A couple of days ago someone called me. Nothing special for a German journalist in New York. We get called all the time here: A salesperson from Victorias Secret called a week ago, and asked me when I would pick up the underpants I had ordered. The insurace-company called – and told me my car was now without any kind of insurance. Someone called and was very mad at me. He spoke Spanish. I do not ride my car in fancy underpants with Spanish friends. I guess the phone-number belonged to someone very popular before me.

Bill Clinton not talking to Hans Fritz

So, as I was saying, receiving phonecalls is a natural thing for German Journalists in New York. I am a professional after all:
Phone: Ring. RING RING.
Me: “Hello. Fritz. German Journalist”
Phone: “Hello, Peter here. Would you like to meet Bill Clinton?”
Me: “Yes”
Phone: “OK. We can only accomodate 15 bloggers. So we will tell you who is in.”
Me: “OK.”
Phone: “If we cant put you on the meeting with Bill, we try to schedule you in for a meeting with Hillary the next day.”
Me: “Thank you”. “Peter”. (Advice to German journalists in New York: Americans like to be called by their first names, Hans sounds more professional to them than Mr. Fritz)
Phone: “Talk to you later, bye.”

I am a professional, and that means you never get excited.
But I must say, I was looking forward to meet Hillary. Would she like me?
Could I land what you call a “scoop”, by asking her if she secretly still wanted to be the President? (My follow-up-question is: “On a scale from one to ten, just how mad are you at Mr. Obama?”). I did what every Journalist in my position would do: I thought about where to store my Pulitzer-Prize and I called my mother in Germany.

I had been invited to join the “Clinton Global Initiative”. “What iz sis?”, my German Editor asked. I said: “Its like a less boring version of Al Gores slideshow with live speakers.” He did not get it because it was a joke. “It is how the Clintons would like to win the Nobel-Peace-Prize”. He got it. He was not interested.

He said he would be interested in my Interview with Hillary though.
So I waited patiently for Peter to call me back. Business as usual for a German Journalist in New York. Peter never called. More business as usual for a German Journalist in New York.
I went to the conference. I had delicious cereal. It was a good conference: I got a press – pass, wich allowed me to drink as much coffee as I wanted. But I was not allowed to walk around myself. The press-people would “shuttle” you upstairs.
To “Shuttle” means to spy on you and keep you from asking other members of the conference if they had been called about meeting Bill too. Lance Armstrong is speaking at the conference right now. Allow me a private remark, strictly off the record: I think he doped. Its lunchtime now and this Peter never called. It is just a normal workday for me. The conference still goes on for two days. Maybe Hillary was not allowed to talk to me, because of my investigative reputation. It is normal for German journalists in New York: They know that we know how to pose a question.
And now you will have to excuse me, I have to check my voicemail.