My window into American politics in almost exclusively limited to the web, and what I see is depressing. I know that the US is full of smart and reasonable people, but the unreasonable ones are the loudest. The forces of the right are in full swing, trying to tear Obama down. There’s an array of anti-Obama images and cute little memes floating around, but none of them address any issues. Read More →
Sweden
I’d only been to Sweden once before — to Malmø on a slow Sunday afternoon — and I wasn’t impressed. Or in a hurry to get back (that was almost two years ago.) This time I saw a very different part of Sweden, and would welcome the opportunity to go back.
Lisbeth and her sister Hanne had been in Sweden for a week, canoeing and camping. They were joined by Hanne’s boyfriend Kaspar, and two of their friends Søren and Lotte from the collective where they live. But they didn’t come to canoe. They came for rock climbing.
The area where we were, Kullen, has very rugged terrain. It’s pretty much rock coming straight out of the ocean. The scenery is stunning, but it’s hostile too. Everything is rocky. There’s no sand on these beaches, just big rocks.
Crying over taxes, conservative style
Sharing the planet with people that don’t want to pay taxes is like living with roommates that don’t want to pay their share of the rent. It never ceases to amaze me how many cry-babies there are out there that just can’t stand the fact that they’re expected to help pay the bills.
New Mexico, hot and dry
I’d been raving for months about how great Northern New Mexico is in the summer. It’s warm, but not too warm. There’s lots of sunshine, but with frequent afternoon rains, green fields, a soft breeze during the day, and cool, crisp air at night. And so on. At least that’s the way I remember it. But it wasn’t like that at all when we visited in June.
I don’t remember antelope listlessly roaming around my grandparent’s ranch. I don’t remember the pastures being overtaken by prickly-pear cactus. I don’t remember otherwise healthy trees near my parents house drying out and falling over. It was hot and dry. Very dry.
On our last night we could smell the smoke from a fire to the North, and water restrictions were enacted in Las Vegas right after we left. Read More →
1st of May and the rainforest
Earlier this month we went to Ã…rhus to visit Hanne and Kaspar and to attend the party the collective they live in throws every year. The party is for the Arbejdernes internationale kampdag, or “worker’s international fight day”, which Americans know as Labour Day.
I’m embarrassed to admit it, but ‘ve never really thought much about labour day before. I just took the eight-hour workday for granted, but it had to be fought for. In Denmark labour day is very much a socialist day. Hence the red flag outside the house. Read More →
Silkeborg
In April we went to Silkeborg to visit Lisbeth’s long-time friend Karina and her boyfriend Michael. Karina and Lisbeth met in “efterskole” which is a sort of boarding school which is pretty common for Danes to attend for a year at around age sixteen. (And in case you can’t tell, Karina and Michael are expecting their first child at the end of may.)
Silkeborg is perhaps best known for its natural beauty, but it was also where the Nazis choose to place their headquarters during the occupation. (Which is disturbing because thus far I’ve been quite charmed by both Nazi headquarters that I’ve visited: Berlin and Silkeborg.)
The price of denial
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
- Douglas Adams
Apparently congress just voted to stop replenishing the massive federal petroleum reserve just to save drivers 3 to 5 cents a gallon. And, in a blatant attempt to bribe voters, Hillary and McCain are talking about a “gas-tax holiday” which would temporarily (like 60 days) cut the price by a whopping 18 cents a gallon.
It’s quite a shock, whenever I’m in the US, to spend $60 or $80 to fill up whatever car I’ve borrowed, but we all knew this day was coming. I remember the gas crisis in 1979 well (even though I was just ten). In school they told us that in a few years it would be impossible to buy a car that got less than 100 miles per gallon, and that by the time we were adults, we’d all be driving solar-powered cars.
Taken literally…
I’m trying to learn Danish. It’s hard work, and slow-going. Some of it is not very interesting. I’ve never really cared for grammar and sentence structure. It may be necessary, but it’s quite dull.
But some of it is fun — especially the things that demonstrate a different way of thinking. Here are some examples of Danish words and what they mean translated literally into English.
Rosenkål (rosen=rose, kål=cabbage -> rose cabbage)
What Americans call brussel sprouts, Danes call rose cabbages. It’s a little strange, but they do sort of look like roses made of cabbage, or tiny little cabbage heads. Brussel sprouts? Now that’s a weird name. Read More →
The clairvoyant plumber
The toilet in the apartment was very old. Probably not as old as the building (that would make it well over 200 years old), but quite old. It ran constantly, wasting water, and wasn’t nice to look at either. I’ve been meaning to have it replaced since I moved in. That was only two years ago. Lisbeth thinks I was procrastinating. Whatever.
She decided not to wait to find out and called a plumber. He showed up on Tuesday. He was a typical plumber, I thought — one might even see him on the street and think, “that guy looks like a plumber.” He was big a big burly guy with a large mid-section — almost cartoonishly so, probably in his late 40s, with short grey hair. He removed the old toilet in what seemed like 60 seconds, and then carried it out of the apartment with his arms straight out in front of him, like a kid might carry a large balloon. A few minutes later, I left for work. Read More →
Berlin
In Denmark we get five days off for easter (if you count the weekend), so Lisbeth and I decided it was a good time to go see Berlin. I’d never been there, and she’d only been there briefly as a teenager.
Day 1
We walked about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) on the first day, starting at the Sunflower Hostel where we stayed and ending in a completely different part of town. We started by waking toward the center of town, down Karl Marx Alle, which is a really wide boulveard that the communists used for parades and such.
It’s an impressive street. It’s entirely symmetric. Each building has an exact mirror copy on the other side — something that’s hard to capture with a camera. It’s also hard to say how much of it seems strange just because you know you’re in an area that was under tight state control until relatively recently. Read More →
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