I'm still waiting to bump into Ag on the street. I guess I need to get out of Oakland more often.

Don't you work in the biotech industry? Or maybe I'm misremembering... Maybe we know some of the same people. One of my best buddies is from Germany, now living & teaching in Bayreuth. His cousin and cousin's wife (both from Germany) work in the biotech industry in the Bay area.

Maybe it is not so rare to be German in the Bay area. We were at a Halloween dance a few years ago, where we met a friendly woman dressed in a St. Pauli Girl costume. My friend was in the habit of saying things in German that would have been inappropriate if understood by everyone within earshot, and that night he made a comment to his girlfriend in German - something like "Look at that nutty fraulein with her boobs spilling out of her dirndl". And, of course, it turned out the beer maiden was German and understood every word. :ale