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All about Scandanavia, Norway, geography, the price of chicken in France et al.


LaFontaineToMogilny

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Posted

And Florida would be?

 

On a related note. Rumors are that Norway continues to reject membership in the European Union for the sole reason that the exclusion of Norway on the Euro coins makes Sweden and Finland look like a ###### and balls.

 

8715.jpg

Posted

Courtesy of Monty Python:

 

Finland, Finland, Finland.

The country where I want to be,

Pony trekking or camping,

Or just watching TV.

Finland, Finland, Finland,

It's the country for me.

 

You're so near to Russia,

So far from Japan.

Quite a long way from Cairo,

Lots of miles from Vietnam.

 

Finland, Finland, Finland.

The country where I want to be,

Eating breakfast or dinner,

Or snack lunch in the hall.

Finland, Finland, Finland,

Finland has it all.

 

You're so sadly neglected,

And often ignored,

A poor second to Belgium,

When going abroad.

 

Finland, Finland, Finland.

The country where I quite want to be,

Your mountains so lofty,

Your treetops so tall.

Finland, Finland, Finland,

Finland has it all.

 

Finland, Finland, Finland.

The country where I quite want to be,

Your mountains so lofty,

Your treetops so tall.

Finland, Finland, Finland,

Finland has it all.

Finland has it all...

Posted

The avg American consumes 17.9 LBS of Bacon per year (a tenth of a pound more than the avg Brit), so yeah, that works.

 

Fact of the day toilet paper?

Posted

Sorry for further derailing, but you can not include Finland and not include Iceland as Iceland is much closer tied to Scandinavia then Finland. I came over myself (on a plane though) and I can assure you that in the countries in question, there is a very clear distinction between Scandinavia and The Nordic Countries.

 

As a born and bred Scandinavian I'd say it makes as much sense to say Finland is part of Scandinavia as Quebec is part of The United States.

Do you guys want them? If so, they are all yours. We can make a deal, we will send you "La Belle Province" for your 3rd rounder and a state to be named later (not one of those southern backwards family lovin' ones though). We may accept Alaska if you guys promise to keep Palin.............
Posted

my only "contribution" (gotta have the air quotes there):

 

one hundred swedes, they ran ...

at the battle of copenhagen.

one hundred swedes, they ran ...

chased ... by one norwegian***

 

*** pronounced to me as nor-wagon. this was a little couplet that an old drinking buddy of mine (who looked like a viking) would reliably trot out after about 11 beers.

 

/ducks

/hides

/changes name

/realizes too late that no one actually gives a sh!t about this post.

Posted

my only "contribution" (gotta have the air quotes there):

 

one hundred swedes, they ran ...

at the battle of copenhagen.

one hundred swedes, they ran ...

chased ... by one norwegian***

 

*** pronounced to me as nor-wagon. this was a little couplet that an old drinking buddy of mine (who looked like a viking) would reliably trot out after about 11 beers.

 

/ducks

/hides

/changes name

/realizes too late that no one actually gives a sh!t about this post.

 

Well, I like it. Had an old drinking buddy (may he RIP) who would get a few in him and bust out into his rendition of the Norwegian national anthem. Regardless of bar or other venue, it was always hysterical.

 

The Vikings and Bee Keepers!

The Vikings and Bee Keepers!

 

Nothin' like an obscure SCTV reference I always say!

 

GO SABRES!!!

Posted

Fine, I'll just start my own splinter thread "All about Sweden" since that's off limits here.

Can I start an "All about Sealand" thread?

Posted

The avg American consumes 17.9 LBS of Bacon per year (a tenth of a pound more than the avg Brit), so yeah, that works.

 

Do the Brits eat American bacon or Canadian bacon?

Posted

It is NOT fine! Anyone wanting to include Iceland or Finland in Scandinavia are wrong. They are wronger to include Finland though, since they speak a language that isn't even remotely related to Scandinavian languages, at least Icelandic has evolved from the same common root as Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.

Well, if you want to split hairs, Scotland and Ireland are a part of the British Isles, yet their native tongues are not English. There's Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic. However, given the very long and very turbulent history between the English, the Scots, and the Irish, both Scotland and Ireland are bilingual. I hazard to guess that there are some people in both Scotland and Ireland who resent the presence of the English. (What makes it even worse is that Scotland and England are connected to the same landmass like Finland and Sweden are - so there's no real way that they can get away from each other. If you think the War Between the States was bad, North and South have nothing on the centuries-long acrimony between Finland & Sweden or Scotland & England.)

Posted

It's a beautiful part of the world.

 

My wife and I went to visit her sister in Copenhagen about 25 years ago. What I remember most was when we were in Oslo (took a Scandinavian Seaways barge up there) we each had a beer in a nice square and they were around $20 (Canadian) each. Needless to say we nursed those beers and did have any more.

 

I don't recall what the smokes cost, but very expensive too.

 

^ I'm pretty sure Scotland and Ireland are Nordic countries.

 

Like Canada.

 

GO SABRES!!!

 

We don't call our great country "The Great White North" for nothing, eh!

Posted

Well, if you want to split hairs, Scotland and Ireland are a part of the British Isles, yet their native tongues are not English. There's Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic. However, given the very long and very turbulent history between the English, the Scots, and the Irish, both Scotland and Ireland are bilingual. I hazard to guess that there are some people in both Scotland and Ireland who resent the presence of the English. (What makes it even worse is that Scotland and England are connected to the same landmass like Finland and Sweden are - so there's no real way that they can get away from each other. If you think the War Between the States was bad, North and South have nothing on the centuries-long acrimony between Finland & Sweden or Scotland & England.)

 

Just like Scotland is not England, so Finland is not Scandinavia. Scandinavia is called Scandinavia because the countries of Scandinavia all speak a form of a Scandinavian language, which is it's own language group that includes Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. Icelandic is it's own language that has evolved out of the Scandinavian languages. Finnish has never had anything to do with Scandinavian languages. People who speak Norwegian, Swedish or Danish can understand the two other languages. At least in theory, not even the Danes understand Danish.

 

 

So, that is the end of the story. If the country is not Norway, Sweden or Denmark, then it is not in Scandinavia. It doesn't matter how people feel about it or what they want to be the case. A fact is a fact and Finland is not Scandinavian.

Posted

The funny thing is that probably the most famous Finn in the World, Linus Torvalds, spoke

Swedish as his first language. For something like 500 years (until 1917), Swedish was

the official language of Finland. Considering this, and the fact that Finland is a part

of the greater Fenno-Scandinavian landmass, I think that it is not unreasonable to

link Finland to Scandinavia.

 

As for Norway, again for about 500 years, Norway was unified with Danmark. That's

why Norwegian has two varieties today: Bokmal and Nynorsk. Bokmal being the more

Danish influenced variety of the language.

Posted

The funny thing is that probably the most famous Finn in the World, Linus Torvalds, spoke

Swedish as his first language. For something like 500 years (until 1917), Swedish was

the official language of Finland. Considering this, and the fact that Finland is a part

of the greater Fenno-Scandinavian landmass, I think that it is not unreasonable to

link Finland to Scandinavia.

 

As for Norway, again for about 500 years, Norway was unified with Danmark. That's

why Norwegian has two varieties today: Bokmal and Nynorsk. Bokmal being the more

Danish influenced variety of the language.

 

Nynorsk is a purely constructed language that was basically developed by one man in 1848. It's based of various dialects spoken in Norway, but is still a constructed and not a naturally evolved language (at least not yet?) Bokmål is the naturally evolved variation of Norwegian that was heavily influenced by all officials needing to speak (or at least write) Danish for 400 years. Nynorsk was constructed as a response to the perceived Danification of Norwegian culture after the Union between Denmark and Norway broke up in 1814.

Posted

Niklas Oskar Bäckström of the Minnesota Wild is listed in Wikipedia as a Swedish speaking Finn.

Also, there was Tomas Sandström who was born in Finland, but grew up in Sweden and represented

Sweden internationally. Any others?

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