So things at work are kind of a drag recently.
Fortunately for my morale, I did a little task (some editing) for one of my
German colleagues last week, and he was so pleased, he made a certificate
for me:

Held der Arbeit — which means, as best I
can translate, “Hero of Work”. I think this is one of the coolest things
that’s happened to me all year.

Now some of you running-dog capitalist lackeys might be wondering,
“Hey! What’s the deal with the
hammer-and sickle?” Well, there’s a story behind it, of course.

According to Stefan, my colleague (comrade!), back in East Germany they
would award the title, “Held der Arbeit” to anyone who exemplified the
socialist ideal. Someone who put in extra hours at the factory, promoted
the state philosophy to friends and family, and so on. Now that communism
is over, the younger generation still uses the term and passes
it on to people who go that extra effort, but it is
said “with a twinkle in the eye” as Stefan puts it.

So you see? Germans are just as hip and ironic and funny as we
Americans. Maybe even more so. Wouldn’t that be awful — the one
thing we pride ourselves in, and maybe the Germans have us beat.
Anyone remember that Beck’s beer commercial, with the bad German
stand-up comedian? “Thank you, I’ll be here all the week,” he says,
in a thick accent. The tagline was “Germans don’t do comedy — we do beer.”
Well, first of all, Beck’s isn’t very good beer. And second of all, the “humorless
German” stereotype is totally unfair. In my limited travels, none
of the Germans I’ve met have been dour and serious… they all have had
great senses of humor.

And it’s not just the Germans.
All the English I’ve met — they’re hilarious. They have that dry,
self-deprecating wit — and they have always left us in the dust
when it comes to wordplay. Italians — definitely. An Italian professor I
worked with during my ill-fated internship at
Lawrence Berkeley kept
me in stitches all summer (although our boss was an
easy target.) I’ve even
discovered that the Swiss are funny, at least a little bit.

Heck, I would like go so far as to say the entire European subcontinent
is funny. Unfortunately I can’t.
The French? Not funny. Sad but true.

And that’s The World According To Evan. Next time: Asia! Thank you, I’ll
be here all the week.