Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Legally Blond


I really don‘t know what to tell you today, as most of what has grabbed my attention lately is a bit odd and feels ridiculous when typed out. But seeing as ridiculous can sometimes be fun, as long as one is not an active participant, I will give you a few examples.

A man from China wants to buy up 0,3% of Iceland. He is an investor intending to build a luxury hotel and a golf course in the middle of nowhere, far up in the north of the country. The land in question is 300 km2 and is called Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum – which loosely translates to English as Grims place in the Mountains. A hot debate ensued, Side A saying that we should not sell such big chunks land to foreigners and Side B welcoming the investment. It should be noted that Iceland actively seeks investors from abroad but the chinch is that we don’t really want them to invest in anything worth investing in. Bluntly put we want their money for nothing. This has not really panned out understandably.

Funny thing about investing here, namely that the investors that show interest are never from the European Union. We have had Norwegians, Canadians, Americans, Japanese and now the Chinese – but no representatives from EU countries. I do not have any idea why this is the case, maybe the investors from there have the nerve to want to something in return for their Euros. Or they are broke like us.

Another thing noteworthy is a trial over members of a motorcycle gang called the Black Pistons. The name of this group is a mystery, they are certainly not black. But however they came to this name is beside the point, they probably thought it was cool and scary. However their cool and scary reputation has taken a beating lately and I am certain they will be looking for a new name in the near future. Possibly the Green Spark Plugs. But back to the trial which involves two members hijacking and beating up a third that had done something offensive to them. I am at loss to think what they consider offensive so I will not ponder much on that point. Whatever it was it apparently warranted them keeping the guy imprisoned for two days or so under continuous pummeling.

It is very problematic to have a hostage. It is worse than having a dog when it comes to finding people to babysit. Because of this when the leader of the Black Pistons and his lackey needed to go to the hairdressers for a haircut – I must intervene with a mention that it is not my English at fault here, they went to a hairdressers, not a barber – they had to take the hostage with them. Forget about dissing the appointment, dragging a severely beaten man along appeared more logical to them. But they were not 100% stupid and got a lady friend of theirs to come and put makeup over the bruises and scratches on the hostage. She then also went with them to the hairdressers.


It is the lady friend’s testimony that has everyone here smiling. She arrived late to court, told the judge to speak up, said that her visit had been personal and that she would therefore not discuss it, when made aware that her testimony was not in accordance to a taped interview by the police she said that she had "misunderstood herself", told the judge when he kept repeating the questions she did not answer that she was not retarded and she also said that the hostage had been the one to request make-up. And on and on and on. The whole debacle goes under the name “Legally blond” here.

Finally this past weekend (Thursday to Sunday) was the busiest in Iceland’s tourism since forever. Every single hotel room was booked and then some. To help make the matters worse, along came Irene the hurricane and grounded planes full of tourists on their way from Europe to New York. People were put up in homes and in the vacated army base in Keflavík so as not to have to stay on the street. I guess these poor people would have welcomed the opportunity to stay at Grims place in the Mountains and play golf.

Yrsa - Wednesday

3 comments:

  1. Tonight I was peacefully sharing Thai food on a Greek island with folks from Amsterdam and Florida, when the conversation suddenly jumped to Icelandic horses. "Cute" and "furry" were the words most often said by what turned out to be a table full of fans of Iceland. I knew nothing about the breed, and so just quietly listened, unable to contribute a word.

    If only I'd seen your post before dinner, I could have blown them away with my now in-depth knowledge of Black Pistons and Legally Blondes.

    On second thought... :)

    Thanks for keeping us current:)

    --Jeff

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  2. Hi Jeff - too bad, next time maybe. Your comment has given me an idea for next week's installment, namely the Icelandic horse. This way, if you go out to dinner with these people again you can impress with horse knowledge (there is more to them than cute and furry) and throw in some black pistons news as well.

    all the best and see you soon
    Yrsa

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  3. There is a theory that criminals aren't caught because of good police work. They are caught because they are stupid.

    I know nothing about the internal combustion engine but I do know that there are pistons and I assume that because there is oil and gasoline all over the engine, the pistons would be black. So the gangs name is less scary than it is a term that belabors the obvious.

    What is scary is the blond in the picture. She looks as if she could rip someone's head off with very little effort.

    O. Henry is an American writer who gave us the short story, "The Ransom Of Red Chief", published in 1910. Two less-than-Mensa qualified men kidnap the son of the richest man in town. They demand $2000.00 for his return. The little boy only answers to the name "Red Chief" and before long the hostage has taken over. They send the father a note indicating that they are willing to take $1500.00 to return him. The father responds by telling the bad guys that if they want to get Red Chief off their hands, they have to pay the father $250.00 or they have to keep him.

    I had a "Red Chief". I won't identify her but I will say that I believe that anyone who gives their daughter the name Katherine or any of its derivatives, will realize that Shakespeare had some woman of that name in mind when he wrote "The Taming of the Shrew." My Red Chief wasn't demanding or obnoxious. She was just a little person with a very big personality who never found any explanation to any question she posed to satisfy her quest for information. She could wear people down with her two favorite responses to everything: "why?" and "but" as in "but that doesn't answer my question."

    If George Bush can say, "They misunderestimated me", the blond can misunderstand herself. She wasn't in a position to send people off to war.

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