That schwein is a real lausbube

Let's ignore for a sec all the dead, the dying, and the really, really sick. And their loved ones. Because, of course, what people who've caught the bad version of COVID are going through is a lot worse than the rest of us not being able to do "stuff". And let's ignore for a sec all the economic damage that's been wrought, all these lost jobs, all those out-of-business companies.

Admittedly, those are pretty big things to ignore.

But still, there's no ignoring that here are a lot of things that we're missing out of - all pretty much filed under normalcy - thanks to the disastrous national non-response to the pandemic.

And it rankles even more because the countries that actually did something about the pandemic are a little closer to getting back to normalcy than we are.

Like the volks in Germany who are able to get out there and go skinny dipping. And the volks who just hang out at the skinny dipping beaches and get to witness some truly out-there fun.

In case you missed it, a German fellow:

... was sunbathing naked at the Teufelssee in west Berlin, a popular and perfectly legal practice in the German capital as part of what is known as FKK, or Freikörperkultur (free body culture). (Source: The Guardian) Not that I miss nude sunbathing. I don't, so I don't. But if I were a naturist, living in Berlin, it would be kind of tempting to let it all hang out on the shores of Lake Devil.

The wild boar, sightings of which have become increasingly common, had apparently spotted a pizza being eaten by other bathers. It seized a yellow bag containing the man’s laptop, probably believing it to contain food, and was chased by the man into the undergrowth.

As my late, liebchen mutter might say, Ach du lieber strohsack. (Which translates to "oh you dear mattress." Or straw sack. Perhaps you had to be there.)

I love the onlookers, a combo of nude and unnude, just kind of sitting there, looking on. No one seems unduly alarmed by a big old boar charging by. Maybe she didn't seem all that threatening, given that she had a couple of piglets in tow. Or maybe it was the bag she was making off with.

As for laptop at the beach? While nude? I wonder if this is the Berliner version of working from home without having any pants on.

The guy giving chase clapped his hands, then - having chased the boar into the forest abutting the lake - found a stick that he hit the ground with. This startled the boar into dropping the laptop, which the naturist was then able to recover.

I will note that the woman who took the pictures just didn't go ahead and post them on Facebook in hopes of going viral at someone else's expense. No, Adele Landauer, not wanting to embarrass the somewhat zaftig schwein-chaser, actually asked if it was okay:

“I showed the man the photos, he laughed heartily and gave me permission to make them public.”

Hard to imagine either end of that happening in the States.

Other than the envy that the Germans can live their best lives, clothed or nude, while we're stuck at home wearing our masks, pretty much everything about this story makes me smile. The pot-belly middle-aged guy who's not embarrassed to be seen in public looking like that. The kindly photographer. The audience rooting the man in hot pursuit on. (He got quite an ovation when he caught up with his laptop.)

And, of course, the schwein herself. She's what my mother might have called a lausbube - a little rascal.

I do wonder what the guy would have done if the boar had gotten away with his laptop. Especially if it had been a work device. Imagine explaining to your boss, "Well, I was nude bathing at Lake Devil, and a wild boar - thinking it was pizza - grabbed the bag holding my laptop." Talk about the dog ate my lunch.

Anyway, not that this story is exactly normalcy, but we're missing out on so much normalcy this summer, it's good to have a fun story to read.

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Danke to my sister Kath who first spotted this pig tale.