Fun with German

Have a hankering for a little German Christmas music? Go to Weihnachtsradio and click on the Windows Media or Real Player icon. A few too many songs in English but a good listen nonetheless. If you're really lucky, you'll get to hear an annoying version of "The Little Drummer Boy," "Weihnacht faengt an," by Wolfgang Petry. Or, "Oh du froehliche," sung by Roger Whittaker. (I never said it was all good music.)

Here are some fun things I learned at German class yesterday:

• Man rauft sich die Haare
  tear one's hair out
• Salat statt Kohl
  salad instead of cabbage -- a play-on-words slogan used against Helmut Kohl when he was running for re-election
• Faules Ei
  something to call a lazy person -- literally, lazy egg
• der Stubenhocker
  someone who always stays inside
• der Faulpelz
  another word for a lazy person -- literally, lazy fur
• ausgelaugt
  an adjective meaning completely pooped or stressed out -- comes from the word that refers to the part of the washing machine process when all the water is sucked out of the machine
  
• Du gehst mir auf den Keks!
  you're driving me crazy -- literally, something like "you go me to/at the cookie"
  
• Ich schlage mich etwas aus dem Kopf schlagen
  I drive something from my mind -- "aus dem Kopf" means "ouf of the head" and schlage means "to beat."