He's German, as are these observations on German culture

Ah, familiar stereotypes: reassuring to the outsider who impulsively seeks to correspond his findings, mystified by his/her Teutonic hosts. Particularly, I think it's funny how people can't get over how everything is closed on Sundays. I've come to see this as a spiritual decision, one which I deeply approve of, even if I've had to basically eat condiments to get through some weekends. Besides, it creates a nice rigor of behavior: shop Saturday, relax Sunday. Do you want to get nuts? Let's get nuts and sleep in on Saturday.

We tend to give people what they want, with an emphasis on self-deprecation, when they're seeking out national identity. I can't tell you how many times I've led off with some sort of general "Bush bad" statement to break the ice with my foreign hosts. It's starting to get generic. I should start lionizing America at cocktail parties, if only to hear the volume and timber of Germans whittling me down to size, or alternatively letting me walk all over them like a schoolyard tough. General "closed on Sunday" observations have become, to me, the equivalent of talking about the weather. Where are the in-depth analyses: a bizarre, wonderful German spouse, for example? That's taking things to the next level, if you're willing to do so. And I don't blame you if you're a bit reticent or scared... I am.

Another useful Nietzsche quote (first line of a book, typical): "We are unknown to ourselves, we knowers, we ourselves, to ourselves, and there is a good reason for this. "