On this day in history...

[tubeswell]

I still have a 10 DM note

Doesn’t look much like easy folding money (although I can easily see how you would have to fold it 3 or 4 times to get one into your wallet).

[Мастер]

I have one of those as well. Just in case I forget the probability density function for a normal.

[Arneb]

Just read that Germans are still hoarding 6.6 bn Euro worth of old DM coins and notes. Around 15 of those are in my possession (plus a 10 Mark der DDR note with Clara Zetkin on it). If you happen to have any, they aren't good for buying things any more, but you can exchange them for Euros at any local bank, at a small fee, for the original exchange rate of around 1.96 DM to the Euro.

I also read that young people are increasingly impatient with boomers still recalculating Euro prices in DM. As a boomer with kids, I very much know the young ones are impatient at pretty much everything I do, but this is not one of my many faults.

[Мастер]

I also read that young people are increasingly impatient with boomers still recalculating Euro prices in DM.

I still have a panic attack whenever I go to Hong Kong and see a pizza is $140.

[Richard A]

Hong Kong is not cheap, but it's not quite that bad!

I have a collection of pre-euro notes, German ones included, although I'd need to check to see if the 10 DM is among them.

I don't know if I have any GDR notes. For all but the last of my visits, export of GDR currency was strictly forbidden and they did on occasion check. And on the last one, I suspect I just took the hit of paying 3 times what was necessary and used DM. When the Wall went, the Mindestumtausch (compulsory exchange of 25DM per day) went with it - a lot faster than even the GDR itself - so finding somewhere to change money was just too much of a hassle for the small amount I was going to spend.

Back to the euro, we forget now what the single currency achieved in terms of convenience as we're so used to it. No changing of money for Arneb if on a trip to the Pfalz, he ventures into Alsace. Or for this Brexistani, an envelope of cash that did nicely for buying a soused herring in the Netherlands, a beer in Belgium and another one in Finland. (Or would have done if Finland hadn't embraced contactless payments for just about everything. Heid, if you do go there, note that!) I still remember, in the old days, getting £20 worth of Italian lire as I was going to be changing planes in Milan and then arriving at Heathrow to be told that my Alitalia flight was delayed and so they were putting me on KLM via Amsterdam instead! Arrrghhh!!!!

[Мастер]

Hong Kong is not cheap, but it's not quite that bad!

The point is, the price is listed in Hong Kong dollars.

I still remember, in the old days, getting £20 worth of Italian lire as I was going to be changing planes in Milan and then arriving at Heathrow to be told that my Alitalia flight was delayed and so they were putting me on KLM via Amsterdam instead! Arrrghhh!!!!

My experience was, if you tried to pay for something in Heathrow using Spanish pesetas, they would ring it up as Italian Lyra. 100%. So everything cost about ten times what it should.

[Arneb]

72 years ago, a certain mustachioed asshole put the last nail into the coffin of the German Reich by starting Unternehmen Barbarossa. It is uncertain and highly doubtful if at any time during the ensuing four years of unspeakable suffering, he ever once saw his error.

[Мастер]

72 years ago, a certain mustachioed asshole put the last nail into the coffin of the German Reich by starting Unternehmen Barbarossa. It is uncertain and highly doubtful if at any time during the ensuing four years of unspeakable suffering, he ever once saw his error.

Мудак

[Мастер]

a certain mustachioed asshole

Yes, best to specify, there were two of those . . .

[Heid the Ba]

The Austrian paper hanger.

[Arneb]

33 years ago today, Germany became Men's Football World Champion for the third time. My choir gave a performance in the early afternoon of that day, and we all met for a football watching party afterwards. I remember the nailbiter final well, but I remember even better the fact that the girl I was hot on allowed me to drive her home in the evening, and I was totally not unnerved for delirious Germany fans blocking the progress of my car for quite some time.

[Richard A]

a certain mustachioed asshole

Yes, best to specify, there were two of those . . .

But it is doubtful that the other one - with the bigger moustache - would have invaded the Reich had his country not been invaded first. Especially as he had a) executed a fair proportion of his generals, b) got a fairly good deal with small moustache and c) had a war with Finland go not quite as well as he'd hoped. Interestingly, one of my schoolteachers believed that had it not been for Unternehmen Barbarossa, World War II would have ended in stalemate. But then 1941 was not a year in which said moustached arsehole thought particularly clearly. First he launches Barbarossa. Then a few months later, he responds to Pearl Harbour by declaring war on the United States in solidarity, resulting in the Reich being at war with the the Soviet Union and the US at the same time. In what scenario was that going to end well?

[Heid the Ba]

In defence of Barbarossa, it had worked in The Kaiser's War.

[Мастер]

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin put down on the moon. But because they’re American, they mark the occasion on July 20.

[Lianachan]

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin put down on the moon. But because they’re American, they mark the occasion on July 20.

And loads of them think they filmed the whole thing in somebody’s garage.

[Lance]

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin put down on the moon. But because they’re American, they mark the occasion on July 20.

And loads of them think they filmed the whole thing in somebody’s garage.

Not a sound stage in Colorado, directed by Stanley Kubrick??

[Arneb]

Oh, you sheeple! It was in New Mexico, dammit. When will ya learn?

[g-one]

Fake. It's so obvious that's not cheese.

[Lianachan]

3rd August 1983 (actually wee hours of 4th) - The first ever concert for Prince and the Revolution is a small and incognito fundraiser at First Avenue for the Minnesota Dance Theatre. It included the live debuts of the songs Let’s Go Crazy, Computer Blue, Electric Intercourse (still unreleased and only ever played once more, in 2016), I Would Die 4 U, Baby I’m A Star, and Purple Rain. Three of these (I Would Die 4 U, Baby I’m A Star and Purple Rain) saw Prince overdub and edit them in the studio, with the final versions released on the album and film Purple Rain. Quite a night in modern music history. It was filmed, and there are low quality excerpts on YouTube.

[Heid the Ba]

8th August 1918, The Black Day of The German Army, the start of the Battle of Amiens, which lead to The Hundred Days Offensive. One of the bloodiest campaigns of the BEF but one that is little known. The attacks of 8th August shattered the German defences and convinced Ludendorff and Hindenburg that the war was lost. It wasn't the first successful attack by the BEF but it was the first time German (particularly Prussian) troop surrendered in large numbers and refused to counter attack. Partly this was due to war weariness, partly to troops transferred from the East and used to easy victories against the Russians, and partly due to the best troops having been stripped out to form Stormtroop divisions which were then destroyed in the German March offensives.

[Мастер]

The usual August 9 trio.

On August 9, 378, the Goths defeated the Romans at Hadrianople.

On August 9, 1945, a mushroom cloud rose over Nagasaki.

On August 9, 1965, Singapore, a part of Malaysia for less than two years, became independent.

[Arneb]

Also of significance:

1974, a certain non-mustachioed мудак resigns as President of the United States of America
1999, another non-mustachioed мудак becomes Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

[Heid the Ba]

Also of significance:

1974, a certain non-mustachioed мудак resigns as President of the United States of America
1999, another non-mustachioed мудак becomes Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

Never trust the clean shaven.

[Мастер]

Also of significance:

1974, a certain non-mustachioed мудак resigns as President of the United States of America
1999, another non-mustachioed мудак becomes Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

Большой мудак и маленький мудак

[Arneb]

Also of significance:

1974, a certain non-mustachioed мудак resigns as President of the United States of America
1999, another non-mustachioed мудак becomes Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

Большой мудак и маленький мудак

Question is, which is which?