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2004-12-22 10:43
�1. Peppercakehousecompetitionfinalists
At Aftonbladet.
�2. You say sne, I say sn�; let's have an interminable wrangle!
The heat of the argument can be judged from the fact that in 1955 a
weather-forecaster on the Norwegian radio became known as the
"abominable snowman" and was actually dismissed because he refused to
say sn� (a radical Bokm�l form) "snow" instead of sne (a
conservatve form).
Peter "Trudger" Trudgill, Sociolinguistics
And this is all within Bokm�l! Trudger has an unusually detailed and
clear explanation of Norwegish language politics; we consider it to be
essentially Swedish with diphthongs, but we are after all at a safe
distance.
�3. Merry Twinkletree!
We're off to the ancestral ch�teau this afternoon. Expect an absence
of bloggage for a bit. We'll be back sometime after the Festive Day
of Boxning, maybe.
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2004-12-21 15:44
�1. 'Arry Potteur
Yes, well, me
too then:
The sixth Harry Potter book will hit the shops on 16
July next year, it has been announced.
But when is the Frenchy-French livre de poche due? The
bloatiback has been out for over a year, Gallimard (for it is they!).
Keeping it in spendyback only is beginning, frankly, to look grasping.
�2. Finland Finland Finland! I
What festive giftage or presentables is it that I covet, you ask or
enquire?
This.
A wind-up radio with shortwave! (If it had longwave, too, it'd
be even better, but life is after all a vale of misery or at least
minor disappointment.)
And what could I possibly want with such a something, you again ask or
again enquire?
This:
Hela kv�llen i Europa
p� svenska fr�n Finland
Kortv�g 9630 kHz (31m)
16.00--20.00 finsk tid.
Swedish news from Finland!
Hurra hurra hurra!
On a nice shortwave radio,
at admittedly not very convenient times
when you've -2'ed the UTC+2, but still!
�3. Finland Finland Finland! II
And what Swedish news from Finland would we wish to hear, you persist
in asking, or as the case may be in enquiring?
This:
Janne Ahonen - ingen over, ingen ved siden. Finnen med steinansiktet
har vunnet sju av �tte mulige verdenscuprenn i hopp denne sesongen.
Janne "The Manne" Ahonen - no one above him, no one by his side. The
stony-faced Finn has won seven (7) out of eight (8) possible
worldcupstages in skijumpning this season.
�4. Prinsesses!
The International Herald Tribune, which is to say the Paris
edition of the dreary New York Times has the worst web site of
any 'bladet we've ever encountered in any language.
It is an utterly
miserable experience which we typically neglect to have, but today
they have
prinsesses:
For Colombe Pringle, editor of the French magazine Point de Vue, there
are pitfalls as well as joys for the new princesses. She cites the
Asian-born Alexandra of Denmark, who is divorcing Prince
Joachim. Pringle says that smart professional women do not find it
easy to integrate into an insular royal court, where the job
description is to produce an heir and a "spare," smile and do charity
work.
Mathilde of Belgium fills that role to perfection and was voted as top
princess by Point de Vue's readers
Ahead of the very radiant fairy-tale Kronprinsessmary of Danmark? We
are outraged beyond words at this such perfidy!
[Permalink]
2004-12-21 11:35
Last year when the ginormous festive straw goat in G�vle burned down
the po-lice said:
- Vi har inte ett sp�r. Det finns just nu inget att g� p�.
"We don't have a clue. At the moment there's nothing to go on."
This
year when the ginormous festive straw goat in G�vle burned down the po-lice said:
- Vi har inga sp�r, men utg�r fr�n att branden var anlagd, s�ger
vakthavande bef�l vid polisen i G�vle.
"We have no clues, but we're starting from the assumption the fire was
started deliberately", says the watch-having officer of the police in
G�vle.
Pas de merde, Sherlocke! On peut constater m�me:
�rets brand �r den 21:a i ordningen.
This year's fire is the 21st time it's happened.
Depuis 1966�: c'est � dire, en seulement 38 ans�!
(Previous episode)
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2004-12-21 10:22
It is the winter solstice, of course, and thus the start of the
Feast of Twinkletree. (We do not feel any particular need to wait for
the Belated Jesusistes to catch up, for sure.)
To celebrate, here is Aftonbladet's
uproundning of pretty Twinkletrees!
Also, in Upside-Down Seth Efrica, where they are having upside-down
winter, which is summer, instead, England have
won a famous victory at the noble game of criquette:
England 425 (Strauss 126, Butcher 79) and 93 for 3 (Strauss 94*) beat
South Africa 337 (Rudolph 93, Dippenaar 110) and 229 (Smith 55, Kallis
61, S Jones 4-39) by seven wickets, and lead the series 1-0
The boy Straussy, isn't it?
[Permalink]
2004-12-20 15:42
�1. Getting it right
It is Lemony Snicket
!
Are your stories based on real-life things?
Matthew Shuttleworth, aged 10, by e-mail
All stories are based on two things: real-life things, and other
stories, but these "other stories", of course, are also based on the
same two things - real-life things or other stories, and these "other
stories" are also based on the same two things, and so on, and so on,
and this complicated arrangement is further complicated by the
tendency for real-life things to become stories as time passes, and
the difference between real-life things and stories becomes
complicated, so real-life things tend to get lost inside stories that
are based on real-life things and on other stories, or perhaps it's
the other way round, with stories based on real-life things and other
stories getting lost inside real-life things, which might explain why,
in real life, we often feel so very lost that even answering a simple
question becomes so exhausting and confusing that we want to lie down
with our eyes closed and listen closely to the string quartets of
Dmitri Shostakovich and certain 12in singles by New Order.
(via)
�2. Getting it wrong
It is not Santa!
Ricercatori britannici hanno ricostruito al computer il volto di Santa
Claus. Era basso, scuro di pelle e con il naso rotto.
British researchatori have riconstuctado at computer the face of Santa
Claus. Era basso, scuro di pelle and with a rotto nose.
Il volto � stato ricostruito basandosi sulle reliquie di San Nicola,
il vescovo di Myra vissuto nel XIV secolo d.c. i cui resti sono
conservati nella basilica di San Nicola a Bari e al quale s'ispira
appunto il mito.
The face � stato riconstructado based on relics of Saint
Nicholas, the bishop di Myra vissuto nel XIV [sic; actually the
4th] century CE whose remains are conserved in the basilica of
Saint Nicholas at Bari and al quale s'ispira appunto il mito.
In what sense is he the real Santa, anyway? To those of us not
smoking what they're smoking some random dead bishop called Nicholas
is hardly an adequate substitute. Does he have a reindeer-pulled
sled? Does he deliver presents? Does he chortle "Ho ho ho"?
Is there, in fact, a genre of investigation more tedious than the
endless searches for the "real" X, where X is manifestly a mythical
entity? (So far as we are concerned this goes just as much for the
Baby Jesus as King Arthur, but don't tell the Gibberers for Jesus we
said so.)
The Corriere della Sera (which has been a morning paper for
over a century without dropping the della Sera - should we
launch a quest for the "real evening"?) opine haplessly:
COCA COLA - Il Babbo Natale vestito di rosso e con la barba bianca �
quindi un puro travisamento, un personaggio inventato. Peggio. Un
personaggio da r�clame. Sono stati infatti i pubblicitari della
Coca Cola, all'inizio degli anni '30, a creare l'immagine del
vecchietto sulla slitta, per promuovere la bevanda nei mesi
invernali. In particolare il celebre illustratore Haddon
Sundblom: fu lui a porre la firma al primo disegno del moderno
Santa Claus.
Sigh. You can't get the 'bladets, isn't it?
(via)
[Permalink]
2004-12-20 13:30
�1. Social dumpning
There has been and
is much fuss over a building project in Sweden where the
successful bid relies on cheap Latvian labour. The ins and outs are
fiddly, but the phrase social dumpning is too excellent to neglect.
�2. Twinkletree Surprise!
Sn�kaos hotar jultrafiken
Sn�kaos threatens Yuletide traffic
Sn�? At Yuletide? In Sweden of all places? Santa, you
mischievous pranksta!
�3. Apathy in the UK!
The University of Openness's Introduction to the Social
Sciences, on which I am a student, is predominantly concerned with
data from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Luckily we're not actually required to consult sources other than our
nice workpacks, but I keep seeing stuff in Aftonbladet and Le Monde
which would otherwise be jolly to cite.
�4. Twinkletree defence, slightly footinshootning
Under France's stupid new school-headscarf ban it is now the turn of Twinkletrees
to feel the crossfire. A Tree was installed in a school; some
students complained; the teacheurs attempt a defence:
Il est alors d�cid� qu'un groupe de professeurs pr�parera une
communication pour rappeler aux �l�ves que "l'utilisation du sapin
comme symbole de vie ou de renaissance, apr�s le solstice d'hiver, est
bien plus ancienne que le christianisme".
It was then decided that a group of teacheurs would prepare a
communication to remind the pupils that "the use of a pine tree as
symbol of life and rebirth after the winter solstice is much older
than christianisme."
Which is an idiotique non sequitur in response to the claim that the
Twinkletree is a religious symbol, selon nous.
[Permalink]
2004-12-20 11:33
I got me a Chrysler, it seats about 20
So hurry up and bring your jukebox money
The Love Shack is a little old place where we can get together
Love Shack baby, (a Love Shack bay-bee).
Love shack, baby love shack,
love shack, baby love shack, love shack.
(love baby, that's where it's at) love shack
(love baby, that's where it's at)
True love, path of, unsmoothrunningly:
N�r kronprinsessan satt p� den glamour�sa Nobel-middagen nyligen - d� tittade pojkv�nnen Daniel Westling p� en basketmatch i en Stockholmsf�rort.
I helgen kunde paret vara tillsammans igen.
While the kronprinsess [Vickan] sat at the glamour�s
Nobel-eveninglunch recently - her boyfriend was watching a
basketfoopball match in the Stockholmarea.
At the weekend the couple could be together again.
At the H�gbo Brukshotell! (Which isn't really a shack! We just like
the song!)
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