Meet Bernd das Brot, a depressed German loaf of bread that's spent 25 years as a TV cult classic
BERLIN — Forget SpongeBob SquarePants, Sesame Street and the sourdough starter craze: a depressed German loaf of bread named Bernd das Brot is celebrating his 25th anniversary as the reluctant star of a children's television program that accidentally became equally popular with adults.
A cult classic in Germany , Bernd das Brot (Bernd the Bread) is a puppet renowned for his deep, gloomy voice, his perpetual pessimism and his signature expression, 'Mist!' (Think 'crap!' in English.)
Played and voiced by puppeteer Jörg Teichgraeber, Bernd is a television presenter who wants nothing to do with TV and can't wait to go home to stare at the wallpaper.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Virginia Tech honors the life and works of Nikki Giovanni
BLACKSBURG, Va. (WFXR) — Virginia Tech celebrated the legacy of esteemed poet, mentor, and artist Nikki Giovanni inside its Center for the Arts on Sunday. Giovanni died on December 9, 2024, after losing her third battle with cancer. After her death, the famed writer was honored in the New York Times, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and now, at Virginia Tech. 'First of all, I'm happy to be here and I don't know how you could not be happy to be here, even though the occasion may be somewhat sad,' said comedian and friend of Giovanni W. Kamau Bell. 'To be invited to a room to celebrate Nikki Giovanni means you're doing the right thing in life.' Two dozen friends, students, colleagues, and mentees of Giovanni's performed throughout a two-and-a-half-hour ceremony, all the while joking that the woman they were honoring often deferred the spotlight. But just a day after she would have celebrated her 82nd birthday, the timing seemed right to honor the life of a legend. 'She was incomparable,' said friend and Virginia Tech alumna Traci DeShazor. 'She was Nikki Giovanni. She was Virginia Tech. And we should all be grateful to have lived during the same time as her.' Nikki Giovanni receives a posthumous honor, the Frost Medal for lifetime achievement Across those 24 tributes was a dazzling display of art, performed across song, dance, and poetry. But there were more traditional tributes as well. A number of Giovanni's students were in attendance, including 2014 Virginia Tech graduate Jordan Holmes, whose relationship with Giovanni dates back to 2012. 'She ended up feeling more like a grandmother figure than just a mentor,' said Holmes, who first met Giovanni through her creative writing courses. Giovanni's partner Virginia Fowler was presented with flowers and a unanimously approved joint resolution from the Virginia state legislature recognizing Giovanni's contributions to both Blacksburg and the commonwealth. And Virginia Tech president Tim Sands spoke to Giovanni's everlasting impact on Virginia Tech, where she taught in the English department as a professor of distinction for more than three decades. 'Legacies are often memorialized through inscriptions on buildings, plaques, and monuments,' said Sands. 'Nikki Giovanni's legacy lives on in the words she gave us, in the hope and vision that they continue to inspire.' That being said, the school is still memorializing Giovanni's words in permanent fashion. A new immersive exhibit that offers readings of two of her most well-known poems officially opened on Sunday, and the school says it has plans to add on to the exhibit in the coming months. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Luka Doncic Opens Up About The Struggles Of Leaving Home At 13 To Join Real Madrid
Luka Doncic Opens Up About The Struggles Of Leaving Home At 13 To Join Real Madrid originally appeared on Fadeaway World. At just 13 years old, Luka Doncic made a life-altering decision — one that most teenagers wouldn't dare to imagine. Leaving behind his home in Slovenia, his family, his language, and everything familiar, Doncic embarked on a journey that would shape him into the global superstar he is today. Advertisement On a recent episode of Mind The Game, the Los Angeles Lakers star opened up candidly about the early days of his transition to Real Madrid's famed youth basketball program, revealing the loneliness, the culture shock, and the total immersion into a world far beyond his years. "I mean, it was a difficult decision, honestly. First, I didn't know the language yet. I knew a little bit, just like, hello, how are you? But then nobody spoke my language. I was learning a little bit of English, so I knew a little bit. But it was hard." "So that's basically when almost everything moved to basketball. I was playing a little bit of soccer because I used to go with the players that were there, soccer players. We went to the same school, so we used to play a little bit. They were soccer players, so I couldn't do nothing. But it was a lot." "I think the first two, three months, I almost didn't speak to anybody. But that's how I learned Spanish so quickly. And after that, it was an amazing journey, man. It was something that changed my life for better." Advertisement "Six years... It was a dorm. My first three years, they were building a new dorm. We were in the dorm of the school. So it was three people per room. It was very small. Don't speak Spanish." "I had a Brazilian guy, I think. I can't remember. I can't remember who I was with, because we always changed. But first, it was school. So first three years. But then we went to a nice, then Real Madrid built its own dorm. It was super nice. It was like living in a hotel. "Yeah, we started at 7:30, something like that. To 8:30, we had practice. And then from 9:15 to 5:30 was school. And then from 6:00 to 9:00 was practice. On Wednesday, we didn't have practice. But every other day. And then Saturday, Sunday, games." Thrown into an environment where Spanish was dominant and English was barely spoken, Luka quickly realized that communication was going to be his first battle. With his grasp on English still in its infancy and zero familiarity with Spanish, the isolation hit hard. For the first two or three months, he barely spoke to anyone. Advertisement The homesickness was real, but so was the fire inside him. His escape? Basketball. In his first three years at Real Madrid, Luka lived in a cramped dorm at a school nearby while the club built its new residence. Eventually, Real Madrid's custom-built dormitory opened, and life became a little more comfortable. Luka described it as 'like living in a hotel', a far cry from his early dorm struggles. Still, the daily grind was relentless. It was a seven-day-a-week commitment, driven by sacrifice and belief. Few could handle such a schedule at 13, let alone in a foreign country. But Luka Doncic wasn't just any teenager. That lonely kid in Madrid speaking little Spanish, living in dorms, juggling elite sports and school, would become a European sensation and eventually an NBA megastar. By age 16, he made his professional debut with Real Madrid's senior team, becoming the youngest in the club's history to do so. What followed was nothing short of spectacular. Advertisement He helped Real Madrid win the 2018 EuroLeague title, earning EuroLeague MVP, Final Four MVP, and All-EuroLeague First Team honors in the same season, all before turning 20. He also won multiple Liga ACB championships and was named ACB MVP in 2018. By the time he arrived in the NBA in 2018, Luka wasn't just a hyped prospect, he was already a European legend. The boy who once sat silently in a dorm room in Madrid had become the most accomplished teenage player in European basketball history. Related: Robert Horry Warns Luka Doncic That His Offensive Skills Are Worthless If He Doesn't Learn To Play Defense This story was originally reported by Fadeaway World on Jun 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
Forbes
4 hours ago
- Forbes
This Hair Care Entrepreneur Doubled Her Fortune, And Plans To Do It Again
After selling her first company, John Frieda Professional Hair Care, in 2002, Gail Federici thought she was done with hair forever. She'd spent the prior 13 years growing John Frieda, a partnership with the legendary British hair stylist of the same name which she cofounded in 1989, and made an estimated $170 million fortune from its sale to Japanese giant Kao Corporation. 'I felt like we'd been there, done it,' the 76-year-old Federici tells Forbes in a phone call from her home in Wilton, Connecticut. 'I'm always interested in learning new things and I thought, 'I don't want to do the same thing all over again.'' For the next five years, Federici made a massive career pivot. Inspired by her husband James Smith, who is a musician, and two teenage daughters' interest in singing, she launched her own music label in London, Hometown Entertainment, signing several artists including a U.K. band called GX and the English rapper Taio Cruz, who would later release such hits as 'Dynamite' and 'Break Your Heart' under a different label. This detour didn't last long. By 2013, Federici had retreated from her fledgling music career and launched Color Wow, a hair care line she says was inspired by her sister's graying roots. Her first product: an eyeshadow-like root cover up product that lasts until the user's next hair wash. Color Wow has since released over 60 products combating everything from frizz to dryness. 'They're solving everyday problems,' explains Susan Anderson, a senior analyst at New York investment bank Canaccord Genuity covering beauty. This niche has proved highly lucrative for Color Wow. Jennifer Lopez used its products during her 2020 Super Bowl performance and the brand's $28 anti-frizz 'Dream Coat Spray' treatment is one of Sephora's best-selling hair products. The Wilton, CT-based company says it recorded some $300 million in revenue last year. Federici, Color Wow's sole owner, has done it all without bringing in outside investors. Forbes estimates the brand's value to be about half a billion, though the growing value of her Color Wow stake, which is now worth more than double what she got from John Frieda, has helped propel her net worth to an estimated $600 million. She ranked No. 61 spot on Forbes' 2025 list of America's Richest Self-Made Women, published in June. 'I always say to everybody here, "When you make something that matters, you make money." It's not about making money first, it's about making something that matters to people and then you'll be successful,' says Federici. Jamel Toppin for Forbes Hair care wasn't Federici's first passion. Growing up in Connecticut, where she watched her father ditch his law degree to be a computer software developer, she admits she had no real plan other than to live an 'adventurous life.' She studied English and Art History at the University of Connecticut, and then, after graduating in 1970, followed in the footsteps of two of her three siblings who studied law and enrolled in the University of Bridgeport Law School (now known as Quinnipiac University School of Law). While in night school at Bridgeport, she got a job as an assistant at Zotos, a hair care brand headquartered in Darien, Connecticut. Federici worked her way up the ranks at Zotos, quit law school during her last year and eventually became vice president of corporate communications, where she helped develop the ideas behind popular products of brands like Bain de Terre and Acclaim. Her first love, she says, was not her career but traveling. At 27, she enrolled at the University of Paris to study French; at 28, she started taking drum lessons and singing in a band at night; and by 29, she was in law school at night. 'I was definitely all over the place!," admits Federici, who says 'The only clear vision I had was that I wanted a life where I could work between the U.S. and the U.K.' It was during her time at Zotos that she met London-based John Frieda at a hair care industry convention in London in 1988. He had a small product line and was looking for guidance on how to take it further. Meanwhile, Federici had been considering striking out on her own and launching an ad agency, in part because one of her twin daughters was born with a congenital heart disease, putting a new strain on her family's finances. In 1989, she became his business partner and moved to London. A year later they launched their Frizz-Ease serum, one of the first ever products to target frizz; it was an instant hit. Later came popular brands Sheer Blonde and Beach Blonde. All of this caught the attention of Japan-based Kao Corp., which offered the partners $450 million in cash to buy them out in 2002 to gain access to the growing hair care market. It was an amount that Federici now describes as 'irresponsible to refuse,' though she admits 'I did feel quite lost after [the sale] because it happened so quickly and it was our life.' With Color Wow, Federici was able to get back to the roots of what made John Frieda a hit. Before launching the company in 2013, she brought back Dr. Joe Cincotta, a chemist she first met at Zotos and later recruited to John Frieda. It's Cincotta who helped come up with the root cover-up, which is one of Color Wow's top-selling products. Color Wow does about half its sales through its website and the rest through around 4,500 brick-and-mortar locations including Sephora, Ulta Beauty and independent hair salons. It's also grown its reach through celebrity marketing. Early on, the company forged a partnership with hair stylist to the stars Chris Appleton, who used Color Wow's products on his clients including Jennifer Lopez, the Kardashians and Ariana Grande. In February 2021, Color Wow launched the 'Money Masque' with Appleton, a $45 hair treatment for 'super glossy, expensive-looking hair.' A number of Color Wow's other products were inspired by Federici's personal hair struggles. The 'Dream Coat Spray' came about after the hair care mogul attended an Aerosmith concert at Jones Beach. 'I remember I blew out my hair perfectly, which would take me a long time… and went to the ladies' room halfway through, looked in the mirror and was appalled,' she recalls. 'It was a massive, and I mean massive, head of frizz.' John Frieda and Gail Federici At John Frieda, Federici had helped develop Frizz-Ease, which made it easier to blow dry frizzy hair into smooth locks. But the products didn't stand up to humidity. She and Cincotta got to work. Formulas may go back to the lab 50 times before they get the green light, says Federici. After many tries, Cincotta arrived at Federici's office with a demonstration: two swatches of hair, one treated and one untreated. He used a water dropper on both. The untreated hair absorbed the droplets instantly, while the ones on the treated swatch beaded up on top. By 2023, according to Color Wow, it was selling one bottle nearly every 4 seconds in the U.S. and the U.K.; that's more than 21,500 bottles per day and over 151,000 bottles in just one week. 'Corporate mentality is just come out with a gel, come out with this, they don't think inspirational,' says Cincotta, who notes that he and Federici avoid hitching themselves to trends and instead look for new raw materials that may help them do 'the impossible.' According to Federici, she and Cincotta keep a list of all the products they hope to develop one day, which used to include Dream Coat. Some are still scientifically impossible, she says, but others may be only months away. If all testing goes well, Color Wow is hoping to launch a 'pretty major product' next summer. Photos, From Left: Daniela Amodei, Selena Gomez, Gwynne Shotwell. Illustration by Ben Kirchner for Forbes The beauty industry isn't looking quite as attractive as it was a few years ago. Multiple brands acquired in the period leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic or during it have since seen their valuations sink. One prominent example: Olaplex Holdings, a hair brand developed by two chemists that advertises itself around strengthening technologies, debuted on the Nasdaq with a valuation of $15.9 billion in 2021. Today, the company is worth just $900 million. By focusing on solving specific issues, starting with frizz and graying roots, Color Wow has tapped into a lucrative trend, explains Dan Su, a beauty analyst at Morningstar. 'Consumers are depending more on specific products for different hair types,' she notes. One report published by consulting firm McKinsey last September went so far as to predict the 'skinification of hair,' describing how the elaborate routines and specialized products once associated with skin care are moving into the hair category, helping propel its compound annual growth rate to 5% through 2028. At the same time, there are a number of brands vying for a share of this growing market. There's Ouai, launched by Kim Kardashian's hair stylist and friend Jen Atkins in 2016, and K18, founded in 2020, which gained a cult following online thanks to its molecular repair mask targeting chemically treated hair — not to mention new entries from global giants like L'Oréal. 'The prestige haircare area has gotten a lot more competitive,' says Anderson. Two or three decades ago, 'if you had frizzy hair or if you wanted to treat your hair after coloring, there were probably not a whole lot of options out there compared to today,' adds Su. Despite the increased competition and downturn, there are some blockbuster beauty deals still breaking through. In May, publicly traded e.l.f. announced that it was acquiring Hailey Bieber's skincare and makeup company Rhode in a deal that is potentially worth $1 billion, though around $200 million of that is tied up in the company meeting certain benchmarks post-acquisition. 'I think there's definitely still appetite from large consumer product companies,' Anderson says of the M&A environment in beauty. 'We've seen a lot of them get bought by Unilever and stuff like that… There's still appetite for a good brand.' In April, Reuters reported Color Wow was exploring a sale at a $1 billion valuation. Federici confirms she's been approached by potential buyers for five years. 'The timing has just not been right for us,' she says, adding that they're 'talking and seeing what makes sense.' If she were to sell, Federici recognizes she might end up in a similar position as after the John Frieda sale. 'I can't imagine not doing anything,' she says. But at the same time, she seems to be feeling a familiar limitation with her own industry. 'Every single formula of ours is completely different because it's a different issue that we're addressing. But at the end of the day, it's still hair care products. I think at some point I would like to figure out some way to make a difference in another way.'
