Thursday, December 31, 2009

New Year's Eve in Visby

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Light Snow, -4ºC (feels like -8º)

Wind: 11 km/h, direction NE

Pressure: 1000.0 mb, steady

Humidity: 91%, Dew point: -5ºC

Visibility: 3.2 km, UV-index: 0, Low



Friday, January 1, 2010

1:55:35 AM



Lunation 1076

Moon is just past full

98.214% illumination

15d 12h 52m since new moon

Next full moon is a Wolf Moon



Sun Rise/set Sun: 8:30 AM/3:13 PM

Natical Rise/set Nautical Twilight: 6:49 AM/4:54 PM

Moon Rise/set Moon: 4:10 PM/9:05 AM



New 12/16/09, 1:04 PM

Q1 12/24/09, 6:38 PM

Full 12/31/09, 8:14 PM

Q3 1/7/10, 11:41 AM



Longitude/Latitude 18.03/57.63

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Resolution


For New Year’s Eve:

Nyårsafton = New Year’s Eve

Gott nytt år! = Happy New Year!

Tvåtusentio = Two thousand ten

Raketer = Fireworks

Nyårslöfte = New Year’s resolution

Trerätters middag = Three course dinner

Finklädd = Dressed up

Skål! = Cheers!

Midnatt = Midnight

Nattmat = Evening snack

Vill du gifta dig med mig? = Would you marry me?

Ja, såklart! = Yes, of course!

Jag älskar dig = I love you

For New Year’s day:

Huvudvärk = Headache

Vätskebrist = Dehydrated

Skräpmat = Junk food

Det här är min sista cigarett! = This is my last cigarette!

Nikotinplåster = Nicotine patch

For January 2nd:

Vad kostar ett gymkort? = How much is a gym membership?

Träna = Workout

Nyttigt = Healthy

Promenera = Walking

Nej tack = No, thank you

For 2010:

Nystart = New beginning

Återhämta = Recovery

Olympiska Spelen = The Olympic Games

Heja Sverige! = Go Sweden!

Läsplatta = Portable reading device or e-book

Sparkonto = Savings account

Alice i Underlandet = Alice in Wonderland

Solförmörkelse = Solar Eclipse

Val = Election

Kungligt bröllop = Royal wedding

Fotbolls-VM = The Football World Cup

Lycka = Happiness

Hälsa = Health

Välgång = Prosperity

Thanks to SwedishBlog


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Friday, December 11, 2009

Lussekattar

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Ingredients:

3 cups wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup warm water

2 teaspoons dry yeast

1/2 cup butter (salted)

3/4 cup milk

1 g saffron

2 egg yolks, beaten with 1 tablespoon water

32 raisins


Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.


Combine 1 tablespoon sugar, warm water, and yeast in a bowl. Wait for yeast to bubble and foam.


In a saucepan combine butter, milk, and saffron.


Heat until warm and butter is melted, do not boil.


Let cool off for 8 minutes.


Add milk mixture to yeast in the bowl.


Add flour and 1/2 cup sugar and beat until dough is smooth.


Lay out dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 1 minute. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover loosely, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.


Divide dough into 16 pieces.


Roll each piece into 1-inch-wide, 6-inch-long strips.


Coil ends in opposite directions, forming a tightly curled inversed S-shape.


Place on a baking sheet and let rise for another hour.


Brush buns with beaten egg yolk and place 1 raisin in the center of each curl, 2 per bun.


Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown.


Done!



This weekend is special for Swedes. On the 13th of December people observe a tradition that to most is just as beloved as Midsummer or Christmas – the Lucia Day.
"It's a beautiful tradition the young people should inherit"

Saint Lucy Day is observed in many countries, but the Swedish tradition exceeds the church rites for a special reason. As the name reveals, Lucia is a figure symbolizing light. Winter nights in this Nordic nation are very long, and people yearn for an end of the darkness that shrouds a good part of the days as well. In the Julian calendar of old December 13th marked the longest night of the year, winter solstice, the turning point that promised lighter and warmer days.

So in the Swedish tradition Lucia is an angel-like figure in a white gown with a red sash, bearing a crown of lit candles. She leads a procession of candle-bearing maids and boys in pointed hats holding up star symbols, thus expressing the power of light and its magic powers.

Thanks to Sveriges Radio SR

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Banker Bash!

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Painting by Zina Saunders

Okay. I don't usually indulge in his kind of thing, except by quoting other people. But when the egregious behavior is aimed at you, I think it's fair to fire back. First Community Bank of New Mexico, knowing full well that I'm living on a fixed income (on the first of every month the check from Social Security comes through them, for which they already charge any number of fees), played this little trick last week: On the last day of the month, thinking that it would "probably" clear, I withdrew about $30 - big mistake - but I did it because I'd been hit by a number of big bills in the last month and was getting hungry. They declared an overdraft, which is certainly legal (although a $30 fee might be considered usury). But THEN, in less than 24 hours, but 12 or so hours before my monthly check arrived they charged an additional $3 "electronic service fee" for which, big surprise, there were no available funds, and proceeded to rape me with another $30 overdraft! And bankers, who are always assuring us that "they're our friends and neighbors," wonder why everybody hates them. Well, Bongo, I know who I'd like to see strung up in the coming Revolution!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

New family stuff.

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I’ve updated the Family Tree with a lot of new information and some new photographs. Thanks to Katarina Löfroth for additional information about the Tigerschiöld family, particularly that her brother Malcolm is alive and well! This is not the first mistake I’ve made and surely won’t be the last. After what Katarina had to go through to reach me, I’ve added a direct link to my email address, very discreetly (to avoid spammers) at the bottom of the front page - below the sawn oak. Please let me know of oversights, mis-spellings (sorry Vivian) or any other incorrect information and I’ll fix it as fast as I can.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Memories

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Men's Dorms, St. John's College, Santa Fe, 1966; Monte Sol.
It was a black & white world.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Just a sweet old man...

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There were moments at the 92nd Street Y Tuesday night when Gore Vidal was just a sweet old man, reminiscing. ...gather(ing) steam as the evening progressed. Parini showed slides of photos from his book—which Vidal, with some difficulty, turned around to glimpse. (One) photo showed him standing with Charlton Heston on the set of Ben Hur, on which (he) worked as a script doctor.


Asked about Heston’s acting skills, “He was rather wooden, wasn’t he?”


Vidal replied, “...if you count balsa as one of the woods.”


In memory of Ivan Lidster

Lloyd Grove @ The Daily Beast

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Boys in the hood..

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Taco Psychosis på Gutekällaren

October 24, 2009 at 10:00pm

Stora Torget, Visby

Yea, Axel!

At last...

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The Philemon Foundation is proud to announce that The Red Book will be published on October 7, 2009 by W.W. Norton and Co. The publication will coincide with The Red Book of C.G. Jung: Creation of a New Cosmology, an exhibition of Jung's original text at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, October 7, 2009 - January 25, 2010.

If you have a lot of patience, and good eyesight, you might try reading the New York Times article by Sara Corbett. Otherwise the Wikipedia page gives a good summary. And if you have a spare 99£ and would like to get me a Christmas present...

Monday, October 19, 2009

Alcoholic Self-Sonorous

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Last night my neighbor, for the third night in a row, woke me from a sound sleep at 3:15 (Visby bars close at 3:00). I don’t mean he just made a lot of noise coming home. Oh, no! He threw open the windows - onto a small, shared, high-walled, reverberant courtyard - turned on “classic” disco (everything from Janet Gaynor to Prince, all re-mastered to sound like a memorable night at Studio 51 complete with cheering crowds and sparkling sound effects) and proceeded, along with what must have been 5-7 bar-friends, to hoot, whistle, cheer, clap, and bounce up and down as if they were part of that fashionable demi-monde, which I’m sure they thought they were. His girlfriend, familiar from numerous other late-night soirees, must have specialized in hog-calling, back home in Norbotten. She likes to stand in said open window and howl into the night, just to let everybody know how happy, drunk, and slutty she is. By five o:clock, they had all passed out and silence was restored. Alas, this is not uncommon behavior for Swedes these days, and the summer nights are filled with similar banshee cries and loud explosions. It seems to be what passes for social-life here. The evening isn’t complete until you’ve staggered, screeching through the streets, smashed a few bottles or shop windows to prove that you’re so much more than the conformist drone you appear to be, during the day. Needless to say, what it proves is nothing of the kind.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Jack Kerouac's Essentials of Spontaneous Prose

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SET-UP

The object is set before the mind, either in reality. as in sketching (before a landscape or teacup or old face) or is set in the memory wherein it becomes the sketching from memory of a definite image-object.



PROCEDURE

Time being of the essence in the purity of speech, sketching language is undisturbed flow from the mind of personal secret idea-words, blowing (as per jazz musician) on subject of image.



METHOD

No periods separating sentence-structures already arbitrarily riddled by false colons and timid usually needless commas-but the vigorous space dash separating rhetorical breathing (as jazz musician drawing breath between outblown phrases)--"measured pauses which are the essentials of our speech"--"divisions of the sounds we hear"-"time and how to note it down." (William Carlos Williams)



SCOPING

Not "selectivity' of expression but following free deviation (association) of mind into limitless blow-on-subject seas of thought, swimming in sea of English with no discipline other than rhythms of rhetorical exhalation and expostulated statement, like a fist coming down on a table with each complete utterance, bang! (the space dash)-Blow as deep as you want-write as deeply, fish as far down as you want, satisfy yourself first, then reader cannot fail to receive telepathic shock and meaning-excitement by same laws operating in his own human mind.



LAG IN PROCEDURE

No pause to think of proper word but the infantile pileup of scatological buildup words till satisfaction is gained, which will turn out to be a great appending rhythm to a thought and be in accordance with Great Law of timing.



TIMING

Nothing is muddy that runs in time and to laws of time-Shakespearian stress of dramatic need to speak now in own unalterable way or forever hold tongue-no revisions (except obvious rational mistakes, such as names or calculated insertions in act of not writing but inserting).



CENTER OF INTEREST

Begin not from preconceived idea of what to say about image but from jewel center of interest in subject of image at moment of writing, and write outwards swimming in sea of language to peripheral release and exhaustion-Do not afterthink except for poetic or P. S. reasons. Never afterthink to "improve" or defray impressions, as, the best writing is always the most painful personal wrung-out tossed from cradle warm protective mind-tap from yourself the song of yourself, blow!-now!-your way is your only way-"good"-or "bad"-always honest ("ludi- crous"), spontaneous, "confessionals' interesting, because not "crafted." Craft is craft.



STRUCTURE OF WORK

Modern bizarre structures (science fiction, etc.) arise from language being dead, "different" themes give illusion of "new" life. Follow roughly outlines in outfanning movement over subject, as river rock, so mindflow over jewel-center need (run your mind over it, once) arriving at pivot, where what was dim-formed "beginning" becomes sharp-necessitating "ending" and language shortens in race to wire of time-race of work, following laws of Deep Form, to conclusion, last words, last trickle-Night is The End.



MENTAL STATE

If possible write "without consciousness" in semi-trance (as Yeats' later "trance writing") allowing subconscious to admit in own uninhibited interesting necessary and so "modern" language what conscious art would censor, and write excitedly, swiftly, with writing-or-typing-cramps, in accordance (as from center to periphery) with laws of orgasm, Reich's "beclouding of consciousness." Come from within, out-to relaxed and said.



From Language is a Virus

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Simple Chicken-Rice Casserole

1 lg. chicken breast filet

½ cup of brown rice

1½ cups water

1 soft vegetable bullion square

1 cup of frozen mushrooms



Cut chicken into ¾" pieces.

Lightly sauté them until no longer pink.

Boil water and add bullion.

When stock is ready add mushrooms.

Let stand until mushrooms are thawed.



Meanwhile put rice (uncooked) in a covered casserole.

Spread chicken and pan drippings on top of rice.

Pour stock and mushrooms over everything.

Cover and bake for 1-1½ hours, depending on your oven.

When rice is ready the rest is done.

Let stand for ten minutes.

Serves 2-3 socially if salad & bread are included.

Otherwise one big appetite.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

On the other hand...

FT090309-4.jpg
"Global Capitalism or something..."



This is what Mr. Obama thinks:



"I was always a big believer in -- when I was doing organizing before I went to law school -- that focusing on concrete, local, immediate issues that have an impact on people's lives is what really makes a difference; and that having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally is not really going to make much of a difference."

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

You decide...

The Voice of Reason

roy.JPG.jpg

The question here, really, is what have we done to democracy? What have we turned it into? What happens once democracy has been used up? When it has been hollowed out and emptied of meaning? What happens when each of its institutions has metastasized into something dangerous? What happens now that democracy and the free market have fused into a single predatory organism with a thin, constricted imagination that revolves almost entirely around the idea of maximizing profit?


Read the whole article: The U.S. and Europe Have Propped Up So Many Corrupt "Democracies" That the Word Is Losing Meaning | AlterNet.
Arundhati Roy can also be heard on a recent DemocracyNow broadcast, and has recently published:

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Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Now, I see...


One of the interesting things (good) about growing old is that what was just gossip when you were adolescent becomes verifiable history by the time you're sixty.

"Manhattan Project spies who met in Santa Fe changed the balance of the world" from The New Mexican 26 Sep 2009


Dorothy McKibben - much younger than when I knew her, but very much the same - with J. Robert Oppenheimer, somewhere in secret Los Alamos, some time before 1945.


Saturday, September 26, 2009

Wilhelm Kåge (1989-1960)

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Earlier this month, DN (Dagens Nyheter, one of two Swedish national broadsheet newspapers), featured the artist best known for his Gustavsberg ceramics, mentioning his graphics. Now John Coulthart { feuilleton } helps bring his poster work to a wider audience, directing readers to the collection at Kunliga biblioteket (the Royal Library) of his graphic design.

Until seeing all this, I hadn't realized how instrumental Kåge was in creating what has become a near-ubiquitous Swedish style, more perhaps than even Swedes realize: simple, "honest," three-color clarity. It has strong and, in Kåge's case, deliberate associations with the welfare state's common man. Even in this post-modern period, it continues to have an influence on the straight-foreward directness of Svensk advertising and product design.

All of the posters in this collection seem somehow familiar. Many were on display in kiosks and on bulletin boards when I was here as a child (1957). Most just have a kind of synonymous aura of familiarity. They are, for me, the archetype of ephemeral public statements on paper.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

How to get there...

Vägbeskrivning Stockholm - Bolaget



Starta på Sergels torg Sväng höger i rondellen till Sergels torg fortsätt 270 m. Kör vidare in på Klarabergsgatan fortsätt 150 m. Kör höger in på Klara Norra kyrkogata fortsätt 60 m. Kör vänster in på Mäster Samuelsgatan fortsätt 110 m. Kör vänster in på Vasagatan fortsätt 310 m. Kör av via avfart och fortsätt rakt fram mot Centralbron fortsätt 1.1 km. Följ skylt mot Nynäshamn fortsätt 70 m. Kör vidare in på Söderleden fortsätt 1.5 km. Kör vidare in på Johanneshovsbron fortsätt 1.0 km. Kör vidare in på Nynäsvägen fortsätt 1.2 km. Kör vidare in på Nynäsvägen (73) fortsätt 28.1 km. Kör rakt fram i rondellen till 73 (73) fortsätt 13.7 km. Sväng vänster i rondellen till 73 (73) fortsätt 10.0 km. Kör vänster in på fortsätt 410 m. Kör på färja Nynäshamn - Visby fortsätt 0 m. Kör av färja fortsätt 350 m. Kör vidare in på Färjeleden (140) fortsätt 1.2 km. Sväng vänster i rondellen till Söderväg fortsätt 1.4 km. Sväng vänster i rondellen till Solbergagatan fortsätt 450 m. Kör vänster in på Peder Hardings väg fortsätt 100 m. Kör höger in på Kung Magnus väg fortsätt 0.6 km. Kör vänster in på Österväg fortsätt 90 m. Stopp på Österväg


How to get from Central Stockholm to Storatorget, Visby & Bolaget



"Start at Sergel Square. Turn right at the roundabout at Sergel Square continue 270 m. Continue onto Klarabergsgatan continue 150 m. Turn right on Clara North Church Street continues 60 m. Turn left onto Master Samuelsgatan continue 110 m. Turn left onto Vasagatan continue 310 m. Run through the exit and continue straight on towards the Central Bridge, continue 1.1 km. Follow the signs to continue Nynäshamn 70 m drive into the South Trail continues 1.5 km. Drive into the Johanneshovsbron continue 1.0 km. Drive into the Nynäsvägen continue 1.2 km. Drive into the Nynäsvägen (73) proceed 28.1 km. Drive straight through the roundabout at 73 (73) proceed 13.7 km. Turn left at the roundabout at 73 (73) proceed 10.0 km. Turn left into the future 410 m (Drive onto) a ferry Nynäshamn - Visby continue 0 m. (Drive off) the ferry continue 350 m. Continue onto Färjeleden (140) proceed 1.2 km. Turn left at the roundabout to Söderväg continue 1.4 km. Turn left at the roundabout to Solberga Street continue 450 m. Turn left onto Peder Harding road continues 100 m. Turn right on King Magnus road continues 0.6 km. Turn left onto Österväg continue 90 m. Stop at Österväg"


Translated by Google

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Luncheon

- Uploaded with the Flock Browser - http://www.flock.com

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Chili

The world's best chili recipe:


Poor Poet Chili.jpg



W E S T E R N - C H I L I

Joseph P. MacCarthy noted that, to be happy in
New England, one must make sure in advance that his
obituary appears in the Boston Transcript - and eat
beans' on Saturday night.


The western version of a Boston Saturday night is chili.
It's eaten in the kitchen in winter and in the patio in
summer. Great kettles of it are lugged to the mountains
or the desert or the shore. Or to an ailing friend whose
digestive tract is still in order.



1 pound ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, mashed

1 grccn pepper, chopped, seeds removed

2 one-pound. cans red beans

1 #2½ can tomatoes


1 cup tomato juice

2 bouillon cubes

½ teaspoon each basil, oregano, cumin, and thyme

1 tablespoon chili powder (or more to taste)

1 cup chopped ripe olives

salt to taste



Brown the beef in a little oil, adding the onion, garlic,
and pepper when the meat is about half done. Dump
everything into a large kettle and simmer, covered, at
least an hour. If the chili is made ahead and reheated, it's
better. Look, sniff, taste, and stir from time to time, and
see that the mixture doesn't get too dry. In which case
add coffee in preference to water.


This is a no-panic recipe, for the ingredients can be
varied every which way. Furthermore, it will feed up to
twelve. if it's served over macaroni, rice, or corn chips.
A big green salad is called for, as well as hard rolls and
red wine.


Is from this book:

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Ⓒ1966 Ann Rogers
Charles Scribner's Sons

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Change is illusory, Belief is a waste of Reason.

"While millions who voted for Obama hoped the self-declared candidate of “change” would represent a break from the Bush administration, Obama has pursued a reactionary agenda in every aspect of domestic and foreign policy.
"...According to New York Times columnist David Brooks, no newly elected American president has ever seen such a rapid and steep decline in the polls."

Obama’s poll numbers plummet


Monday, August 31, 2009

So...


You didn't believe me when I told you I used to be gorgeous!
(Found in a pile of water-damaged photographs.)


Sunday, August 30, 2009

Ali Akbar Khan


Isn't it odd how the memory works? This morning, taking a shower, I suddenly thought, "Ali Akbar Khan, who's that?" It's such a great name - rolls off your tongue - and it's loaded with vague 70's recollections. My second thought was Ravi Shankar, but that would mean sitar and Ali Akbar Khan sounds so... Persian. What do I know?! So I, of course, looked him up in Wikipedia and, lo:

In 1971 Khan performed at the Madison Square Garden for the Concert for Bangladesh along with Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty; other musicians at the concert included Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. An album and a movie of the concert were later released.

He was born in Bangladesh in 1922 and died just this June 18th, thus proving that Jung was right, we do share a synchronous unconscious!


Saturday, August 29, 2009

Autumnal

I’ve been pretty glib and uncommunicative this summer, gentle reader. It’s kind of you to keep coming back, under the circumstances. But I did get the floor painted, which was the main focus of my summer-burst-of-energy, and managed to extend it into making the kitchen more livable, with a full list of things still to do... next summer. Since then, I’ve been trying to re-intellectualize myself by working on the basic structure of an organization for the hundreds of photographs I’ve inherited. The results of that can be seen at Pomoto (in the sidebar). That, I think, is under control now, although there are still unopened boxes, piled in the basement. I’ve begun using MacJournal both as a place to get myself more involved in writing again, and as an informal connection to this blog, with this entry as the first official example. It doesn’t seem to handle formatting very well, although it is wonderfully fast.

Summer in Sweden is winding down. Most kids are on their way back to school and the tourist mob has dwindled to the point where, individually, they’ve become interesting again. It’s nice to walk around town without getting angry. Fall in Visby is like the pleasure of Spring in reverse. Now the astonishing beauty is tinged with apprehension of Winter. One can still leave the house in shirt-sleeves, but it’s probably prudent to carry a sweater. The rains come in a fairly regular weekly pattern, until they become the dominant aspect and the sky goes steel-gray for Winter. This is the time of year when everyone in my apartment building gathers in the garden to rake leaves, prune bushes, and store furniture - one of four annual events. Swedes are very good about this kind of cooperative rhythm - it gives the year a structure. It’s easier to face the terror of the Future together in small incremental steps.

In case you weren't paying attention...

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"And there you have it, a “cybersecurity” blacklist to accompany a potential state takeover of the Internet during a “national emergency.” What will they think of next!" (emphasis mine)

Obama Administration Seeks “Emergency Control” of the Internet,
by Tom Burghardt / August 29th, 2009

Image from The Technium

Friday, August 28, 2009

The miracle of paint.

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This is another odd composite photograph (don’t look too closely) which I assembled to overcome the disadvantages of small space and smaller camera. But it gives a pretty good idea of the colors - more accurate here than in earlier attempts - and the almost immediate accumulation of dust-bunnies and fingerprints... a housewife’s work is NEVER done! However, for once in my life, I seem to be in an almost civilized apartment, rather than an encampment or a construction zone. It feels okay. Even the houseplants seem happy!

Test

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Dead Cow Mystery


A number of cows have died on the Baltic island of Gotland, leaving vets baffled as to the cause. According to the local newspaper, Gotlands Allehanda, the deaths have been caused by some kind of poisoning, but so far tests for the usual contaminants have proven negative.

Scientists are now testing soil and water samples, with the results expected in a fortnight's time.

Local vet, Annika Melin, told the newspaper she has never seen anything like it for two decades.

Sveriges Radio International - English -- Engelska


Thursday, August 27, 2009

Monday, August 17, 2009

No matter what you believe...

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You should watch this. clic-pic to go to YouTube

If you haven't...


...checked out Wooster Collective, you should. pic-clic


Rats, I missed it again...


This is is eighth Stockholm Pride I've missed since I've lived here. I made it once, in 2002, but pretty much walked around alone, lost and inarticulate. And I still don't know any Stockholmare who might invite me to join them - my social skills are rapidly diminishing in this glorious solitude. Especially true, inasmuch as Stockholmare have become those awful tourists who make Visby virtually unlivable for two months every year (but I don't really hold it against them - you should see our beaches!) which I spend hiding in my apartment.

Pictured above are Mark Levengood and Jonas Gardell, one of, if not the most well-known Swedish (Finnish) gay couples, each a celebrity in his own right, and really pretty cool when you consider they're both almost my age and bald! The picture is by Åsikstorped, introduced to me (digitally) by Francis Strand, via Gaybloggar.se


Sunday, August 16, 2009

Saturday, August 15, 2009

American Conundrum

The problem of voting for the "lesser of two evils"

is that you can only get EVIL.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Schadenfreude

Cheney’s secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots were creepy and nasty and evil.


But the Obama crew’s secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots were, the President assures us, in the public interest.


We know Cheney’s secret confabs were shady and corrupt because Cheney scowled out the side of his mouth.


Obama grins in your face.


See the difference?


The difference is 2%.

link: Dissident Voice : Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?

(Schadenfreude, Dudley, or is it simply "I told you so...")

Thursday, August 13, 2009

My alter ego...


Le Perkins (not those other ones...) before Hitchcock made him synonymous with psychotic. And, of course, there's the Vespa...

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Hugo's Yellow Peas & Chicken


1 cup dried yellow peas
1 chicken breast
1 sm. can mushroom parts
1 sm. onion
2 cloves garlic
1 can coconut milk (partial)

Cook dried beans for 1 1⁄2 hours in 1 litre of water. Drain.
Place in covered casserole.
Sauté onion and garlic in butter,
add mushrooms and season to taste,
Add to casserole.
Quickly brown diced chicken in same pan and add to casserole.
Add 1⁄3 cup of coconut milk.
Mix everything together lightly,
Place in oven and bake for 1⁄2 hour.


Monday, August 10, 2009

Land of the free, home of the brave...

As the economic crisis continues to intensify, scores of US cities are enacting undemocratic laws that criminalize homelessness and trample on the rights of the growing number of homeless individuals and families who reside in these cities, according to a report released last month.

link: US cities criminalize homelessness


Friday, August 7, 2009

COMING NIGHT

It darkens brother
and your crutch tip grinds
the gravel the deer stepped delicately along
one breakfast, you were a kid.
Mother says after thirty
decades clip by
“and then you have the sum”
or spent it.
What was it like when the car
swerved on the ice,
what did you think of,
how long did you wait
in the wreck with the pain?
I see the sumacs by the turning space
turn their lank leaves,
the railway moves to us
and the willows below us
and think of you turning nineteen,
of the deer, the sumac, trains, a wreck.

James Schuyler

(Portrait by Darragh Park)
link: Exit, pursued by a bear


Monday, August 3, 2009

Peculiar panorama


The space in my kitchen is so small, it's difficult to get a reasonable camera perspective on it. Despite appearances, this is one continuous space (and after two months of painting and repair, it feels enormous): the refrigerator is behind the left-hand segment, with the hemispherical lamp; the two burner stove is below. The blue-gray floors, which were the biggest part of the effort, are out of range, except for a tiny pentagon in the hallway (far right). I would like to be able to say it's done, but I can immediately think of four medium-sized projects still-to-do. Click pic for full effect!


En andra syn..


Selma Lagerlof's The Wonderful Adventures of Nils
illustrated by Mary Hamilton Frye
Published by Doubleday & Co ~ 1913

Thanks to Golden Age Comic Book Stories


Sunday, August 2, 2009

Elsewhere


Forgive me, gentle reader, for being so absent recently. My mind has been, well... elsewhere. It's difficult to concentrate on a blog in summer, when so many other projects press for attention. My kitchen fix-up is in the last stages now: all the little details that take three-times as long as they 'should.' Some, I may just finally decide, will have to be put off until next summer's frenzy. I'm winding down, both enthusiastically and physically. So, pictures of the effort should begin to appear soon, and I will return.

Illustration by N.C. Wyeth from Treasure, 1938 thanks to Golden Age Comic Book Stories


Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Oh, Rupert...

In (his) latest interview, he said the only downside to being childless was not having anyone to "mop you up when you're older".

Well said!

On his own mortality, he said: "I should probably have a fatal heart attack from an overdose of poppers on stage at the National Theatre aged 78. My amethyst rings will be being prised off me by some pretty dresser, and that's about as much attention as I'll get."

Unlikely, who could forget Rupert?

link: Rupert Everett: ‘I don’t want to be part of heterosexual norm’ - from Pink News