| From: [email protected] (HOLMAN EUGENE)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Scandinavia
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1993 16:20:39 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
....colorful flags with big crosses on them, open faced sandwiches piled
high, coats of arms with lions on them, a strong Lutheran work ethic but
empty churches, bowls of warm pea soup, yet another way to pickle herring,
deep discussions about the plight of refugees in faraway places, good brown
bread, throw-rugs, the smell of boiled potatoes, a summer afternoon boating,
ice-fishing, healthy-looking people, small big cities with many exotic
looking foreigners, police that walk in pairs, well-cared for countryside,
Christmas hysteria, UN Peacekeepers, bright summer days, cities where it's
impossible to find a restaurant specializing in the local cuisine,
lingonberries with your dinner, a decent but numbing complacency, languages
that are either sung or coughed, cross-country skiing, evening newspapers
with stupid headlines, magazines for every taste - just as long as it's
gossip or porn, enjoying a beer but maybe not feeling good about it, laws of
public access, mountains of prawns, smiling at a pretty girl and having her
smile back at you, government officials who at least try, displaying lots of
flags, the warmth of a candle-it room in November, Pippi Longstocking,
politicians that hang in there from one decade to the next, an affair that
generates heat but no warmth, Midsummer, democracies that have a soft spot
for royalty, taxes you wouldn't believe, country cousins, the struggle
for mediocrity, the quiet of an empty forest, tedious televised non-
discussions with ex-celebraties, letters that have crashed into one another
or have with dots over them or lines through them, street sausage stands,
being addressed by a stranger in the familiar form when you're feeling
lonely, many different types of sleet, energetic old ladies with round,
gold-rimmed eyeglasses, slush, and snow, relatives in America, innumerable
cups of good, strong coffee, spelmansmusik, signs along obscure roads in the
countryside indicating precisely where everything is, busloads of German
tourists on the way to Norkap, hushed exchanges about the refugees in nearby
places, a newsgroup where people are generally civil to one another and
wouldn't flame you unless you really deserved it, novels about people living
in God-foresaken towns, the local drunk singing another song, your own
social-security number, beating the dust out of carpets on Saturday
mornings...
- Eugene Holman
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