Fettnäpfchen--tracking grease spots onto the rug

It was a cold, rainy night in Schleswig-Holstein, when Elmar, a housemate,  and I sought the protection of the local Kneipe. Hot tea would have been better, but we managed to nurse a couple of beers at the bar. I was chatted up by one of the locals in  Plattdeutsch, largely unintelligible to me. There was quite a distance to walk home, so we left early for the Wohngemeinshaft (commune) where we were staying.

We stepped out in the cold and had not gone a dozen paces before we heard yelling behind us. Turning to look we saw the innkeeper standing in the doorway fiercely shouting in our direction. As his Platt was also beyond my ken, I asked Elmar what the man was saying.  Elmar replied, "He is saying that you didn't shut the door." Then he added with a bit of irritation all his own, "You never shut doors!"

It seems that my USian open-space, open-door behaviors had ticked off any number of housemates. The German version of the Summer of Love had apparently not included cool drafts and heating the empty spaces. From this I began to develop the famous cultural theory that, "You don't know what a Fettnäpfchen is until you step in one." Apparently I didn't invent the concept. (See http://www.ausgetauscht.de/forum/fettnaepfchen.htm)