söndag 30 december 2007

The blåmes and its characteristics

The suggested new Swedish symbol, introduced in the previous blog entry, will hereafter be referred to as a blåmes (plural blåmesar). The coloring aside, the following characteristics make the blåmes particularly well-suited for the honor of representing Sweden:
  • Intelligent and industrius - The famous example is how blåmesar managed to develop a method for removing caps from milk bottles in order to get to the cream at the top.
  • Sexually equal - Both male and female dress the same, and they share child-rearing duties.
  • Nonmigratory - Secretly knows that Sweden is the best place to live.
  • Dependent on social welfare in harsh times - Many blåmesar wouldn't survive the winter without human intervention. Bird feeding in the winter has allowed the blåmesar to settle much farther north than would've been otherwise possible.
Link.

torsdag 27 december 2007

Sweden needs a new symbol

The beautiful blue-and-yellow creature depicted above would make a perfect symbol for Sweden. Unfortunately it has such silly names in both English and Swedish. I wonder which strategy has the highest likelihood of success:
  • embrace silliness; or
  • try to bring about a name change.

fredag 21 december 2007

FAQ

Most frequently asked question in Japan: How tall are you?
Most frequently asked question in Sweden: Do you speak Japanese?