I trust everyone had a pleasant 4th of July. Some people here in Munich were taken aback as I touted off a ‘Happy 4th’ and then had to explain, today is my country’s independence day. Even Alex was unaware. All the typical happenings that surround Independence Day hadn’t really played a major role in my life so I don’t feel much home sickness on the 4th nor compelled to recite cliché sayings about freedom and pride.
But one of the tv morning shows yesterday, in light of America’s Independence day, had carried out a poll asking Germans if they thought the US had a positive or negative influence on the world: 20% said positive, 72% negative. Pfif. Suddenly I felt a surge of patriotism in spite of myself. Aside from a very unpopular war, when you look at the whole pie, America isn’t all that bad, people.

I was also told at our grill fest on the Isar last night that ARD’s Tagesthemen displayed the American flag with 14 stripes. I half believed it since they botched the German flag during a newscast over the German-Turkey European Championship (soccer) game. But here’s the video proof:

Update: to ARD’s credit, it isn’t so easy to identify a wrong flag at first glance. You can quiz your flag knowledge here, if you can read German.