of our own)."

I don't really understand the last part of the sentence, though ("Ansehen"?)
Wow, I'm so happy right now that I don't have to work on Kant. Good luck!
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 5:12 AM on January 29, 2008 marked best answer

that should make more sense.

Um, not to me...could you give the complete sentence, it's unclear whether "entziehen" also refers to "Wahn" (which would be a strange construction, but well, it's Kant) or wether there's in fact another verb at the end of the sentence? In which case you could possibly split up the whole sentence and it would become much clearer.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 5:45 AM on January 29, 2008

Seconding jouke, though I find "illusion" sounds more or less neutral and "Wahn" is quite negative, so I would use "delusion" instead.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 5:59 AM on January 29, 2008

Definitely seconding (cat) fleas!
They're hard to find if you've never seen them before (try shaking out your clothes, especially socks, over a white tile floor or big sheets of white paper, in a very bright room, and look quickly for the tiniest of little bugs, they will immediately jump away). The bites are terribly itchy, smaller than mosquito bites, often appear in rows of three to five bumps under the edges of underwear, socks or other tight clothing pieces.
Fleas... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 11:42 AM on January 25, 2008

Hate that stuff and can't offer any recipe, but I (German) would say the right name is "Teufelssalat" (two s). May help with further googling.

As for Lameness' recipe above, the typical "Tube" of mayonnaise / tomato paste in Germany has 200ml (it is beyond me to convert this to exact U.S. measurements, but I guess it should be about 4/5 of a cup). Hope this helps.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 5:06 AM on November 9, 2007

The German standard pack of "Vanillezucker" is about 3 teaspoons of vanilla sugar.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 12:40 AM on November 8, 2007 marked best answer

bbranden1: "actively working on your own behalf" can be really hard, or impossible, when you're depressive. That's, basically, what depression is all about...
Your "good news" of "effective anwers and approaches", implies that every case of depression is completely curable if the patient is compliant. This is simply not true, and in many cases "just" switching meds, and accepting that it will not go away completely, is the best one can do.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 4:27 AM on November 1, 2007

I've looked up some of the black "Free To Choose" experts:
Ernest Green, Walter E. Williams, Thomas Sowell.

I do not remember any guests from south america, astro 83, only afro-americans. Since I'm a diehard fan of Friedman's, I'm not that much into Naomi Klein...but thanks for the suggestion.

chengjih, your theory (about not necessarily getting equal results from equal entry conditions) sounds interesting. E.g. are there... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 6:20 AM on October 27, 2007

I think that in 1980, the "stuffy old white guys" who would have been the tenured professors and go-to guys for most programs would have radically different ideas about economics compared with Friedman.
Ah! There might be some truth in that...

billysumday, yeah, I get the point...seems to be a similar problem in Oxford. I was just thinking about racist attitudes in science in general and came up with Watson. Of course he doesn't... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 11:01 AM on October 27, 2007

I was somewhat surprised about the lack of dissenting opinions in this thread. Here in Germany, co-ed sleepovers between kids (in the same age range) would not be considered a problem, no matter how old the kids are (at least not in the upper middle class, liberal families I know).
I mean, if they're too young to be interested, it's ok anyway; if they're old enough, they will "experiment" no matter what. And I guess they'd rather do that in a protected environment than in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 5:04 AM on October 7, 2007

I live in Munich but I'm not into subculture/alternative stuff... however, I think that Maxvorstadt/Schwabing (I live in Maxvorstadt myself) is not the perfect part of the town to look for alternative-ish stuff or venues. It's quite posh and polished and expensive (schicki-micki as we say here). You might prefer to look into Westend or Glockenbachviertel locations.
For all kinds of announcements, there is a magazine named "IN München" which (I believe) also lists... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 6:55 AM on September 5, 2007 marked best answer

Same here. I'm in Germany and I get ads from german companies when I go to the Guardian site.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 3:56 AM on September 1, 2007

I guess "Nur ein Wort" by the German band "Wir sind Helden" (source)
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 12:26 PM on August 20, 2007 marked best answer

I have the same problem. However, I've found out that the mood problems only occur when I drink it regularly (e.g. for every breakfast/afternoon break); having a cup from time to time is ok in the mood respect (just makes me jittery).
Related problem: coffee makes me awfully tired if I drink more than one cup per day.
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 5:15 AM on August 10, 2007

This must be really hard for both of you...
Just one more suggestion: it seems that he's a typical depressive in the sense that he's constantly beating himself up about everything he does or doesn't do. So, firstly, I think it's important that you don't portray depression as a test or trial he has to overcome or fight or, just generally "finally do something about." Even if you put this in the gentlest words and tread very lightly (e.g. by, as you say, "reminding him... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 4:14 AM on August 5, 2007

Thanks, guys! I am relieved that I am not the only one who ponders this important scientific problem.
However, the crocodile will not be opened up, since I am sure that it *can* feel pain (the fact that it, after all, seeks treatment for a toothache seems to indicate this, right?).

Otis, I had found out about the "cheat," but as you describe, this only leads to getting yelled at by other players (especially if they're adult and drunk, as professed... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Toad at 9:43 AM on August 3, 2007