Talk:Berliner

"Ich bin ein Berliner"

It is a common misconception that it was this type of donut that was famously referred to by John F. Kennedy when he said "ich bin ein Berliner" in a speech that he made in West Berlin on June 26, 1963. However, citizens of Berlin do not refer to jelly donuts as "berliners." Kennedy's famous words, (adopting the grammer and coloquialisms of the sector of the population which Kennedy addressed) therefore, were correct.

Are you guys sure that that's a common misconception? Do people really think that Kennedy said "I am a jelly-filled donut"?

And the "grammer and coloquialisms of the sector of the population which Kennedy addressed" bit confuses me a bit. "Berliner" is the common German word for "citizen of Berlin", just like "Hamburger" or "Kölner" (or in the US: "New Yorker"). And the rest of the sentence is just "I am a...". So unless the above line is just a long way of saying "German", I'm confused. (Disclaimer: I'm from Germany, but not a specialist of donuts, Berlin or Kennedy). --Sid 3050 13:47, 10 April 2007 (EDT)

grammer and coloquialisms

With spelling like this, I do not think you should be lecturing anybody on the niceties of language, let alone correcting factually coherent reference articles. --Jeremiah4-22 13:52, 10 April 2007 (EDT)

Typical Wikipedia silliness

I had to delete the same stuff at Wikipedia 3 years ago, with anti-Americans (and pro-Communists) insisting that Kennedy's literal translation of I am a Berliner was misunderstood by the audience of his speech. This is on a level with Anderson supporters telling people that Reagan thinks most air pollution comes from trees, and don't even get me started on Bushisms. --Ed Poor 05:15, 12 April 2007 (EDT)

...air pollution from trees? That's a new one (to me), but I'm glad that the JFK bit is gone. Might be the best solution. --Sid 3050 05:17, 12 April 2007 (EDT)

Reagan was talking about SO₄ (or some chemical like that), and had pointed out that trees exude it. --Ed Poor 05:20, 12 April 2007 (EDT)

Sounds a bit like the "Dihydrogen Monoxide" gig to me right now, but I'll check it out further once I come back from my courses... O_o --Sid 3050 05:23, 12 April 2007 (EDT)

• According to a study by the University of Helsinki, coniferous forests--that is to say, those composed of trees such as pines--release nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere that combine with other pollutants to form smog. [1]

• No time now, but while I agree with you about the Berliner thing, my recollection the last time I looked into this was that Reagan really did say something about trees and pollution in which he misspoke or used badly chosen language such that the actual words he used really did say something stupid. Will check later. Not that it matters. Dpbsmith 07:00, 12 April 2007 (EDT)