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STRANGE HOLIDAY EVENTS
ICELAND EXPRESS - In a country of bizarre traditions, one of the
craziest has to be the putrid skate party. Every year on Porlaksmessa,
23 December, Icelanders get together and eat skate that has been sitting
in a closed container and allowed to ferment for about a month. By that
time it has a smell that can clear your sinuses from a mile away, and
that is very reminiscent of cat piss.
Predictably, not everyone is partial to this tradition. It's kind of a
macho thing. Men seem to be more prone to imbibing putrid skate than
women . . . In fact, groups of men will get together in the afternoon
to eat the stuff in unison. This will usually involve copious amounts of
brennivin (a schnapps appropriately nicknamed Black Death) because,
well, you'll drink anything to get the stuff down. Very often these
skate-fests take place in restaurants or garages for the simple reason
that, if cooked in a kitchen, the prevailing smell during the holiest of
all holy festivals will be less like cinnamon and spice and more like
urine.
Supposedly, eating putrid skate originated in Iceland's West Fjords,
where the wealthy gave it to their workers so that anything – anything
at all – would taste better in the aftermath.
http://blog.icelandexpress.com/iceland/2007/12/24/putrid-fish-for-beginners/
STUFF NZ -A gang of drunken Santas caused chaos in a Christchurch cinema
at the weekend, barging customers, damaging property and swearing. The
crowd - thought by police to be students - descended on the Hoyts Cinema
on Moorhouse Avenue. Kate Gorman, 35, said she was waiting to see the
film Enchanted with her two children when the trouble started. "At least
50 drunk idiots dressed up like Santa came in through the main door,"
she said. "They were kicking things over, ripping down posters and
smashing everything in sight.". . .
"They were all dressed as Santa and shouting `Ho f...... ho'," said
Gorman.
Her children, Gabriella, six, and Jackson, seven, had been confused by
the incident, she said. "They asked me, 'Are they Santa's helpers gone
crazy?' and I said `No, they are just idiots'.
He said the public had to leave the cinema for about half an hour while
the Fire Service dealt with the problem. Christchurch police said they
had been called to the incident but no arrests had been made.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4335670a4560.html
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TODAY'S UPDATE ON WHERE HILLARY CLINTON STANDS ON IRAQ
"She's flip-flopped so many times, I don't know what her position is. It
changes almost every day," Bill Richardson told CNN. . . Clinton has
long maintained that even after most U.S. troops have been pulled out of
Iraq, some troops would have to remain there - and that they could be
there for several years. But at a town hall event in Elkader, Iowa on
Wednesday, Clinton told a crowd she had consulted with military advisors
on Iraq and that "I think we can bring nearly everybody home, certainly
within a year if we keep at it and do it very steadily."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/12/22/richardson-clinton-has-flip-flopped-on-iraq/
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STRANGE HOLIDAY EVENTS
ICELAND EXPRESS - In a country of bizarre traditions, one of the
craziest has to be the putrid skate party. Every year on Porlaksmessa,
23 December, Icelanders get together and eat skate that has been sitting
in a closed container and allowed to ferment for about a month. By that
time it has a smell that can clear your sinuses from a mile away, and
that is very reminiscent of cat piss.
Predictably, not everyone is partial to this tradition. It's kind of a
macho thing. Men seem to be more prone to imbibing putrid skate than
women . . . In fact, groups of men will get together in the afternoon
to eat the stuff in unison. This will usually involve copious amounts of
brennivin (a schnapps appropriately nicknamed Black Death) because,
well, you'll drink anything to get the stuff down. Very often these
skate-fests take place in restaurants or garages for the simple reason
that, if cooked in a kitchen, the prevailing smell during the holiest of
all holy festivals will be less like cinnamon and spice and more like
urine.
Supposedly, eating putrid skate originated in Iceland's West Fjords,
where the wealthy gave it to their workers so that anything – anything
at all – would taste better in the aftermath.
http://blog.icelandexpress.com/iceland/2007/12/24/putrid-fish-for-beginners/
STUFF NZ -A gang of drunken Santas caused chaos in a Christchurch cinema
at the weekend, barging customers, damaging property and swearing. The
crowd - thought by police to be students - descended on the Hoyts Cinema
on Moorhouse Avenue. Kate Gorman, 35, said she was waiting to see the
film Enchanted with her two children when the trouble started. "At least
50 drunk idiots dressed up like Santa came in through the main door,"
she said. "They were kicking things over, ripping down posters and
smashing everything in sight.". . .
"They were all dressed as Santa and shouting `Ho f...... ho'," said
Gorman.
Her children, Gabriella, six, and Jackson, seven, had been confused by
the incident, she said. "They asked me, 'Are they Santa's helpers gone
crazy?' and I said `No, they are just idiots'.
He said the public had to leave the cinema for about half an hour while
the Fire Service dealt with the problem. Christchurch police said they
had been called to the incident but no arrests had been made.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4335670a4560.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TODAY'S UPDATE ON WHERE HILLARY CLINTON STANDS ON IRAQ
"She's flip-flopped so many times, I don't know what her position is. It
changes almost every day," Bill Richardson told CNN. . . Clinton has
long maintained that even after most U.S. troops have been pulled out of
Iraq, some troops would have to remain there - and that they could be
there for several years. But at a town hall event in Elkader, Iowa on
Wednesday, Clinton told a crowd she had consulted with military advisors
on Iraq and that "I think we can bring nearly everybody home, certainly
within a year if we keep at it and do it very steadily."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/12/22/richardson-clinton-has-flip-flopped-on-iraq/
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