Es ist kalt.

After the Fukishima disaster in Japan last march the Germans, in a fit of panic, decided to shut down their nuclear power plants. (I’m not sure why, as Tsunamis don’t usually occur in the North Sea or the Baltic).

It would seem that they were a tad premature in their course of action.

BERLIN: The cold snap gripping Europe has forced Germany, which last year decided to abandon nuclear power, to restart several reactors taken off line, the daily Handelsblatt reports in its Thursday issue.
The cold related surge in electricity demand prompted Germany's network operators to call upon nuclear power plants that had been taken off line but left in reserve as a "preventative measure", a spokeswoman for Tennet, one of the operators, told the newspaper.

You have to look for news items like this. You won’t find snippets like these in the UK media. Surprisingly this article came from The Times of India.

You what!

 

Hans, a middle-aged German tourist just over on his first visit to America, is in Orlando, Florida. He finds the red light district and enters a large brothel. The madam asks him to be seated and sends over a fresh young lady to entertain him.

They sit and talk, frolic a little, giggle a bit, drink a bit, and she sits on his lap. He whispers in her ear. She gasps, looks at him in dismay, leaps off his lap and runs away!

Seeing this, the madam sends over a more experienced lady to entertain the foreign gentleman.
They sit and talk, frolic a little, giggle a bit, drink a bit, and she sits on his lap. He whispers in her ear, and she too screams at him, "Good heavens ..no way!" and strides off in disgust.

The madam is surprised that this ordinary looking man has asked for something so outrageous that her two girls will have nothing to do with him. She decides that only her most experienced lady, Lola, will do. Lola has never said no to anything. So the madam sends her over to Hans. They sit and talk, frolic a little, giggle a bit, drink a bit more and she too, then sits on his lap. He whispers in her ear and she glares at him and screams, "No way buster", slaps him and storms off.

The madam is by now absolutely intrigued, having seen nothing like this in all her many years of operating a brothel. She hasn't done any bedroom work herself for a very long time, but she's sure she has said yes to everything a man could possibly ask for. Curiosity is now eating away at her and she just has to find out what this man wants that has made her girls say no and so angrily and besides she sees a chance to teach her employees a lesson or two.

So she goes over to Hans and apologises for the failure of the previous two girls to be able to accomodate him and tells him that she's the best in the house and is available. She sits down close to him. They chat, frolic, giggle, drink and then she sits in his lap, eager to find out what deviance has spooked her previous girls. She asks him what it is he wants to do.

Hans leans forward and whispers in her ear, "I want to pay in Euros".