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2004-05-14 hurra! (utc+1)
Hurra! It's kronprinsess Knudella, now!
Although I was a bit taken aback when nobody did the "richer or poorer
[as if], better or worse" stuff. Apparently they don't do marriage
wovels in the Danish - a "Ja" or two suffices.
But now they're out, and Kronprinsfred has got a hat on sillier, I
think, than anything I've ever seen his missus wear. Bad
Kronprinsfred to be trying to upstage her!
[Permalink]
2004-05-14 13:54
I don't use my laptop much, so the virus checker thing was out of
date, and it refused to update so I said to the admin man, "Hey, my
virus checker is out of date!" and he said "Bring bring!" but my email
account logged me out and I didn't notice so I didn't know, and then I
went to send an email and logged back in and he'd said "Bring bring!"
and I took took, and it turns out that it hadn't been service packed
(it was in tune when we bought it, for sure) and I'll get it back when
it's good and ready AND SO MUCH FOR ANY DANISH ROYAL WEDDINGSES.
"Not especially" does not exhaust the extent to which I am
pleased by this, but I am after all a master of litotes.
[Permalink]
2004-05-14 12:03
(The Danish comedy toy soldiers in the R�dhustorget (?) are all
dressed in red with busbies; I had no idea other countries did that.
Good that they're not goose-stepping, though.)
Now, one of the key ingredients in the Yoorpean nationalismes that
based themselves on vernacular languages is the invention of an origin
myth for (i.e., of) the speakers of a given langwidge, by which
the motley assortment of persons who speak it and spoke it in the past
are welded in the imagination into a unified folk. This invention is
characteristically passed off as a reawakening - it is a
characteristic of myth (see L�vi-Strauss, "The Structural Study of
Myth") that it both refers to an archaic past and and acts as
a framework for interpreting the present and future.
These National Reawakening movements, as is well known, sprung up especially in the
second half of the 19th century.
Yesterday, I happened to be flicking through an introductory book on
mathematical logic - as you do - which started by summarising some of
the history of the subject. Strikingly, it took 1850 as an admittedly
arbitrary date for the start of the discipline in its modern form.
And of course everyone knows that Boole's original book (from round
about then) on symbolic logic was modestly title The Laws of
Thought. It posed, which is to say, as a (re)discovery of
something that had been there all along but neglected, and a revival of a
Glorious Tradition going back to Aristotlean antiquity that had since
fallen upon hard times, and proposed itself as the unifying foundation and cornerstone
of the glorious mathematical enterprise.
It seems to me, in other words, that the widespread fallacy that logic
(and/or set theory) is in some way the true foundation of
mathematics is in fact the legacy of an unusually successful variant
of nationaliste ideology.
[Permalink]
2004-05-14 kongelig! (utc+1)
But I've booted my laptop into windows, swiped the last port in the
room's hub and thieved back the power lead from my (absent) colleague
to watch DR's coverage in glorious
WindozeVision(TM). Danish is notoriously weird to listen to in any
case, and tinny codecced Danish sounds like German Daleks trying to
speak Norwegian over a bad phone line, so I'm not getting an awful lot
out of the commentary. But there's a lot of persons out on the
streets of Shoppingharbour, I can tell you.
[Permalink]
2004-05-14 morning (utc+1)
Today, Varied Reader, is the day we've been waiting for for so so
long! Yes, my order from akademibokhandeln is here
at last, and the shipping cost me a tidy 148 SEK (~11 GBP), which
isn't really all that ouchy.
But today is a special day for other reasons also: it is Knudella's
Big Day! I don't think we'll be able to keep up with events, not
least because I want to watch them, but here's some handy advice
for you, Varied Reader, if you're getting hitched in the near future:
T�nk p� att frakta kl�der att ha dagen efter vigseln till det hotell
d�r ni spenderar br�llopsnatten. Det �r inte s� kul att �ta frukost i
brudkl�nning och frack. Och kl�der �r inget man vill sl�pa p� under
vigseln och festen.
Be sure to take clothes for the day after the wedding to the hotel
where you spend the wedding night. It's not so cool to eat breakfast
in a wedding dress or morning suit. And nobody wants to bother about
clothes during the wedding or reception.
Words, there, not other than of wiseness, I'm sure we'll all agree.
[Permalink]
2004-05-13 14:46
Objection 1. That the custom is favoured among the unlearned
and irreligious peasantry.
Objection 2. That it is a ceremony invoking of demonic entities
and magickal or occult powers.
I answer that, the custom is innocent in its practice, and even
laudable in its intent to encourage fidelity; as we have been assured
by the authorities competent in these matters:
Det med at klippe str�mperne i stykker, g�r man jo for, at brudgommen
ikke skal g�re sine hoser gr�nne over for andre kvinder i
fremtiden.
Whereof to cut into pieces stocking, as is assuredly for the purpose
that the bridegroom shall in the future refrain and desist from the
making green of his hosiery in relation to other ladies.
wherein the reference to green hose has been further established
and demonstrated to have this meaning, that:
Det udtryk "at g�re sine hoser gr�nne" betyder at indsmigre sig hos
�n ved h�flighed og galanteri, og det brugtes ofte om erotiske
tiln�rmelser.
The expression "to make one's stockings green" means to ingratiate
oneself to one by means of courtesies and gallantry, and is employed
most often in connexion with fleshly overfamiliarities.
It is thus seen that there is nothing objectionable in the intent or
in the enactment of this practice.
Reply to Objection 1. The custom is also practiced among the royalty
and aristocracy of the land: � Frederik f�r klippet sokkerne - som
det ogs� skete for grev Jefferson ved sit bryllup med prinsesse
Alexandra af Berleburg. � ("Frederik gets cut-up socks, as also
happened to count Jefferson on his marriage to prinsess Alexander of
Berleburg.")
Reply to Objection 2. No such invocations are attested or have
been demonstrated. Not only is the ritual intended to promote the
virtue of marital fidelity, on which we can hardly expect the demonic
hosts to bestow their approval, but it is declared by all
participants to be � en slags symbolik i l�jerne � ("a
kind of symbolic play").
[The choice of style is PF's, the execution
mine, the link Anna Louise's, and the folklore entirely genuwine.]
[Permalink]
2004-05-13 samwidge (utc+1)
Perhaps you're wondering where you can find audio clips of the
recitals of traditional epic poems by illiterate Yugoslavian (as they
were then) bards (and don't talk to me about Harvard, until you've
sampled all of the zero (0) clips they currently have available).
Perhaps, though, you aren't, in which case you won't need
this. I
quite like it, and I was put out when it cut out.
[Permalink]
2004-05-13 fika (utc+1)
Was I unfair to Mr Anderson's book by claiming that his conception of
nationalisme was unduly narrow? Such a something has not gone
unsuggested, but I stand by my opinion. So, for that matter, does Mr
Anderson:
It would, I think, make things easier if one treated [nationalism] as
if it belonged with "kinship" or "religion", rather than with
"liberalism" or "fascism".
Imagined Communities, p.5
Imagine a book on kinship (or religion) that claimed it initially
arose in the late 18th century in Spanish colonies in the Americas as
a response to the parochialism of the imperial Spanish court and the
effects of the spread of print capitalism (especially newspapers) and
you will have some idea of the extent to which Anderson declines to
follow his own suggestion.
[Permalink]
2004-05-13 morning (utc+1)
�1. Vroom
vroom!
SCANDINAVIAN CAR COMPANY Saab has given Mary Donaldson and Prince
Frederik a brand new Saab Convertible as a wedding gift.
[...]
The gift from Saab further underlines the bond shared by neighbouring
Scandinavian countries.
Could I interest you in a guess which one Saabs come from, Bruce?
(The article doesn't say.)
�2. Heir
conditioning:
On the eve of their nuptials, the internet betting agency,
betxpert.com, is offering odds of 55-1 that Ms Donaldson, 32, will
have a child with the dashing, former naval diver Frederik this year,
1.7-1 for 2005 and 2.35-1 by 2006.
�3. A rose by a more than usually other name:
"A flower could be mistaken for a bomb and we don't want to cause any
unnecessary scares," police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch told The
Associated Press.
�4. I bet he
says that to all the prinses:
"For us it doesn't matter that he's a prince or a plumber," her
father, John Donaldson, said of future son-in-law Crown Prince
Frederik of Denmark. "It's just two young people who are in love."
�5. Tim
Tams, those archetypal Tams of Timness!
In the lead-up to Friday's royal wedding of Danish Crown Prince
Frederik to Tasmania's Mary Donaldson the Danes are having a love
affair not just with Mary, who is gracing the covers of newspapers and
magazines across the tiny country, but with everything they can find
from the Great Southern Land.
Vegemite, Tim Tams and Cherry Ripes are all appearing in Danish
supermarkets.
�6. We'll keep getting second
opinions till we get the
right second opinion:
(audio of Mary Donaldson speaking Danish)
That's Mary Donaldson speaking Danish on television during the race -
the general consensus, not bad for a beginner.
COMMENTATOR: How's her Danish? Well as well as you could expect I think.
PHILIP WILLIAMS: That's a very diplomatic answer.
COMMENTATOR: Yes, it is. Her Danish - I understood what she said, but
of course if you want to know about grammar, her grammar's not alright
yet.
�7. Frederik, Frederick;
he's just plain Kronprinsfred to us!
Item:
The Tasmanian Greens are to send Danish Crown Prince Frederick and
Tasmanian Mary Donaldson a photographic essay on Tasmania's forests as
a wedding present.
Item:
Tasmania's Governor and avowed republican Richard Butler will have an
audience with the Queen during a two-week trip to Europe next month.
Mr Butler leaves for Europe on May 4 to attend the wedding of
Tasmanian-born Mary Donaldson to Denmark's Crown Prince Frederick.
Item:
Tasmanians will give what is described as a unique piece of art or
craft to Mary Donaldson and Denmark's Crown Prince Frederick.
Of course, the spelling of "Knudella" is universally atrocious, but
what can you do?
[Permalink]
2004-05-12 18:16
It was all John Holbo von
Timber's idea:
Let me stick with philosophy, which I know a little about. You may
dislike analytic philosophy, think it is a meaningless sort of
scholastic sideshow about nothing. You may think our problems are just
updates of good old "how many angels can dance on the head of of a
pin?" But at least you can find signs directly you to the room in
which that little puzzler is being intensely pondered. And little
cubbies off from there: morris dancing on the head of a
pin. Breakdancing on the head of a pin. Maybe it's all
meaningless. But if you have some modest contribution to make - on the
assumption that it's not all meaningless - there is a place to make
that contribution where it can be heard, in all its modest non-glory.
That angels on a pin thing, though, intrigues me. It is the
canonicalest of silly questions, but it is also widely an example of
an unfair dismissal of a perfectly serious and reasonable question,
albeit one that no longer makes sense to most of us.
The Straight Dope has an
opinion on the origins of this:
Fact is, Aquinas did debate whether an angel moving from A to B passes
through the points in between, and whether one could distinguish
"morning" and "evening" knowledge in angels. (He was referring to an
abstruse concept having to do with the dawn and twilight of creation.)
Finally, he inquired whether several angels could be in the same place
at once, which of course is the dancing-on-a-pin question less
comically stated. (Tom's answer: no.) So the answer to your question
is yes, medieval theologians did get into some pretty weird arguments,
if not quite as weird as later wise guys painted them.
This is smugger than necessary from someone who doesn't give a useable
reference, certainly, but a little googling turns up the horse's mouth's
view. Take it away, St Thomas:
Whether several angels can be at the same time in the same
place?
[...]
I answer that, There are not two angels in the same place. The reason
of this is because it is impossible for two complete causes to be the
causes immediately of one and the same thing. This is evident in every
class of causes: for there is one proximate form of one thing, and
there is one proximate mover, although there may be several remote
movers. Nor can it be objected that several individuals may row a
boat, since no one of them is a perfect mover, because no one man's
strength is sufficient for moving the boat; while all together are as
one mover, in so far as their united strengths all combine in
producing the one movement. Hence, since the angel is said to be in
one place by the fact that his power touches the place immediately by
way of a perfect container, as was said (1), there can be but one
angel in one place.
(Angels are not material entities, which is why we need another reason
to prevent their co-location.)
And Thomas Aquinas's place in the history of ideas is not in any
dispute, for sure. The point about scholasticism that makes Holbo Von
Timber's suggestion so attractive is precisely that it was a very
sophisticated and serious body of thought that I and many others
simply happen not to care about since we share none of its assumptions
and have no interest in its conclusions.
(It's occurred to me while writing that Thomism is still central to
the Roman Church in ways pleasingly similar to the role of
neo-Scholastique philosophy in the Anglophone academy, but on balance
I think I'll not go there.)
[Permalink]
2004-05-12 15:16
�1. Singalong-a-science!
The Internet is so full of wonders, it's a wonder it doesn't burst, isn't it?
Do you know what longitude, latitude, longitude
Do you know what longitude, latitude, longitude mean?
Longitude, latitude, longitude, latitude,
Yes, I know what longitude, latitude mean!
Longitude
and Latitude
I do, at that.
[via mimi]
�2. Ask an England wicket-keeper!
What's the cricket like in Papua New Guinea?
Well, not that great. They had an ICC qualifying game recently, but I
don't think it was that successful. I usually keep an eye out in the
papers when they're playing in tournaments, though.
(Geraint Jones - for it is he! - was born in PNG to Welsh parents and
grew up in Australia. He now plays for England, and quite right too.)
�3. Forsk me senseless!
Olaf Aagedal doesn't seem to have published anything on the
anthropological aspects of the 2001 Norwegish kronprins wedding that
made an honest prinsess of kronprinsess Mette-Marit, but we did turn
up this
tidbit on Norway's 17th of May celebrations. It is in, for some
reason, Norwegish:
Nasjonaldagens symbolmakt har ogs� bidratt til et nasjonalt
stemningsskifte i forhold til innvandring. Da den pakistanske kvinnen
Rubina Rana ble valgt til leder av Oslos 17. mai-komite, ble hun f�rst
m�tt med drapstrusler. Senere utviklet det seg til en symbolsk
maktkamp mellom de som oppfattet hennes deltagelse som en forurensning
av det norske, og de som s� p� dette som en utvidelse og fornying.
- Hennes vandring opp Karl Johan 17. mai 1999 bidro til � legge ny
mening til den norske 17. mai-arenaen. I dag virker et bilde av et
barnetog med lyshudede og lysh�rete norske barn nesten
gammeldags. Dette eksempelet viser hvordan nasjonale symbol og ritual
fungerer som spr�k i en politisk diskusjon, hevder Aagedal.
The national day's symbolic power has also contibuted the national
change in mood regarding immigration. When the Pakistani woman Rubina
Rana was chosen to lead Oslo's 17th of May committee, she was
initially met with death-threats. Later it developed into a symbolic
power struggle between those who experienced her participation as a
contamination of the Norwegian [folk], and those saw it as a
development and a renewal.
Her procession up Karl Johan [Oslo's main street] on the 17th of May
1999 contributed to the making of a new meaning to the Norwegian May
17 arena. Today, the picture of a childrens procession with
light-skinned and fair-haired Norwegian children seems almost
out-dated. This example shows how national symbols and rituals
function as a language in political discussion, hevds[?] Aagedal.
Well hved!
[Permalink]
2004-05-12 fika (utc+1)
�1. Omigod - Orthodoxy overkill!
Prinses Madeleine's dress sense is being dared to be criticised:
Linne med spetskant. Spetsiga skor. Turkosa detaljer.
Madeleine �r s� r�tt att hon blir fel.
Linnen with pointed edges. Pointy shoes [pointy pointy!]. Turquoise
detailing.
Prinsess Madeleine is so right she's wrong.
Trendanalytikern Cay Bond has his or her claws out, for sure. And
this is certainly a worry - with Madde studying her earnest little
heart out and now losing her edge in matters sartorial, the Good
Prinsess/Bad Prinsess dynamic with her elder kronprinsess Vickan could
be at risk.
The very Dialectique of the Swedish court is under threat,
Varied Reader, and you may be sure I shall be keeping a close eye on
this. She's got rings on both ring fingers, incidentally, as our
upside-down correspondent Anna Louise points out. Does this mean
anything in 'Wegian?
�2. En Rigtig Prinsess!
BT's headline
for Knudella's attendance at a banquet, in a proper prinsessly dress,
with proper prinsessly sparklies
(hand-me-downs from the late prinsess queen (sorry, Your Ingstress!) Ingrid, since Knudella didn't
come accessorised with her own) is one on which we shall not seek to
improve, although they don't really do all that business with the
mattresses and the pea these days, I am assured.
[Permalink]
2004-05-12 morning (utc+1)
Benedict Anderson, Imagined
Communities.
The first edition of this was published in 1983, and the first thing
you need to know about it was that it launched a tidal wave of
research into nationalism and it's a compulsory read if you're studying
the subject. It is also, thankfully, well-written and informative.
Anderson complains in the introduction to the second edition that
insufficient attention has been paid to his argument that America
(particularly Latin America) is the original source of nationalism.
He argues that the concept of "American" arises from
second-class status creoles (ie, American-born pure blood Spanish)
were accorded in Spain - Spanish-born administrators were sent out,
but career opportunities for creoles in Spain were very limited.
(This may look like a form of proto-nationalism on behalf of the
"Spanish", and it begs the question even to use the adjective, but
Anderson provides at least materials from which a defence could be
constructed.)
Compressing vigorously, and allowing the concept of "Spanish" the
slack (or structural ambivalence if you prefer) it requires,
"American" arises from the need to solve the structuralist formula
Not born in Spain:Can't be Spanish::Not born in America:Can't be X
for X.
And there you are! Anderson situates this in a much wider context in
the Sweep O' History, with the decline of plurivernacular (his word)
dynastic regimes, the decline of sacral languages (eg, Latin) and the
communities they defined (eg, Christendom), the creation of new models
of time, the rise of print capitalism, the growing interest (in
Romantic Europe) philological studies of vernaculars and their impact
on the growing literate classes of bourgeois administrators, the
modular character of the idea of nationalism once it had been
invented, and, of course, a pony.
I'm not even going to sketch how he does all that (unless someone
offers me a paid-by-the-word gig): read the book, you won't regret it.
The biggest carp I have is that the Sweep O' History approach masks
the essential anthropological issue at stake - Anderson defines a
nation as an "imagined community, which is imagined as inherently
limited and sovereign" (quoting from memory, sorry) but if you skip
the sovereignty requirement then this applies to any social grouping
in which not all persons are acquainted with each other - and there
are plenty of tribal structures which fit that bill. You could even
widen the scope of community further to encompass the diachronic
("time") dimension and ask how societies imagine themselves in
community with their (Glorious) ancestors - Anderson does so in the
context of the many if not varied National Reawakenings of 19th
century Europe, but has nothing to compare it with.
All this, it could be correctly countered, is beyond the scope of the
book, and the book is certainly very excellent as it is; I'm just
sayin', OK?
[Permalink]
2004-05-11 15:55
Cause and effect: such a duality probably never occurs - in reality
there stands before us a continuum of which we isolate a couple of
pieces; just as we always perceive a movement only as isolated points,
therefore do not really see it, but infer it.
�112, The Gay Science, Nietzsche
As included in the Penguin
Nietzsche Reader, ed. & trans. R J Hollingdale. I skipped the
meme a while back on influential books, but this is certainly top of
my list. It cured immediately cured me of any lingering traces of
interest in Neo-Scholastic ("Analytic") philosophy, and has been the
rotten goat carcass in the polluted well of my intellect ever since,
although I've never reread it. (I don't think I even finished it the
first time, actually - I do not deeply dig all the �bermensch
malarkey.)
In any case, I'm declaring this week to be "Critique Of Causality
Week", to fill in the slack between prinsessgossiptidbits, which is
nice.
[Permalink]
2004-05-11 samwidge (utc+1)
�1. Mette-Marit in traditional
dress
The things she does for her country, isn't it?
Har du sjekket om bunaden fortsatt passer? Det b�r du gj�re snarest,
for n� varsles det godt, gammeldags bunadsv�r p� 17. mai, med kj�lig
nordavind over hele landet.
Have you checked your Traditional Folk Costume looks OK for the values
of OK that prevail in such matters? You'd better get on with it,
because good old-fashioned Traditional Folk Costume weather on the
17th of May, with a chilly north wind over the whole country.
�coutez et r�p�tez, my Norwegish chums: "Oh but this is very terrible,
the moose has eaten my Traditional Folk Costume! Yes, again!"
�2. Another party? Do we have to?
Spare a thought for Sweden's prinsessor:
De svenska kungabarnen �ker till K�penhamn p� onsdag f�r brudparets
fest p� nattklubben Vega. - De reser hem igen dagen efter f�r att
fira prinsens 25- �rsdag. Sedan �ker de tillbaka p� fredag f�r att
n�rvara p� br�llopet, s�ger Ann-Christine Jernberg, pressekreterare
vid hovet.
The Swedish royalchildrens are off to Shoppingharbour on Wednesday for
the happy couple [Kronprinsfred and Knudella's] party at the nightclub
Vega. "They're coming back the day aftre for to celebrate the
prins's 25th birthday. Then they'll be back on Friday for the
wedding", said Ann-Christine Ironmountain, the court's press
secretary.
Who's this Ann-Christine Ironmountain, and what have you done with
Elizabeth Tralalah-Washstand you fiends?
�3. En bebis, tv� bebisar, f�r m�nga bebisar
Knudella's new job is of course the making of royal bebisar, and she's
certainly game:
Mary og Frederik vil gerne have mange b�rn, siger hun i interview i
dag i Politiken.
Knudella and the Kronprinsfred are keen to have many childrens, she
says in an interview with Politiken today.
Attagirl! Future generations of prinsess crazy bladeteers will reap
the rich rewards of this forward thinking policy.
�4. Fil kand or
bust!
Prinsessan Madeleine har nu beslutat att satsa fullt ut p� sina
konststudier. Hennes m�l �r en fil kand-examen i konstvetenskap.
Prinsess Madeleine has now decided to go all the way with her art
studies. Her goal is a fil kand exam in art studies.
It is good to have goals, is it not?
[Permalink]
2004-05-11 morning (utc+1)
Few things are more intrinsically visual than interpreting,
and the BBC is to be commended for this foto
story:
In 1973, when the UK joined, it was thought English would become more
predominant. But it didn't because the diplomats posted in Brussels
knew French.
French lost its influence with the 1995 enlargement, when Austria,
Finland and Sweden joined, because very few representatives from these
countries knew French.
Bad Swedishes, not to waggle with the tongueage of Moli�re! And after
all the nice French words like balkong and restaurang
that Swedish has borrowed! (Swedish always uses -ng for word
final nasals in French loans, which is not at all amusing.)
[Permalink]
2004-05-10 16:36
I was thinking maybe it was coming up to time for my annual rant about
Swedish InterWebNet bookshops that don't ship to Abroad, so I went and
checked and - lo and behold! - Akademibokhandeln
will ship to your door wherever it happens to be. (Mine is
on the border between my house and the world outside; where's yours?)
There's a catch, though: "Vid alla leveranser till adresser utanf�r
Sverige debiteras fraktkostnad" ("With all deliveries to addresses
outside Sweden postage costs will be added.")
This is no small thing - the last Swedish InterWebNet bookshop that I
used explicitly cited the extortionate postal rates as the reason they
stopped shipping overseas. Scary enough, but Akademibokhandeln
doesn't estimate the costs up front, or even in the email to confirm
the order. So the first I'm going to know about it is when the
invoice or a bank statement arrives.
I will blog about it, of course, when the time comes but you will
probably be able to hear the reaction first.
[Permalink]
2004-05-10 samwidge (utc+1)
There at a board by tome and paper sat,
With two tame leopards couch'd beside her throne,
All beauty compass'd in a female form,
The Princess; liker to the inhabitant
Of some clear planet close upon the Sun,
Than our man's earth; such eyes were in her head,
And so much grace and power, breathing down
From her arch'd brows, with every turn
Lived thro' her to the tips of her long hands,
And to her feet.
[From "The Princess" [sic], A. L. Tennyson]
�1. The woodwork, slightly outcrept of
Beware! There's scholarship
afoot. First, a contrast between Then and Now:
Blivande drottningars viktigaste egenskap var l�nge att vara av
kunglig b�rd, f�r att styrka dynastiernas prestige och skapa
allianser. I dag �r det snarare tv�rtom. Det �kar populariteten att
prinsarna gifter sig med vanliga kvinnor. Det menar id�historikern
Karin Tegenborg Falkdalen, som doktorerat med avhandlingen "Kungen �r
en kvinna".
The future queens' most important quality was for a long time to be of
royal stock, to strengthen the dynasty's prestige and form alliances.
Today it's rather the opposite. It increases popularity that prinses
marry ordinary wimmins. So says historian of ideas Karin Tegenborg
Falkdalen, whose doctoral thesis was called "The King is a Woman".
And more
of pretty much the same:
Allt fler kungligheter v�ljer att gifta sig med "Svenssons".
- Det har tagit slut p� prinsar och prinsessor, s�ger Herman
Lindqvist, historiker och f�rfattare.
More and more royal persons are choosing to marry commoners.
"It's all over for prinses and prinsessor", says Herman Lindqvist,
historian and author.
�2. Not so fast, Vickan!
In a reassuringly traditional move, kronprinsess Vickan of Swedenland
is under pressure from her daddy - her daddy is the king! - to dump
her steady boyfriend. Allegedly, of course.
Orsaken �r att kungen anser att Daniel Westling, 30, inte duger som
gem�l till en blivande drottning, enligt Expressens k�lla i
hovet.
- Under senare tid har kungen b�rjat tycka att det har
g�tt f�r l�ngt och att det nu �r h�g tid att f�rh�llandet tar slut f�r
att Victoria ska ha en chans att i lugn och ro finna en annan man,
s�ger k�llan till Expressen.
The reason is that the king thinks that Daniel Westling, 30, won't do
as a consort for a future queen, according to Expressen's sources at
the court.
"Recently the king has started to think that it's
gone on too long and it's high time that the relationship finished so
that Victoria has a chance to find another man in peace and quiet,"
said said source to Expressen.
"Another man?" yami
will be terribly disappointed at such prejudgings of gender, for sure...
�3. Knudella interview highlights, Ozzie style
FORMER Sydney real estate agent Mary Donaldson says she believes it
was her destiny to marry Crown Prince Frederik, the heir to the Danish
throne.
I've seen lawyer and IT consultant given as former jobs. Is there
anything Knudella can't do?
More
:
The interviews, Ms Donaldson's first public utterances since her
engagement press conference last October, took up more than five pages
of Politiken, Copenhagen's most influential broadsheet.
She has given up her Australian citizenship and joined Denmark's
Lutheran Evangelical Church in order to marry the prince, and her
comments on the sacred nature of marriage will be seen as a way of
reassuring Danes that she shares their conservative views on life. Her
move into volunteer work emulate the caring, open role of her new
mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe II.
Conservative views on life? The Danes?
�3. What a boat race!
Knudella defends her nation's honour in a boat race, against her
famously (trust me) nautical blivande hubby:
"It was not a friendly stoush, no."
�4. Norway's been there, done that, written the report:
Nedtellingen til bryllupet mellom kronprins Frederik og Mary Donaldson
er i gang. Danskene har allerede startet feiringen, som kulminerer
fredag med vielse i K�benhavn domkirke og bryllupsfest p� Fredensborg
slott. Men hva betyr egentlig begivenheten for dansker flest? Det skal
et knippe danske forskere finne ut av med norsk hjelp.
The countdown to the wedding between Kronprinsfred and Knudella has
begun. [No, really?] The Danes have already started the celebrations,
which will culminate with the wedding in Shoppingharbour cathedral and
the reception at Fredenborg castle. But what does it all really mean
for the Danish public? A team of Danish researchers is finding out,
with some Norwegish help.
Because, of course, the Norwegish kronprins married a commoner a while
back, so they know all about such things up there:
I 2001 ledet [Olaf Aagedal, forskningsleder ved Diaforsk] et prosjekt
st�ttet av Norges Forskningsr�d om den nasjonale og folkelige
feiringen av bryllupet mellom kronprins Haakon og kronprinsesse
Mette-Marit. Det er dette arbeidet som ligger til grunn for danskenes
kulturhistoriske samtidsunders�kelse, som har tittelen "Riget p� den
anden ende. Danskerne og Kronprinsbrylluppet 14. maj 2004". Det er
Nationalmuseet og Universitetet i K�benhavn, samt flere danske
forskningsinstitusjoner som samarbeider om unders�kelsen.
In 2001 Olaf Aagedal, chief researcher at Diaforsk, lead a project
supported by the Norwegish Reasearch Council on the national and
folkly celebrations of the wedding between kronprins Haakon and
kronprinsess Mette-Marit. This same work serves as the foundation for
the Danish cultural historical contemporary survey, which has the
title "The Kingdom from the Other End. The Danes and the Kronprins
wedding 14th May 2004". The National Museum and the Universitetetetet
of Shoppingharbour are collaborating, along with several other Danish
research institutes.
Riget p� den
anden ende has a homepage, hoorah, and the project
description is also available. (Both ju p� danska, the latter
pdf.)
I am now reminded why I love so much the 'Wegia.
[Permalink]
2004-05-10 morning (utc+1)
Politiken is capitalising on the Kungligheter kraziness of the
Danishes and their consequent willingness to splash the 25 kroners
("crowns") on this
interview with the blivende kronprinsess.
That's 2.24 GBP - more than a pint of beer! - for 10 pages of the
Danish-flavoured pdf.
Anyway, the interview was done in seven sessions over several months,
starting in December, and in recent sessions we are assured that
Knudella is almost fluent in the Danish, although her pronunciation
tends somewhat towards the careful.
At the 'bladet, meanwhile, our Danish is frankly wretched and it's all
a bit of a race against time to process all this stuff before the
Friday deadline ("wedding").
[Permalink]
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