A Good Place to Get Some Thinking Done

My friends, the global economy is still fighting to regain its balance after a severe shock, Somali pirates are still frequently attacking vessels in the Indian Ocean, and the world is just coming down off of the high generated by a severe over-reaction to the threat of the swine flu, but all of those problems are simply too small for the German judicial system.

Here's what the German Constitutional Court was up to on Tuesday...

Germany is renowned for fighting inflation, but the battle extends beyond money and into the realm of names. In a split decision on Tuesday, the German Constitutional Court upheld a ban on married people combining already-hyphenated names, forbidding last names of three parts or more.

Somewhere, a recently injured/retired Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutumbo is surely disheartened by this decision and what it means for the "Long Surname" rights movement worldwide.
He was unavailable for comment at the time we went to press.

Current Reading

I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

Impress All the Women, Pretend I'm Samuel Clemens, Wear Seersucker and White Linens

Congratulations once again to Ms. Amanda Pierce for almost naming "Anytime" by My Morning Jacket as the Thursday Song of the Day. Luke, before you file an official protest with the Running Down a Dream Song of the Day Rules Committee, you should note that she named the correct band and actually made an effort to win the prize, whereas your lack of participation was noticeable.

One of the more jarring sports-related experiences that I have had in the past 18 months occurred last May in Arlington as the Ballpark was transformed into Fenway Park Southwest by a roving band of bandwagon-hopping BoSox fans. The only living member of the Jig and Twig witnessed the same phenomenon last night at the Juice Box and left feeling worse than Kobayashi after a 4th of July spent at Nathan's Famous hot dogs on Coney Island.

Finally, thanks to information relayed by an unnamed source from the ABC/ESPN promotional department, Running Down a Dream is proud to bring you the rejected taglines for today's Euro 2008 Final between Spain and Germany:

Rejected Tagline #1:

Franco!

Hitler!

It's the Euro 2008 Final...on ABC!!!!

Rejected Tagline #2:

Guernica!

Dresden!

It's the Euro 2008 Final...on ABC!!!