Desbladet
- Neither decorative nor useful
home archives guestbladet mail host

Something to say? Desbladet wants to hear about it! Please use the guestbladet for comments!

(I know, I know, but it's the way we diarylanders have done it for generations.)

2005-11-10 14:16

Sm�rg�spost

�1. Cheapchocklatechance spurned

In Norway:

Stoltenberg-regjeringen avviser forslaget om billigere sjokolade

Proudenmountain-government rejects proposal for cheaper chocklate.

�2. Which came first, the monster or the egg?

The (Zwedish) environment authority has refused to slap a protection order on the eggs of the Storsj�s monster's eggs on the grounds that there is no such bleeding something, and it can safely be assumed not therefore to lay them:

Man kan inte fridlysa n�got som inte finns. Det slog Milj�domstolen i �stersund fast f�r tv� �r sedan n�r den underk�nde ett n�stan 20-�rigt beslut av l�nsstyrelsen i J�mtlands l�n.

Milj�domstolen v�grade att pr�va ett �verklagande av ett f�rbud mot att plocka Storsj�odjurets �gg.

�3. Sorry, Yoorp!

It isn't our fault as such, but still:

FirstGroup, the UK's biggest bus company and second-largest train operator, served notice yesterday that it could spend up to �1bn expanding into the European transport market.

[...] Moir Lockhead, First's chief executive, said it was considering buying rail and bus companies, adding that Germany was the most attractive market.

German public transport actually works at the moment, but First have a distinguished track record in fixing stuff like that.

[Permalink]

2005-11-10 10:17

Oh to be in Riga now November's here!

Isn't it, VG?

�st m�ter vest i Latvias fargerike hovedstad. I det ene �yeblikket kan du shoppe i store, moderne varehus - i det neste snirkle deg langs velfylte disker p� et av Europas st�rste markeder.

East meets west in Latvia's colourful capital. In one eyeblink can you shop in large, modern departmentstores - in the next you snirkle along velfylte dishes in one of Europe's largest markets.

It is the very excellent Zeppelinmarkets! And you can get to Riga for 200 NOK if you happen, as we don't, to be in Ooshloo with Air Baltic. (But don't get too excited, this is a special offer and AB are by no means a low-cost airline in general.)

[Permalink]

2005-11-09 15:43

The Loveliness of L�sgodis

Loosesweeties! The essence of Zwedishness or Zwedishness in its essential form? You decide!:

De flesta andra folk i den industrialiserade v�rlden �ter mest choklad, men vi svenskar f�redrar sega r�ttor, Ahlgrens bilar, sockerbitar, svampar av skum och sm� nappar som best�r av gel� och socker. Sett till total godiskonsumtion ligger vi tv�a i v�rlden: danskarna �r n�got mer glupska.

Most other peoples in the industrialised world eat mostly chocklate, but we [sic] Zwedishes prefer chewy rats, Ahlgrens cars, sugarbits, chewy mushrooms and small somethings made of jell� and sugar. In terms of total sweetyconsumption we [sic] come second in the world: Danishes are somewhat more glupish.

Zwedish zweeties are fantastic, is why. Woolworth's pick'n'mix isn't within a ballpark of how fantastic they are. Ironically, given that one of our favourite zweeties is saltliquorice - which is like liquorice, only saltier - Zweden actually does that fairly badly: the Dutch stuff is a lot better.

[Permalink]

2005-11-09 11:19

Belgium, man! Belgium!

Belgians in bed:

Globalement, 57% des Belges se d�clarent satisfaits de leur vie sexuelle, un score nettement sup�rieur � la moyenne mondiale qui est de 44%.

Overall, 57% of Belgians declare themselves satisfied with their sex life, a score clearly sup�rieur to the global average of 44%.

[Permalink]

2005-11-08 15:43

Mine's a pint...

... of wodka!

It's Friday night in Helsinki, and the object of the exercise seems to be to get as drunk as possible.

Our escorts had already picked up one hopelessly smashed teenager, depositing him in the grim confines of what they call the "drunk tank", the biggest in Europe.

And yet we'd rather walk through the centre of Helsingrad than that of any large British town on a Friday night. Why is that?

[Permalink]

2005-11-08 11:54

Anyone for tact?

It is the Chicago Moonbat Rantbladet ("Sun-Times")!

Today, a fearless Muslim advance has penetrated far deeper into Europe than Abd al-Rahman. They're in Brussels, where Belgian police officers are advised not to be seen drinking coffee in public during Ramadan, and in Malmo, where Swedish ambulance drivers will not go without police escort. It's way too late to rerun the Battle of Poitiers. In the no-go suburbs, even before these current riots, 9,000 police cars had been stoned by ''French youths'' since the beginning of the year; some three dozen cars are set alight even on a quiet night. ''There's a civil war under way in Clichy-sous-Bois at the moment,'' said Michel Thooris of the gendarmes' trade union Action Police CFTC. ''We can no longer withstand this situation on our own. My colleagues neither have the equipment nor the practical or theoretical training for street fighting.''

They're lovin' it at Moonbat Central, for sure.

[Permalink]

2005-11-08 10:12

Random things labelled as "globalisation" (an occasional series)

It is Misha Glenny of the Beeb, on "globalisation" and Eastern Yoorpean langwidges, and especially, since this is feecha journalisme, hotel TV. But persist, since it picks up later:

I can always estimate the age of Macedonians, for example, depending on whether they respond to me in their own language if I address them in Serbo-Croat (which they all understand perfectly).

If they reached their majority before 1992 when Macedonia became independent, it usually means that they can, especially the men, as Serbo-Croat was the language of command in the Yugoslav Army.

(The sub-editor didn't make it that far, apparently: clearly these such older ones can and do respond in Serbo-Croat. Why he doesn't even remark that these days Serbo-Croat has been replaced, at least in most curricula and nationaliste ideologies, by Serbian and Croatian, we can't imagine.)

[Permalink]

2005-11-07 15:15

British public transport, a partial explanation

A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure.

Mrs Thatcher

There are those who feel sorry for Thatcher now that she is old and mad and bereaved. We aren't one of them.

[Permalink]

2005-11-07 12:58

Na na na na indeed

You're history
you're history
No good for me
no good for me
You're history
you're history
na na na na na

"You're History", Shakespear's Sister

It is A221: State, Economy and Nation, our next course with the University of Openness! It is, you will readily infer or deduce, a history course, and none the worse for that. In particular, it is a booklet on methodological issues, warning us that FDR-ian economic history has turned into a very butch quantfest, so stick that in your parameter estimation procedure and crank it, humanitiesistes!

(We're up for a bit of quant, for sure, although we also think the FDRians have gone more than slightly off on one, for even surer.)

[Permalink]

2005-11-07 10:46

Things to not do in Germany (1)

Forget your nice Assimil guidebook. Bah! Luckily, we remembered enough to guess correctly that the Fraundorfer Gasthof is the place accorded a chapeau bas, but we will missed out on instructions like:

Prendre le t�l�ph�rique � Partenkirchen pour attendre le summet de Wank, � 1780m d'altitude.

And you wouldn't want that, isn't it?

[Permalink]

previous, next, latest

Site Meter