the world has turned and left me here

Captain IRON-Y

Took the S-Bahn to Munich this afternoon. When I resurfaced to the sound of the noon bells in MarienPlatz, the center of Munich, I was standing in front of the Neues Rathaus. This is an enormous neo-gothic city hall built by Mad King Ludwig II in the 1800's. Lots of people were looking upward to see some sort of display that was taking place with little mechanical figures, but I didn't see anything happening and got bored pretty quick. The hugeness and ornateness of the building impressed me but the kling-klanging of little bells did not.

Subsequently I wandered around Munich for about two hours, in search of (guess what) plug adapters. All the shops were way too upscale to sell something as common as a plug adapter. I passed a place with a Lamborghini in the window, I passed Versace, Milano, tons of jewelry shops, and even went down a street entirely taken over by nouveau riche art galleries. I was aware that I looked out of place with my "Computers don't affect kids..." t-shirt, corduroys, and sandals.

But the quest had to continue. Finally, having almost given up, I found myself staring into the window of an electronics store. Inside I obtained four American-to-German adapters for 3 Euro each. I was very happy! It only took me like six trips to find them...

After that I was approached on the street by an attractive girl who claimed to be from Romania. She fed me some story about having a baby at home and needing money, money for pampers, and always ended with a trailing "Jesus saves..." I looked into her beautiful lying eyes for a while and then told her I was sorry. She had turned to leave almost before I finished my sentence.

Back near the Rathaus again I ran into a curious thing. This guy had put on a policeman's suit and painted himself completely chrome-colored, from head to toe, so that he looked exactly like a metal statue. In fact I thought it was one until he moved. On the metal box he stood on were the words "Captain IRON-Y." There was a plate out front, and whenever people dropped coins in he would make different robotic gestures of thanks, then reassume with amazing accuracy the same position he had been in. To the little girls he blew kisses. To the boys he would salute. When someone missed the plate, he would scold them and point to it.