Lethargic Man (anag.)

Barely was the ink dry on my last item of self-designed clothing, when inspiration came for a new one:

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The text reads, in German, "Never get between an Englishman and his tea"; the back reads, also in German, "Well, someone has to lend credence to the stereotype".

A dozen years ago, I was returning home from shul on a Friday night in Berlin whilst wearing this outfit plus straw panama, and I overheard a drunk German point out rather too loudly to his companion, „Engländer!“ I thought to myself, if it's that obvious, I'm going to continue dialling it up to eleven.

In furtherance of the same aim, I depicted my tea-drinking self on the tea-shirt wearing a tail-coat, top hat and white bowtie, with a wood-panelled drawing-room in the background. Unfortunately, it's not very easy to see this detail on the photo, unless you click through for a higher-definition image. Indeed, the photo is a bit dark, which was the result of my trying to make the background not steal the limelight, whilst marrying light levels in the foreground and background, which were obviously not shot at the same time. (The latter is in my grandfather's house, which he moved out of in 1981. He had wood panelling installed, including a panel which swung open to reveal a cocktail bar; how cool is that?)

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I used to hate it, when I lived in London, when people referred to me as Londoners. (Actually there was someone, whom I won't name here, who used to regularly wind me up by referring to me casually in conversation as a Londoner, until eventually she took pity on me and let on what she was doing.)

This had a lot to do with the way that Londoners, and London Jews in particular, would act as if London was the be-all and end-all of British life, and the rest of the country did not exist. As a Novocastrian, I took umbrage at this.

For some reason, though, I never had this hang-up concerning identifying as a Berliner. Possibly the fact I never had the experience of living in the provinces in Germany had something to do with it, but I think it's more that Berlin from my perspective (which mostly means my workplace and my synagogue(s)) is much more cosmopolitan than London: Most of the people I know here came to Berlin themselves, or failing that, their parents did: Multi-generational Berlin families—people who speak the Berlinerisch dialect—are few and far between in my circle.

I felt I wanted to express this. So I made a sweatshirt (click through for higher resolution):

Explanation for non-Berliners/non-Germans: The text of course plays with JFK's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner", but the addition of the "geworden" changes the meaning from "I am a Berliner" to "I became a Berliner". The bear I am dancing with is the state symbol of the Berlin. The I in "Berliner" is a silhouette of the TV Tower, which for me acts as a symbol of Berlin as the city I live in (the Brandenburg Gate being more a symbol of Berlin as capital of Germany). And the Union Jack in the background I have altered to be in the colours of the German flag to show both where I have come from and my successful integration into German society.

Lastly, the back of the sweatshirt reads "Und du?" ("And you?")