An online travel Web site in eastern Germany will offer a clothes-optional flight to a lucky few this summer. Given the German love for all things naked, chances are it’s already sold out.
Huh?
An online travel agency, OssiUrlaub.de, has announced that it will offer a nude chartered flight between the eastern German town of Erfurt and the Baltic Sea island resort of Usedom.
The flight, planned for July 5 and returning a week later, will be able to hold 55 passengers, and tickets will cost €499 ($735).
"I wish I could say we thought of it ourselves but the idea came from a customer," managing director Enrico Hess told Reuters. "It’s an unusual gap in the market."
FKK, or "free body culture" — i.e., disrobed living — has been popular in Germany for some time. Although the Nazis banned the practice, it roared back into favor after World War II, particularly in former Communist East Germany.
Had that happened in the States, though — George W. stripping down in the Rose Garden after a particularly strenuous mountain bike ride, for example — the outrage would have been two-fold. Disrespect for the country’s leader on the one hand. But on the other, folks would be asking themselves what the hell a president was doing disrobing in public. The Merkel photos, though, triggered no such questions. After all, stripping off is something of a German pastime.
You’ll see naked Germans everywhere. Lying on the banks of the Isar River smack in the center of Munich. On the shores of the Havel on the outskirts of Berlin. In public parks. There’s one perennially naked guy who wanders around Munich’s English Garden like an ambulatory grandfather clock shocking foreign guests. His nickname is "The Hammer."
And then there’s the sauna. Forget about trying to wear a swimsuit in a sauna. First of all, you’ll be the only one with any sort of clothing at all. Secondly, you’ll be immediately pegged as a prudish Anglo-American. No one stares, no one tries to make you feel awkward, but everyone in the room somehow knows to address you in English. Though there is also a decent chance that the sauna authorities will come around, pour water on the broiling sauna rocks, and demand in a brisk impersonal voice, "Take off your clothes, please, no clothes allowed!" Jawohl!
None of this should be surprising. Everyone knows that an average continental European will whip off his kit at the drop of a hat. But Germans are a breed apart. They were on the cutting edge of organized nudity already in the early 20th century…
…
Not that all Germans approve of exposed tackle. While Americans may think all Germans are exhibitionists, Germans from the former East think westerners are kind of uptight. Communism had nothing against nudity, and after the Wall fell, there were bitter clashes between easterners and westerners who disagreed about where it was okay to be naked on beaches along the Baltic Sea. The problem was solved with special FKK beaches; but some naked easterners still resent the new restrictions and make a point of wandering as close as they can to the clothed section to antagonize their clothed, western cousins. "West Germans," wrote the Ostsee Zeitung — based on the German Baltic Sea coast — in 1999, "are prudes."
Uh. Okay. Well it would seem that all those TV Germans I grew up with bear as much resemblance to the real thing as all those TV Indians I grew up with. And probably all those TV Brits…all those TV Mexicans…all those TV Frenchmen…all those TV scientists…all those TV cops…all those TV negros…all those TV homosexuals…
Message to a certain someone: When you said you and your wife were more into nature then technology…is this what you meant?
What They Thought Of Us Then. What They Think Of Us Now.
Some random thoughts on homosexuals and homosexuality from back when I was a struggling gay teen…
I think homosexuals cursed, and I am afraid I mean this quite literally, in the medieval sense of having been struck by an unexplained injury, an extreme piece of evil luck whose origin is so unclear as to be, finally, a mystery.
If I had the power to do so, I would wish homosexuality off the face of the earth. I would do so because I think that it brings infinitely more pain than pleasure who are forced to live it; because I think there is no resolution for this pain in our lifetime, only, for the overwhelming majority of homosexuals, more pain and various degrees of exacerbating adjustment; and because, wholly selfishly, I find myself completely incapable of coming to terms with it.
They are different from the rest of us. Homosexuals are different, moreover, in a way that cuts deeper than other kinds of human differences — religious, class, racial — in a way that is, somehow, more fundamental. Cursed without clear cause, afflicted without apparent cure, they are an affront to our rationality.
…
I do think homosexuality an anathema, and hence homosexuals cursed, and thus the importance, for me if for no one else, of my defining a homosexual as someone who has physical relations, for it leaves room for my admiration for the man who is pulled toward homosexuality and resists, at what psychic price I cannot hope even to begin to imagine.
…
I was stunned, then angry. I was angry, first, at my own lack of judgment and subtlety in not deducing that Richard was a homosexual; and, second, more intensely, at being victimized by his duplicity. We were not close friends, but I liked him, and not it seemed that every moment we had spent together was a huge sham, an elaborate piece of deception to hide the essential, the number one, fact in his life.
…
I have four sons, and while I do not walk the streets thinking constantly about their sexual development, worrying right on through the night about their turning out homosexual, I have very little idea, apart from supplying them with ample security and affection, about how to prevent it. Uptight? You’re damn right. Given any choice in the matter, I should prefer sons who are heterosexual. My ignorance makes me frightened.
-Joseph Epstein, "Homo/Hetero: The Struggle for Sexual Identity," Harper’s, September 1970
…and then, from back when I was a struggling gay young adult…
In the case of the husbands at Fire Island Pines, the homosexuals were right about one thing. Their uneasiness did contain a large component of fear. The fear of straight men in the face of the homosexual community, however, is not that they will be tempted to join in but that they are being diminished by it, diminished in their persons and diminished in their lives. As women in a full company of homosexual men feel devalued and sexually rejected – that is the very reason certain women, they used to be called "fag hags", choose to spend their lives in such company – heterosexual men feel themselves mocked. They feel mocked in their unending thralldom to the female body and thus their unending dependence on those who possess it. They feel mocked by the longing for and vulnerability to and even humiliation from women they have since boyhood permitted themselves to endure, while others apparently just like themselves, slowly assert their escape from these things
They feel mocked most of all for having become, in style as well as substance, fmaily men, caught up in getting and begetting, thinking of mortgages, schools, and the affordable, marking the passage of years in obedience to all the grubby imperatives that heterosexual manhood seems to impose. In assuming such burdens they believe themselves entitled to respect, but homosexuality paints them with the color of sheer entrapment.
In Fire Island Pines they were in fact being mocked explicitly, not so much by individual homosexuals as the reigning homosexual fashion. The essence of that fashion was the worship of youth – youth not even understood as young manhood but rather boyhood (and indeed, the straight women among themselves always referred to the homosexuals as "the boys"). On the beach particularly, this worship became all powerful and inescapable to the eye. It was a constant source of wonder among us, and remains so to me to this day, that by far the largest number of homosexuals had hairless bodies. Chests, backs, arms, even legs, were smooth and silky, an impression strengthened by the fact that they were in addition frequently and scrupulously unguented to catch the full advantage of the sun’s ultra violet. We were never able to determine just why there should be so definite a connection between what is nowadays called their sexual “preference” and their smooth feminine skin. Was it a matter of hormones, or was there some constant special process of depilation? But smooth-skinned they were, and, like the most narcissistic of pretty young girls and women, made an absolute fetish of the dark and uniform suntan, devoting hours, days, weeks, to turning themselves carefully to the sun. Nor was this tanning flesh ever permitted to betray any of the ordinary signs of encroaching mortality, such as excess fat or flabbiness or on the other hand the kind of muscularity that suggests some activity whose end is not beauty. In short, year by year homosexuals of all ages presented a never-ending spectacle, zealously and ruthlessly monitored, of tender adolescence.
…
One thing is certain. To become homosexual is a weighty act. Taking oneself out of the tides of ordinary mortal existence is not something one does from any longing to think oneself ordinary (but only following a different “lifestyle”). Gay Lib has been an effort to set the weight of that act at naught, to define homosexuality as nothing more than a casual option among options. In accepting the movement’s terms, heterosexuals have only raised to a nearly intolerable height the costs of the homosexual’s flight from normality. Faced with the accelerating round of drugs, S-M, and suicide, can either the movement or its heterosexual sympathizers imagine that they have done anyone a kindness?
-Midge Decter, "The Boys On The Beach," Commentary, September 1980
Read a good take down on Epstein over at David Ehrenstein’s site…Here. Ehrenstein was one of the gay activists who stormed the offices of Harper’s Magazine after Harper’s doggedly refused to air any rebuttals to Epstein’s public wish to see homosexuals removed from the face of the earth.
Decter’s theses, if you will, in The Boys On The Beach, is that only a conservative and officially anti-gay culture keeps the innately self destructive impulses of gay men in check, whereas liberalism allows those impulses to become fully realized. Thus, according to Decter, persecuting homosexuals is actually a kindness. Anti-gay persecution is necessary in order to save homosexuals from themselves. This is the position that the American movement conservatives have taken ever since, and Decter’s 1980 essay in Commentary is still regarded warmly in winger circles, as an important work. You see echos of The Boys On The Beach in every opinion piece on homosexuals and homosexuality from the movement conservatives, even now. The premise, often unspoken but there between the lines, that culture and the law must be stacked against gay people, for their own good of course, because of the innately self destructive nature of homosexuality, is so ingrained in their rhetoric now that it’s central premise is taken as a given. It is homosexuality, not the persecution of homosexuals, that is destructive. Therefore, the solution is, surprise, surprise, More persecution.
But the Epstein essay gets to the heart of it: Homosexuals are cursed…they are anathema…they are different from us…they frighten us…if we could, we’d remove them from the face of the earth…because we are incapable of coming to terms with them. Yes we’re cursed alright. Not by our nature, but by their hate. Their calm, cool, thoroughly intellectual hate. There is the bedrock of The Boys On The Beach. There is the stinking rotten core of the secular right’s view of gay people. See how it is not all that different from that of the fundamentalists. Just add God, and you have a James Dobson speaking there. Anyone who thinks there is enough difference between the religious right and the secular right when it comes to gay people, that at least the secularists can be talked to, is just not paying attention.
On her way to buy some orange juice, 26-year-old Pamela Brown, who started living as a woman three years ago, said she was viciously attacked because she is transgendered.
"I saw five guys blocking the storeway. They called me a [expletive deleted] and then I was hit. Then I was attacked by two more guys from the back and my fiance ran over," she said. "I probably could have been killed if I was by myself."
Brown is now recovering while in protective police custody.
Meanwhile, two young men have been arrested near the Old Town Mall in Baltimore where the beating occurred.
Police commented on the attack last week.
"More than likely it will be upgraded to a hate crime, simply because of the things that were being said," said Troy Harris, Baltimore City Police spokesperson.
But now the city state’s attorney’s office is not pursuing hate crime charges. Why?
A spokesperson says while there was provocative language, it is free speech and there’s no evidence of premeditation.
Dig it. If you’re gay or transgendered here in Baltimore, and someone walks up and beats the crap out of you while calling you a fucking faggot, that’s not a hate crime here in Baltimore, because the fact that they used sexual slurs while they were beating the crap out of you isn’t evidence of either hate or premeditation, merely one citizen’s opinion of another.
This actually isn’t the only kind of crime Baltimore city chronically under reports. And Baltimore probably isn’t alone in that regard either. But check out the link I have on the right to the Baltimore Crime blog every now and then to see just how infrequently the violent criminals around here actually get the attention they need. Between our police department, which as been known to threaten victims for reporting crimes, and Patricia Jessamy, our pathetic state’s attorney who drops charges more frequently then a blizzard drops snowflakes, a lot of stuff around just gets swept under the rug, or dropped somewhere they hope nobody will notice. Which is all to say that it isn’t necessarily prejudice that’s motivating Patricia to under report hate crimes against sexual minorities here in Baltimore. More likely then not it’s just standard operating procedure.
But now some of Baltimore’s black ministers are gearing up to wage Kultur Krieg on Maryland’s gay community over same sex marriage…so expect Patricia to be classifying more violent crimes against gay and transgendered people as freedom of speech in the coming months. Hopefully my family and friends won’t be seeing my name in that roll call.
Mercedes-Benz has claimed Australia’s longest running new-car award for its ultra-impressive mid-size sedan range.
The C-Class convincingly came out on top of 20 new models after Wheels’ gruelling week-long testing program.
Wheels editor, Ged Bulmer said the C-Class stood apart from the field with its impressive combination of standard safety features, well-judged electronic driver aids, excellent dynamic ability, ride comfort, build quality and attractive design.
“Every C-Class model in the range shares these outstanding core attributes,” Bulmer said.
This was the 45th running of Wheels Car of the Year.
The 20 nominees for Wheels COTY 2007 were:
Audi A5
BMW M3
BMW X5
Ford Mondeo
Honda Civic
Honda CR-V
Hyundai i30
Land Rover Freelander 2
Lexus LS
Mazda 2
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Mitsubishi Lancer
Nissan Dualis
Skoda Roomster
Nissan X-Trail
Subaru Impreza
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Kluger
Toyota Landcruiser
Volkswagen Eos
Hey…it beat out two BMWs and an Audi. Oh…and a Lexus. The new LS no less! Wow. That’s gotta hurt. The LS is to Lexus as the ‘E’ class is to Mercedes. Now I wish Icould find one of those Lexus commercials from a few years back where they show a bunch of German automobile engineers, presumably in the headquarters of some (nameless) German automaker, studying a Lexus ES (the ES is about the same class as the Mercedes ‘C’ whereas the LS is their flagship sedan) and of course they’re all speaking English at each other with these thick stereotypical German accents even though this is supposedly taking place in Germany inside a German car company, and when they’re told that the Lexus is "thousands less" then their cars the head engineer shakes his head sadly and says, "Now vhat do ve do…?" Guess the shoe’s on the other foot now…
My ‘C’ is nowhere near as sumptuous as a Lexus LS. But a good automobile is more then nice leather and wood trim and a high powered stereo system. The best European car makers have known this for some time. Once upon a time Detroit knew it too. But the only Japanese car maker that I can think of who might now is Honda…and that because, so I hear, Mr. Honda loved to race. That five speed Accord sedan I had was nice. Had Mercedes not come out with this new ‘C’ class, I might still be driving it.
Well…no… Actually I was ready for my Mercedes now…
So I resigned shortly after I wrote the post below about why I’d prefer a non-geek boyfriend, from Chemistry.Com. That’s the dating service that had that cute little commercial jabbing eHarmony for discriminating against gay folks. Their personality profile test seemed promising and I hoped I would get matches that I might actually be compatible with for a change this time. So I bought a six month subscription several months ago. Just last week they stopped sending me new matches. None of the guys I pinged, about a dozen or so over a period of several months, even bothered sending me back a "not interested". I can’t even be sure if they were even active members or not. Nine-tenths of the guys they matched me up with…weren’t even close. That’s pretty much been my experience with dating services…both online and off.
I don’t think I’m that picky. There’s a scene at the beginning of the movie Animal House, where the new freshmen Kroger and Dorfman make the rounds of fraternities during pledge week. First they go to Omega house where they’re greeted with a lot of paper thin smiles and repeatedly ushered into a small room with all the other pledge week rejects. And it’s not like they see anyone else sitting in there that they have anything in common with either. They’re all just the random flotsam of pledge week all thrown together in the category of Other…Not Suitable, all staring uncomfortably at each other. That’s how dating services make me feel.
Peterson Toscano has written about all the tens of thousands of dollars he once spent trying to cure himself of his homosexuality. Well I haven’t spent quite that much trying to find a boyfriend over the years, but it’s been in the thousands. I got pushed an ad the other day as I logged out of my MySpace account, for a new gay dating service called MyPartner. Supposedly it’s only for folks who are interested in long term relationships. Which makes them similar to…oh…nearly all the other dating services I’ve bought into over the years that promised me they were different from the others, and really, really, honestly were only for people who were really, really, honestly looking for relationships, as opposed to quick hooking up. The MyPartner basic service, they claim, is free. But if you are really, really serious about finding romance you can buy into one of their optional packages promising a higher level of service. The ad I saw flashed in my face recommended the five-thousand dollar "Executive Level" package. But for a whole ten grand I can get a program customized specifically for my particular needs.
So…dig it…today’s struggling awkward confused lonely homosexual can spend thousands of dollars in various ex-gay programs over a period of many years to no effect, or they can spend thousands of dollars in various gay dating services over a period of many years to no effect. Let it be said, The Gay Lifestyle™ gives you options. This is why all those surveys of gay people keep finding that we all have so much disposable income. You just can’t afford to be gay if you don’t.
Well Chemistry.Com turned out to be a dud. Maybe I should have tried these instead…
For the lover man who wants to get lucky. With a 60’s swing feel these chocolate cookies come equipped with pickup lines as fortunes. Box contains 8 chocolate fortune cookies.
So I’m out strolling around the neighborhood, cigar in hand, still trying to burn off some nervous energy from my holiday adventures, when I happen across a neighbor packing his car for a little trip. We chat for a brief moment, and it leads to this short exchange…
Me: Yeah…I’m still trying to de-stress from my holiday trip. My path took me past two of the great loves of my life…
He: I can see where that would lead to stressful times…
Me: Yeah. My Ex down in Hilton Head just Had to show me the house he’s living in now…with the guy he dumped me for. I tried to explain…but he insisted and I just can’t say no to him… (shakes head) He just had to show me. Arrgh…
He: (Grins)
Me: And then I drove through Florida, where my first love lives now… So basically about half my vacation amounted to taking a tour past the lives they’ve both made for themselves… (shrug…puff…)
He: Yes. But you survived.
Actually…that’s still an open question.
One of my D.C. friends asked me why I fucking did that to myself. I told him I didn’t know. And, really, I don’t. Except it’s just the way I am. I had to know. It’s why I was never able to just sit in my church pews and passively accept what I was being told about life, morality, evolution, creation, and my relationship to my creator. Ever since I was old enough to lay on my back at night and look up at the stars and wonder what they were, I’ve always had to know what is.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
-Ecclesiastes (ch. I, v. 18)
That’s not really true. Knowledge is broadening. Both the joys and the sorrows increase. But there’s a point you reach where you find you can’t cope anymore. Understanding nature as it really is, has provided me with very great joy. But there’s only one joy that can ease the sorrow I’ve lived with most of my life, and I don’t see it coming. And that one great sorrow just really drags me down lately. I don’t think anyone who knows me really sees how bad it is.
I wish I could draw. If I could just draw it might help a little.
[Update…] Apparently initial autopsy results were inconclusive. But…look at this from Raw Story…
The actor’s personal strife was accompanied by professional anxiety.
Ledger said in an interview in November that "Dark Knight" and last year’s "I’m Not There," took a heavy toll. He said he "stressed out a little too much" during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."
"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told The New York Times. "I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he took two Ambien pills, which only worked for an hour.
Holy Crap! I had a prescription of Ambien once and just one of those things would slam me down flat all night and halfway into the next morning. And those things are horribly addictive (it took me a month and a half of slowly cutting the pills down smaller and smaller every night to ween myself off the stuff) and I swore afterward that I’d never touch the stuff again. And he was downing two at a time and they weren’t doing anything for him??? Wow. Just… Wow.
I don’t think most of us who only watch their performances up on the silver screen really appreciate how incredibly stressful that life is. They make it look easy and it isn’t.
Stuttgart – Jan 17, 2008 — Stuttgart – The Mercedes-Benz C-Class has emerged the winner of Germany’s largest vote for the most popular car by a wide margin. Accordingly the motoring organisation ADAC has presented its sought-after "Yellow Angel 2008" award to this Stuttgart-made public favourite.
The "Yellow Angel" awards, which the ADAC presents annually for outstanding performance, are named after the nickname given to the ADAC’s friendly breakdown service personnel and are among Europe’s most sought-after motoring awards. Consumers find them a valuable decision-making guide, as criteria such as price/performance ratio, practicality, economy, safety and environmental compatibility also play a part in the selection process.
The vote was between 36 vehicles which newly entered the market in 2007. Around 340,000 people cast their votes and awarded first place to the Mercedes-Benz C-Class by a wide margin over the runner-up. Europe’s largest motoring association – it has around 16 million members – rewarded this clear-cut result with the "Yellow Angel 2008" award for Germany’s favourite car.
…
Germany’s favourite car is also very much a bestseller. With 261,500 examples sold in 2007, unit sales of the saloon increased by 57 percent.
The C-Class has already collected several awards for its exceptional status in the mid-range segment. The readers of AUTO BILD voted it the most attractive saloon, the motoring magazine "auto, motor und sport" declared it the most appealing medium-sized car and 350,000 participants in Europe’s largest internet survey voted it Europe’s favourite car with the 2007 "Carolina" Internet Auto Award.
I’ll say this…as soon as I sat down in one at the Mercedes dealership in Hunt Valley back in September, I just knew deep down inside that this is the One. But it’s great to know they’re enthusiastic about this new Mercedes back in Germany because I think it means the company really does have its grove back now. Mine was made at a factory just outside of Stuttgart.
I’ve put about 7500 miles on Traveler since I took delivery back in October, drove it down to Disneyworld and Key West last month, and I haven’t had problem one. It’s been absolutely reliable and solid in the way that I’d always admired Mercedes-Benz autos for, back when I was a kid. And…it’s a beautiful car…in that straightforward, understated Mercedes-Benz way because when you’re engineered like that you don’t have to shout. You just Are.
This isn’t bragging…I’m obviously still in new car love. Your mileage will of course, vary. Some folks want the Corvette. Some just gotta have that big truck or SUV. Some want the Mini Cooper. Some would rather have the Harley. This car is me. Absolutely me.
…plans to “decide in about a month” on another third-party run at the White House. In addition to having done enough damage to our country already, Ralph is 74 years old—three years older than ancient ol’ John McCain—and really ought to be thinking about retirement.
C’mon, Ralph. Don’t you want to enjoy your golden years? Kick back—you’ve earned it. Don’t you wanna travel a bit, see the country…
Tell you what, Ralph, if you don’t run for president I’ll head up a fundraising drive to purchase you a nice car—perhaps a bitchin’ vintage ‘62 Corvair—for you to tour the country in. Whatdaya say, Ralph?
Same-sex couples are just as committed in their romantic relationships as heterosexual couples, according to a report.
The finding disputes the stereotype that couples in same-sex relationships are not as committed as their heterosexual counterparts and therefore not as psychologically healthy.
The study examined whether committed same-sex couples differed from engaged and married opposite-sex couples in how well they interacted and how satisfied they were with their partners.
Researchers from the University of Illinois compared 30 committed gay male and 30 committed lesbian couples with 50 engaged heterosexual couples and 40 older married heterosexual couples, as well as with dating heterosexual couples.
Results of a questionnaire and a laboratory task showed that same-sex relationships were similar to those of opposite-sex couples in many ways.
All had positive views of their relationships but those in the more committed relationships (gay and straight) resolved conflict better than the heterosexual dating couples.
The notion that committed same-sex relationships are "atypical, psychologically immature, or malevolent contexts of development was not supported by our findings," said lead author Glenn I. Roisman.
"Compared with married individuals, committed gay males and lesbians were not less satisfied with their relationships."
And he added: "Gay males and lesbians in this study were generally not different from their committed heterosexual counterparts on how well they interacted with one another, although some evidence emerged the lesbian couples were especially effective at resolving conflict."
Yeah…male ego… But still. It’s possible. It can happen. To us too. That’s what they never wanted us to know…
The study features in the January issue of Developmental Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.
Via Slashdot…one poor lonely heterosexual geek is looking for love…
"Craiglist offers an interesting approach to finding a life partner , summmary: "There is a sad truth to the world today. I am part of a dying breed of people known as "shell users." … Because there are fewer and fewer of us, I must help keep our lineage alive. I am looking for someone to help me do this. I need a woman (obviously) who is willing to raise a child with me in the method of Unix."."
Oh that poor kid…
Look…I’ve been a computer geek since microcomputers first started appearing on the shelves. I earn my living coding, and designing somewhat complex software systems. I didn’t start out in Unix, but DOS, and I spent many years before Windows wielding a command prompt, thinking nothing of jamming complex dos commands together in order to do something I needed doing. These days with Linux I can #!/bin/sh to my heart’s content. but trust me, you just plain don’t want to know what I know about DOS batch file programming. And I really don’t think I need more geekiness in my life, thank you. Two of us under the same roof would be too much.
I’m not looking for a Luddite by any means. But a boyfriend who knows there is life somewhere offline too, and who would rather spend his time there, would be helpful. In friendship you want your reflection. In love you want your complement.
Looks like the new ‘E’ class is going to look a bit like the new ‘C’ class…
Look familiar? I did a double-take when I saw this and thought for a moment that the image had been mislabeled an ‘E’ when it should have been labeled a ‘C’. Then I looked closer. From the back it looks different enough though…
The trunk curves in a nicer way then my ‘C’, although I think the rear end look of my ‘C’ is pretty nice too. But it looks to my eye like the rear passenger doors on this new ‘E’ slope down a bit too much at the back. But if it’s got a longer wheelbase then the ‘C’ then that slope probably isn’t as bad as it looks. The tailpipes could have come right off my ‘C’. And for that matter, so could the front grille. Here’s what the new interior looks like…
The door panels are almost identical to my ‘C’. They have the seat adjustment buttons on them and mine has them on the side of the seat, but that’s a fluke of the U.S. ‘C’ version only. Note the trapdoor for the nav system video display above the center air vents…just like in my ‘C’ class, only a tad wider. The controls on the console below it are almost identical to my ‘C’, except for their color scheme. It looks like there is an extra button next to the seat warmer buttons and that’s all. The instrument cluster is arranged a bit differently, and it looks like they’re all digital displays, whereas mine are real gauges, with a digital display in the center of the speedometer gauge. The steering wheel is identical to mine, again except for the color scheme. There’s more wood on the dash, but less on the center console. I’ll assume some center console wood can be added optionally. Otherwise, this new ‘E’ is only about as sumptuous on the inside as my ‘C’ and that can’t be right.
By the way…I really Like the fact that my video display can be tucked away while I’m driving. It’s distracting otherwise. When I need to see a detailed map or something it’s nice to bring it out. But once I have what I need off of it I like being able to tuck it back away.
It’s nine degrees at BWI airport as I write this. You can really tell how poorly insulated a 1950s brick house is when it gets this cold. The two exterior walls here at Casa del Garrett, front and back, are just radiating coldness. It’s days like this I don’t mind that I didn’t buy an end-of-group unit.
Ironically enough, the previous owners installed really nice double-pane glass windows. The concrete block and brick veneer exterior walls probably loose way more heat then the windows in them do.
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