Thursday, October 04, 2007
The Most Exciting Thing in Sweden is the Toast?
Swedes are often portrayed as being emotionless and quiet loners. This is getting less and less true perhaps, but stereotypes are hard to shake and ABBA alone does not a jubilant stereotype make.
Maybe swedes are just a little repressed. All it really takes to see the person trapped inside is to put a swede in another country (especially a warmer one which is nearly every other one in the world) and/or give them some alcohol. Every Stockholm party I've been to no one says a word until the third drink. Then suddenly everyone has a bubbly personality. I am pretty much the same way. I guess that's why Sweden suits me so well. Who wants to fucking chat sober?
What other national stereotypes are there out there? Like for instance Danes are known for being aggressive, Irish for being drunks, Germans for being pushy, Japanese for taking too many goddam pictures, and Americans for being loud, obnoxious, fat, and often rich (the ones who make it Europe at least which aren't many).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
TOKYO (Reuters) - A disgruntled Japanese worker smashed up his employer's office in a fit of pique after his boss ignored his gift of jelly desserts, a national paper said on Thursday.
An Osaka court heard that the 31-year-old man, who worked for an online clothing sales company, had given the company president a box of jellies in the summer as a mark of gratitude after landing the job, the English-language Asahi Shimbun said.
Many Japanese maintain a tradition of sending gifts to important business contacts in summer and winter.
When the employee realized that his boss had left the box of jellies unopened under his desk, he smashed 22 computers in the office with a truncheon, the paper said. No one was injured in the incident.
The man pleaded guilty to charges of obstructing business with force, the paper said.
"I wish the company president had cared a little more," the paper quoted the employee's lawyer as saying.
Prosecutors said the employer had been too busy to open the gift, the paper said.
I notice you didn't answer that question about how to buy filmjölk outside Sweden (2 years ago!) but it's an interesting one. The self-sufficient answer is obviously to go out and find some carnivorous plant like butterwort and rub the sides of a bowl with the leaves, then pour in some lukewarm milk and hey presto, it supposedly will turn into tätmjölk! Alternatively I suppose it must be possible to buy the fil-culture kit in dried form in Sweden and send it abroad so that people can make their own. If this is true, I suggest it would be a very good Christmas present for Swedes abroad, and I'd like to be sent one too!
Larry! I've missed you, lad! Write soon, okay? I've still got your B&N card and I think I'm going to spend it on a book about The Fall. Either that or Jack Kerouac's On The Road. Maybe I will get both. - Marky
Post a Comment