The
Language Council of Sweden has been the semi-official arbiter of the Swedish language since World War II. It monitors "the development of spoken and written Swedish" and publishes a list of new words each year to ensure consistency of spelling and make sure that Swedish is a "complete language, i.e. [is] possible to use in all areas of society." This year, for the first time, the Council has
taken a word off the list:
ogooglebar, which literally meant "ungoogleable" but was defined as "a thing or person that does not produce relevant results when typed into a search engine."
[more inside]
posted by Etrigan
on Mar 26, 2013 -
43 comments
The festive season is approaching, so it's time for everyone's favorite giant Swedish straw caprid to suffer from repeated attacks. Already ("The front hoof smells of petrol") this year's
goat at Gävle has been attacked. Of the
76 goats to date, 33 have been burnt (includes goats burnt down more than once and goats only partially burnt), 7 vandalised (includes goats thrown in the river), 1 run over and 1 stolen, giving a survival rate of 45%. The goat attracts international attention and attacks; in 2001 a tourist from Cleveland, Ohio was jailed for 18 days [
Swedish] [
English] for igniting the goat. Last year's goat survived to December 2nd (
traumatic video). Gävlebocken is 13 metres tall and consists of 3.6 tonnes of straw. While intact it
tweets, and
blogs in Swedish and English.
[more inside]
posted by Wordshore
on Dec 3, 2012 -
30 comments
The BBC explore the
olfactory delights of
rakfisk, "trout sprinkled with salt and fermented in water for up to a year." But is it as
smelly as
Surströmming, fermented Baltic Herring from neighboring Sweden, or as
extreme as the Icelandic
Hákarl, basking shark buried in a hole and fermented for several months and tasting "similar to very strong cheese slathered in ammonia"?
[more inside]
posted by Wordshore
on Dec 2, 2012 -
52 comments
"
Lots of people write storytelling songs about trains and set it to acoustic music and do pretty harmonies, but First Aid Kit transcends that cliché. Their songs sound like they’ve gone away and seen too much and come back tired but still alive. Their music kind of has its own way of breathing: filled with tension for a little while until it goes over the edge and exhales while the instrumental parts just seem to grow. This part of every few songs of theirs is most thrilling in concert, when Klara plays guitar so intensely you’d think it’s her only way of communicating, while Johanna stands perfectly still and lets her voice carry out so that it seems kind of infinite, or like it’s been waiting to come out for forever, and I kind of can’t help imagining that it comes from under the ground up through her mouth, or that a little part of the sky exists in her diaphragm or something. They can sound like freaking angels, or like women demanding life’s answers and who can make Patti Smith cry."
Tavi interviews First Aid Kit on Rookie [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 14, 2012 -
14 comments
Magazine fetish? Like flipping thru mags when you're bored?
Tidningar lets you look thru a bunch of Swedish mags, page by page, ads and all. Neat if you're into design.
(The link on the left under each mag is full screen--on the right is regular.)
posted by dobbs
on May 18, 2007 -
12 comments
More Scandinavian lunacy. Sure, everyone hates Flash/Shockwave, the pestilence of the Internet, yada yada yada. But everyone loved the
race-track builder, and making your own rock video of an iron-pumping
cow is easy, fun and worth downloading Macromedia plug-ins.
Bonus points for any Finns out there who want to provide a translation.
posted by donkeysuck
on May 10, 2001 -
6 comments
