Q-and-A

 1.  Is this Italian election a big deal?

The Germans (public TV) have pumped up the results, because of a fair amount of votes for the right-wing party....'Brothers of Italy' came out as a winner.  While the Democrats (center-left) 'failed' to win.  

Listen, there are 14 parties that play out in this election, and a lot of this was just plain election-hype with no real substance.  

The top subjects for this election?  Minimum wage, immigration woes, basic income, cannabis legalization, and accusations of failure since the last election (2018).  

2.  Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) arriving at the port in Hamburg by end of the year?

Yes.  First load is scheduled now, coming from UAE.  

The amount talked about for this first delivery?  1.37 million KwH of value.  That's about 75-percent of what would flow through Nord Stream I (the Russian pipeline) for one single day. 

To really make a difference, you'd need a minimum of four dockings per week, with all other deliveries (from Norway, etc) to perform at their peak.

3.  Limit on Christmas lighting in Germany?

Well....a director for one of the government environmental agencies has openly suggested that cities and towns in German establish a 'limit'.  

How this will be perceived?  Hard to say.

4.  Charcoal grill poisoning?

This story came up in the AM....some German guy in Bavaria was trying to use the bar-b-q grill with regular charcoal.....to heat his apartment.  

Wife had a fainting at some point, and his nephew fell unconscious.  Rescue crew saves the day.  

5.  Half-way point of Oktoberfest?

Well.....on customers....way less than they expected, but bad weather has played into this situation.