Oktoberfest Pictures
Here are some photos from Oktoberfest. I want to put a bunch more of these on Mahugh.com, with lots of witty observations and links to relevant “data,” but when I started to do that I found myself in a long-overdue redesign of my web site. Which is fun, but then I remembered how much work I have to do the next few days, and decided to put a few of my favorites right here for now. The masterpiece can wait.
One thing I didn’t understand when I got there was that the big beer tents fill up in the early evening and then they lock the doors and don’t let anyone else come in. So I wandered freely through the tents at first, soaking it up, and snapped a few pictures. Then I went outside and snapped some pictures of the rides and the crowd, then I was planning to take more pictures in the tents but they were all packed full and closed, some with huge lines waiting for a small number of non-reserved tables. You could hear the singing and yelling outside, but you couldn’t get in. So I walked around and took even more pictures of the rides and crowds after dark.
Dave, I did have one pint for the good ‘ol USA, and a couple of glasses of wine. I know, I’m a wimp. But I had an expensive camera and a few lenses (as you’ll notice, I got the fisheye back from my neighbor who had borrowed it before this trip), and a long confusing train ride back to Freising waiting for me at the end of the night, so I didn’t push it. Next time, Megan and I will stake out a spot in one of the big tents and get thoroughly wasted, I promise.
Just kidding, Mom. 
This entry was posted on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 5:46 pm. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.
on October 1, 2006 at 12:53 am Megan wrote:
Yep, next time I’m going.
The pictures remind me of the time Sarah and I accidentally went to Amsterdam for the Dutch queen’s day weekend. Not the lederhosen (as I recall, everyone was just wearing orange), but the rides and drunkenness. Unfortunately the city was so much more crowded than usual that the only place we could find to stay was a Christian youth hostel with a 10 pm curfew. I guess it didn’t really matter though; we were so tired from the overnight bus ride and the delicious seedcake (and frankly somewhat alarmed by the rowdy orange-clad masses, and the urine, and the vomit) that after dozing on the metro a few times around town (sure is nice to be young and a vagrant) we decided to just go back and get some sleep (we skipped the prayer meeting, too).
But those Oktoberfest rides look pretty great, and I bet the organizers in Munich are really efficient about keeping them urine- and vomit-free. My kind of fun. And it took me a good ten years, but I’ve really come to appreciate the advantages of pre-booking hotels.
on October 1, 2006 at 1:07 am Doug wrote:
Ah, the urine. There were huge lines for the restrooms, but I found a trick later in the evening. There are dozens of big trucks and trailers parked behind the whole layout (since they haul in everything each year), and there was no security to stop people from slipping out there in the darkness. I saw some guys coming back from there and checked it out, and it’s an easy place to slip out and take a piss without waiting forever in a line.
There’s not much privacy once you’re out there, and it reeked of urine (interspersed with a whiff of cannabis in my one visit), but it gets the job done. For men. It would take a bold or desperate woman to use that option I guess.
on October 1, 2006 at 1:20 am Doug wrote:
UPDATED: I’ve edited this comment to add the solution from Wordpress, so that if the same thing happens to any of my friends on Wordpress blogs down the road you’ll know exactly what to do.
The problem: people were getting 412 errors (”precondition failed”) and couldn’t post to the blog. This error also appeared on various admin pages.
The explanation: a rule in mod_security to block comment and referer spam was being triggered. Not sure why in this case — perhaps those Cialis ads I allowed through on Tad’s guest post just to tease him. Lesson learned.
The short-term workaround: you could still post comments or handle admin chores through an anonymizer such as anonymouse.org. That’s how I had posted the comments from me and Megan above.
The permanent fix: TextDrive tech support entered the following in the .htaccess file:
SecFilterEngine On
SecFilterSelective “HTTP_REFERER” “-pictures” “allow,nolog”
on October 1, 2006 at 6:13 am Tom wrote:
So basically, you can use an anonymizer (like spammers do) to avoid being pegged as a spammer? That’s fantastic. BTW, I’m posting this from your blog site - we’ll see if it’s fixed when I submit!
on October 1, 2006 at 6:55 am Scott wrote:
Man, what an experience!! A bit out of scale with the German-American Fest in Lincoln Square, eh?
sp
on October 1, 2006 at 7:58 am Dave Fourputt wrote:
The pics look great Doug!
Hope you continue to have a great time.
on October 1, 2006 at 9:05 am Doug wrote:
Hey guys, Textdrive support rocks. Daniel over there had fixed the problem by the time I got back from a long walk around Paris today. It’s not clear exactly what caused it — maybe I really *am* a spammer — but at least it works now. He loosened up things a bit, so I’m not sure what the downside is. But I’d rather be too risky than too safe, that’s always been my motto anyway.
OK, time to post some Paris photos. Oh Scott, you’ll love this — a block from my hotel is a place called the Indiana Ale House. I think I need to take a trip over there for a drink this week and get you some pictures of the Hoosier hangout of the Montpar district.
on October 1, 2006 at 11:47 am Dave Fourputt wrote:
I wonder what happened at TextDrive.
The site I help a buddy maintain is having database issues and is offline now.
We’ll see how fast their support helps us out.
on October 1, 2006 at 12:12 pm Scott wrote:
Oh hell yes!! Back home again…
on October 11, 2006 at 6:23 pm AUNT MARSHA wrote:
JAMAL IS THE ONE WHO TOLD ME ABOUT YOUR OCT/FEST PICUTES WHILE I WAS THERE THIS WEEKEND. WE WERE IN OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA AND WALKIKNG ACROSS SOME STREET WHERE THEY MUST HAVE HAD SOME KIND OF STREET FESTIVAL. ALL THAT WAS LEFT WERE SOME FAT GUYS IN TYROLEAN SOCKS AND THE STENCH OF OLD BEER. I NEVER GOT IT, THIS WHOLE OCTOBERFEST (OKTOBERFEST?) THING. DID IT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE DRUIDS?
SEEMS LIKE LAST WEEK I EITHER DREAMED I KNEW OR THAT I SOMEHOW DID KNOW SOMETHING OF THE DRUIDS.AND BEER. SAME DIFFERENCE MORE OR LESS, DON’T YOU FIND? THE KNOWING, I MEAN. ONCE I DREAMED THAT JENNIFER ANNISTON AND BRAD PITT WERE CLOSE, PERSONAL FRIENDS OF MINE AND THAT WE HAD DECIDED TO REHAB AN OLD, QUAINT HOUSE. BRAD SHOWED ME SOME PRETTY SNAZZY BRUSHWORK IN THE DREAM, AND I’LL BE DARNED IF, THE NEXT DAY, I DIDN’T HAVE THE SKILL, ALL TUCKED AWAY FIRM AND REAL IN MY PAINTING REPETOIRE. OF COURSE, I LATER DREAMED THAT IT WAS I….AUNT MARSHA, WHO WAS THE TRUE CAUSE OF THEIR BREAKUP…NOW, SEE, THAT DREAM ELICITED NO USEFUL , LET ALONE, KEPT AND CATALOGUED INFORMATION FOR ANY KIND OF EXISTING REPETOIRE THAT I AM IN POSSESSION OF. BUT ABOUT THESE DRUIDS…I THINK I MIGHT REALLY KNOW SOMETHING ABOU THEM…
on October 11, 2006 at 6:34 pm AUNT MARSHA wrote:
HEY! WAS THAT PAM GRIER IN THE PHOTO WITH ABOUT 8 LAUGHING ARIANS? SHE WAS IN THE ONE THAT CAME AFTER THE OLD MAN EATING SOMETHING THAT LOOKED STALE AND THE ONE OF THE OLD LADY GOING DOWN WHAT I SUPPOSE WAS SOME TYPE OF BEER ROLLER COASTER…? WAS QUINTIN TARRANTINO THERE? DID YOU HEAR YODELING? I WISH I COULD YODEL.