These days I usually stick short updates of things I’m thinking about on my Facebook feed, and use the blog for longer pieces. But some of those snippets make me kind of happy, so here’s a selection of recent ones.
I never give money to beggars. Instead I make an annual donation to Stockholm’s biggest organisation for meals, showers, beds for homeless people. Right about when it starts to get cold and nasty outdoors.
Why is a Swedish dance orchestra playing a slow boogie version of “Anarchy In The UK” in my head?
OK guys, here’s the deal. An elite is a group of people. If you’re talking about its members, they are not “elites”. They are members of the elite. The plural of this word can only be used if you mean several distinct groups, as in “The political elites of many Western countries like Sponge Bob”. My buddy and his brother may be members of the elite, but they certainly are not elites. Learn this now. Thank you. That’s all.
“Wannabe scientist” is Möchtegern-Wissenschaftler in German! Ausgezeichnet!
The Big Two card game is known as da lao-er, “big dick”, in Mandarin slang.
Is it possible to know God in the Biblical way?
Grödinge parish used to be named Grodunge, “baby frog”.
I want to feed tamarind to tamarins sitting in tamarisks on the River Tamar.
Nerdy gamer clubs completely rule the Swedish system of publicly funded youth groups, once set up to encourage sports teams.
I’ve finally realised why Christian fundamentalists oppose gay marriage. First I kind of assumed that they find it much more palatable that gay people are sexually promiscuous than that they form stable pairs. But that didn’t quite sound right. Then it struck me. Christian fundamentalists hate the idea that anybody is having gay sex. And they think that nobody has sex outside of marriage. So if gay people can’t get married, nobody will ever have gay sex!
D’oh! A deer, a female deer
What would the Danish conference series Det Tvaerfaglige Vikingesymposium be called in English? “Fag” is easy as that is the same in English. Tvaer is quer in German, that is, queer in English. So the conference is called The Queer Fag Viking Symposium. Cool.
