Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! What can I say: the sun is shining again today. Not literally, but you know what I mean. I got a call from the hospital yesterday, briefing me on the logistics for my upcoming surgery on Monday next week. We got to get there by 5:30am. This makes me believe that they must get to operate on me quite early. That’s great! The only problem: I had hoped to get in touch with my surgeon before the surgery, because I wanted to double check with him that he’s going to take the stent out, too, during the procedure. Anyway, maybe I will get to see him Monday morning before they knock me out. Otherwise, I will tell one of the nurses.
Some of you sent me emails, asking me about my name and why I use an alias here on the Internet. It’s simply because of my paranoia. I’m afraid that someone might steal my/our identity and we all know how bad that can get. However, of course, if someone really wants to find out, it would probably take him less than 3 seconds to get there.
The second reason is the incompatibility of my German name with the American language. Picture this scenario: I’m on the phone with someone who wants to know my name. I truthfully tell them my real first name, DIETER.
And then it starts:
“What is that? PETER?”
“No, it’s DIETER like ‘dieter’, as in 'DIET'.”
“Diet? Are you on a diet?”
“No, my name is Dieter which spells exactly like ‘dieter’, a person who is on a diet.”
“So it’s not Peter, but like Peter, only with a ‘D’, right?”
“No, not quite. It’s exactly like ……”

I guess you get the point, right? Imagine me in a restaurant and they ask me for a name to call you up once your table is ready. And then going through the whole name-thing? Nahh, Tony is straight forward and easy. Much better. I could tell you now a million more stories about the confusion my real last name did cause to my poor American fellows, but I’d rather spare you the ‘gory’ details. ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving and God bless you all!

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