[greenyes] Many Happy Returns

["Pat Franklin" <pfranklin@no.address>]

ANYBODY FOR A COLD ONE?

Click on the url or read Washington Post story below about Colin Powell's
"refillable" experience.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8978-2003Jul17.html


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Washington Post

By Nora Boustany
Friday, July 18, 2003; Page A14

Is the season of furor over between Washington and Berlin? Nothing but beer
under the bridge?

For their first meeting in Washington after a slow but sure way back to
better relations, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell surprised his German
counterpart, Joschka Fischer, during a formal State Department lunch
Wednesday by producing a case of beer. The classic German bottles were
empty, but their caps had been refastened, according to German Embassy
officials.

"I have this beautiful gift for you," Powell announced in his usual deadpan
style, to roars of laughter. The lager had been offered to Powell on his
last visit to Berlin in May, because he had once mentioned he missed those
old-fashioned, re-sealable bottles, which could be put back in the fridge
for later and cooler consumption.

Talk about a knack for ice-breaking diplomacy. "I could not find anyone who
would take these back," Powell quipped, making light of Germans' prickliness
about waste and the environment.