Employing the kinds of trans-lingual devices (like this entry's title) that anglofritzers thought were all but used up, Carnegie Hall in New York is presenting a 17-day Berlin culture lovefest in November called Berlin in Lights. Just check out the program -- it's all there and then some: cabaret, Fassbinder, architecture, photography, concerts, symphonies, more symphonies and, yes, panel discussions. How about Political Berlin: Germany and the United States? That's fifteen dollars well spent.

Carnegie Hall head honcho Clive Gillinson tells New York magazine, "There are times when you feel that a city is almost the center of the world. At the moment, it’s Berlin."

Europe (well, its four largest countries) favour US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by a wide margin according to a recent poll. The Germans are especially keen to Clinton by a share of 45.5%, although with a name like Giuliani, you know Rudy got a bump in Italy. Related: Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker makes the provactive suggestion (in concluding a piece on France's new president), that Europe's new pro-American trinity of leaders in Merkel, Brown and now Sarkozy could mark the beginning of a new "post-American" era. Quote: They all want to normalize relations with a great power that is no longer the only power.

Angela Merkel spent three days in China, applying diplomatic pressure for reform in a number of areas, namely intellectual property and climate change.

Scott Horton is a New York attorney who writes a blog for Harper's Magazine called NoComment. He has the gall (and genius) to compare the political tactics in the twilight days of George W. Bush to those used by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, i.e. the "stabbed-in-the-back" theme in The Weimar President.