Becky Bernstein Goes Berlin

Local TV talk show host Rebecca Lee Bernstein - previously of Forest Hills. Queens, and now of Berlin, Germany - has decided her life is past due for an overhaul. Her latest flame just dumped her on the day before they were to leave for a two-week vacation in Italy. As she sorts through mountains of worn-out clothes, old records, and half-read newspaper clippings - taking a break every now and then for a bowl of tomato soup and a glass of mineral water - old memories resurface: how she fell head over heels in love with one Jurgen Markowski when she mistook him for Dustin Hoffman in the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art, and soon agreed to follow him all the way to his communal apartment in Berlin. How, once arrived, she was indoctrinated into German Leftism and taught to march in street demonstrations shouting "USA-SA-SS" (until she realized she was equating the Land of the Free with Nazi death squads and decided she'd rather not, thank you). How, when Jurgen eventually opted out of her life, she learned the hard way that the men of Berlin were as flawed as the New York variety. And that actually, her real love was not for him but for his town: Berlin, Europe's one glitzy metropolis, and New York's only Old World double.