Saved by Wolfgang: a rant.

 What's so great about being called Waltraud?

It may not be immediately obvious (especially to someone who knows that the end of the name is pronounced trowt) but in Lower Saxony being called Waltraut could save your life.

You see, the data protection laws in Lower Saxony mean that the people administrating the coronavirus vaccine can't access information on the ages of the residents. The only way for them to work out which of the inhabitants are over the age of eighty, and so first in line for the vaccine, is by guessing their age from their Christian names.

Thus, someone with an old-fashioned name like Wolfgang or Waltraut will be invited to be vaccinated, but a hundred-year-old Angela will not.

It's a ridiculous situation, and really rather funny...as long as you're not fond of any elderly Saxon ladies called Angela.

Word To Use Today: data. The singular form of this word, datum, is Latin for something given (in the sense, here, of something you have to know before you can work out a problem). The Latin word dare means to give.