There probably couldn’t be two more dissimilar places than Sicily and Finland and, yet, somehow, I love them both. If Finland is calm and order, then Sicily is noise and chaos. In Finland, people would wait for the pedestrian’s green light to appear before they crossed the street — any street, even if it was…
Category: Articles
Barbieland behind the curtain
It’s a Barbie world, sang a song, and now we hear the same tune in a movie. But we do NOT live in a Barbie world. If anything, it’s quite the opposite. For all its defects and its shallow consumerism, Barbie’s world was kitsch but at least it was pink and cheerful. But our modern…
The Dog That Didn’t Bark
In a famous Sherlock Holmes story, the detective draws attention to a curious incident of a dog that didn’t bark at night. Sometimes, what we don’t hear is almost as important as what we hear. While we are bombarded with news about global warming, what is the media NOT barking about? There are a lot…
The Mystery of North Korea
An American soldier stationed in South Korea appears to have escaped into North Korea, effectively becoming a defector. It appears that he was involved in some fights in Seoul, and he had been previously arrested for assault. He was about to be arrested again or deported to the US, and that seems to be the…
Finland, or this dream called life
Also, Swedes vs Finns Living the dream is an expression that means living a luxurious, ideal lifestyle, but it can also be taken to mean being out of touch with reality. Stop dreaming, bitch. Life is hard. Wake up and smell the coffee. My time in Finland is almost up, and it was a dream…
Scorsese’s mom
And other immigration stories You might remember Scorsese’s mother from the hilarious dinner scene in “Goodfellas”, shown below, where she plays Joe Pesci’s mother. That’s Scorsese’s real mom, and she’s amazing. She also plays a small part in “Casino”. (I didn’t realize it before, but Scorsese’s father also has a brief cameo in “Goodfellas”, as…
Butter as a litmus test for civilization
A brief comment and nutrition advice When I was still a child, they started rolling a propaganda that “margarine is healthier than butter”. It was obviously bankrolled by margarine producers. To me, even back then, it never made any sense that an artificial concoction with bland taste and bad smell could somehow be healthier than…
Life is but a dream
Time to wake up There is little we can do about the next developments that are soon coming in the Modern West. From “new pandemics” to “fifteen minute cities” to social credit tied to your bank account, bad things are going to happen, whether we like it or not. Complaining won’t solve anything, and it…
No Country for White Men
Paris is burning, but where to escape? The current and still ongoing riots in France — some call it even a budding civil war — will perhaps serve as a wake-up for many people living in the West, about what is really happening in their lands. Perhaps. I am not really sure, as most White…
Midsummer rain, Midsummer sun
In Finland, Midsummer week is usually when people take their holidays and go out camping, boating, fishing, swimming naked in a lake, or doing all kinds of things outdoors. (No, not that. Well, maybe that too). It is also when it usually rains. This year… Well, for a while it seemed as if it was…