Bakker Bugle Blog Say it three times fast. In Luxembourgish.

30 September 2010

The Tour de France: the October stages

Filed under: france,sports — Will @ 20:31

The Tour isn’t over until the UCI says it is.Contador on 5 July 2010

Alberto Contador finished the riding stages of the Tour de France on July 25, with the best time of all the competitors. Andy Schleck had the second best time.
Today, Contador’s publicist revealed that a doping test of Contador’s blood, taken on a rest day during the Tour, was positive for a banned substance.

Worse yet, the violation occurred the day before Andy Schleck attacked Contador fiercely and repeatedly on the Col du Tourmalet. Contador withstood every test, as Andy noted in that evening’s interview:

I changed rhythm and I tried everything but I think we’re on the same level on the climbs. … I tried to find out how he was feeling. You need to look at someone to see how he was coping. I think you can find out a lot if you look someone in the eyes. He didn’t have the sunglasses on today so it was possible to see, that’s why I looked so many times. But he always looked good and that’s kind of what killed me. … El Pistolero [Contador] is strong, huh? I could not drop him. He was always there. I wanted to find out if he was getting weak but he didn’t succumb. He even attacked me to show, ‘Hey, listen young boy, I’m still here! You better stop playing these games with me.’

So, wow, and…

Yay! Andy won the Tour!

Not so fast. (more…)

23 September 2010

What was behind the big protest?

Filed under: france,germany,luxembourg,politics — Will @ 22:32

Why did thousands of people come to Place Clairefontaine last Thursday? As always, there is a simple answer that glosses a complex situation.

The simple answer is that Luxembourg’s government changed the laws in a way that many consider unfair to people who work in Luxembourg but live across its borders.

Not satisfied with that? (more…)

17 September 2010

A little late to the big protest

Filed under: culture,luxembourg,politics — Will @ 16:45

I tell you what, let’s forget the fact that you’re coming a little late to the party and embrace the fact that you showed up at all. *

I like a good protest as much as your average expat — much more, probably. Yesterday’s demonstration in Luxembourg’s center promised to be a big one. At the end of July, after Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker announced his intention to go ahead with budget reforms over the protests of unions and other groups, those disregarded organizations announced the September protest. So I noted 16 September, 5:30pm, on my calendar and started reading the politics section of the newspaper more carefully.

Protests in Dublin, while I was there, could be large or small, but they were always long. As in the US, they usually took about an hour to get warmed up. So, at about 6:15 yesterday, I walked to Place Clairefontaine to snap a few photos and to learn how to dissent publicly in the Luxembourgish style. I wanted to met Anita for the walk back home, so I thought, “Boy, this timing worked out perfectly!”

Here’s what I found on Place Clairefontaine. (more…)

12 September 2010

Best of the Tumble, 12 Sept 2010

Filed under: entertainment,news — Will @ 10:59

Alert readers have noticed, by now, a list of intriguing links and comments in the rightmost column of this blog. This is the Bugle Tumble. There are new items posted to the Bugle Tumble regularly — and much more frequently than the Bakker Bugle Blog.

Most of the items are just links to interesting bits of the InterWebs, with a bit of commentary from us, the Bugle staff. It’s little more than a running compilation of websites where we are doing research for upcoming posts, or just slacking off. But there are also fresh photos from Luxembourg, posted to the Tumble on that day that they were taken. Current-ness!
(more…)

7 September 2010

Vertigo at the Schueberfouer

Filed under: entertainment,luxembourg,photos — Will @ 11:18

The Schueberfouer will end Wednesday, so we visited one more time this Sunday. It was packed! We took lots of photos, of course, to give you a feel for the event.

Objective Number One: Ride the big swings!
(more…)

1 September 2010

Your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather’s Labor Day sale

Filed under: consumer,culture,luxembourg — Will @ 17:32

“The Big One-Day Retail Sale is dead.” If someone told me that, I’d find it quite plausible. Between “Low Prices All the Time” and Amazon.com, I wouldn’t expect a frugal (American) consumer to wait for a sale to purchase something. You might wait for the next generation of a gadget, or check prices all over, but to wait for a big sale with a specific date in the future?

When I see an ad for a one-day sale, I assume it’s little more than a scam to create false urgency.

Oh, there’s Black Friday, of course. (And Woot, I guess.) But even the post-holiday sales have been lackluster for years. The upcoming Labor Day sales seem more like an excuse for lazy advertising than a real chance to score a bargain.

“Not so, in Luxembourg,” I was told, by several Luxembourgers. “You must go to the Braderie on Monday. Stuff is really cheap. All the stores will have bargains.” All the stores? You mean that they cooperate and all have sales on the same day? “Yes,” they said, “It’s always the same. Go to the Ville-Haute.” (more…)

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