Sven says:

Happy Burns Night!

svensays — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:36:30 +0000

I just found a Burns singer whom I like very much: Kev Thompson!

Everything in its proper place

svensays — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:36:24 +0000

“This is my dolls’ cemetery. I don’t like dolls. When I am given one I bury it at once”.
Lise Ségur in the film Il y a longtemps que je t’aime by Philippe Claudel, 2008.

Riddarholmen Church

svensays — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:28:52 +0000

Originally founded by the Greyfriars around 1300, it now stands as a monument, containing royal and noble tombs.

It does not end here at all

svensays — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:51:58 +0000

The films about Harry Potter may sink into oblivion, cleverly made adventure films as they are, but the series of books will be a classic. As such it will attract new readers and arouse new comments and new variations on their themes.

Another Scottish election

svensays — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 10:06:03 +0000

On June 30 there was a parliamentary election in UK regarding the constituency of Inverclyde in Scotland, where the MP, from Labour, had died. There is no succession plan for the UK parliament, so when one MP dies, resigns &c, a new one must be elected. The process is called by-election. Labour this time managed to retain the seat, but with much less majority than before. Blame it on the SNP!

People you knew introduce you to people you knew

svensays — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:19:38 +0000

An old literary friend of mine, from the time when I had literary ambition myself, just messed me by a recommendation from another friend whom I met long ago in the world of classical language studies, during the time when I thought of a scholarly career. It turns out that the link between all three of us is an interest in India. This series of coincidences could have happened IRL (as they say), but that would have taken much more time.
Since I started using the internet I always see it as an extended life. You may be unable to see much people because of work or economy, but you can “see” them all anyway. Now go and see these two interesting writers that I have talked about here:
Tomas Löfström of Sweden and Francesca Diano of Italy.
Someday we may meet again – in Chennai?

Success for SNP in the Scottish election

svensays — Sun, 08 May 2011 19:52:50 +0000

In the UK parliament since the 2010 election Labour has 41 of the 59 Scottish seats, and the Scottish National Party has 6. In the election for the Scottish parliament last Thursday SNP got 69 seats out of 129 (a gain of 22) and Labour got 37 (a loss of 9). Tories got 15 (losing 1) and Liberal Democrats got 5 (a loss of 11!). Has there been a great change of political opinions in just one year? Too early to say. But obviously a majority of Scots find it suitable to have a local party in power at home, rather than parties that take their orders from London. And what orders should they take, considering that the majority in London is unstable?

Spring creeping on slowly

svensays — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:22:40 +0000

Around my place there is still a lot of ice and snow, but in a slope to the south I found this:

A tiny support role

svensays — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:30:54 +0000

I watched Juno on TV. Fabulous performance by Ellen Page of course. And still I cannot forget Emily Perkins who is on screen for a minute only, but what a minute!

Gone by boat?

svensays — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:16:41 +0000

This is Sperry Top-Sider, the very classic of boat shoes. Long ago, 1999 maybe, a load of them found its way to an outlet store in Nacka, Sweden, where I live. I bought a pair for 35.00 SEK which was then cheap for canvas shoes and remarkably cheap for a well-known brand. I wonder if the price tags on the boxes were original American ones of 35.00 USD?