Monday, October 14, 2002
Dale: Our Second-Ever Installment of Reader Mail.
Organized by Topic:
A. Norway/Norwegians.
1. I stand corrected.
"Humbly beggin' yer pardon sir, but I think the simile
"folded up like a cheap suit"
is slightly off. I believe it is either 'folded like a bad hand' or 'unraveled like a cheap suit', though in any case, it does describe a country that makes France look like it really should belong on the Security Council."
2. "I was steered to your site this evening by Rod Dreher at The Corner, National Review Online. Your comments about the nautical rabbit/Nobel Prize/former president connections were on target, as were your observations about Norway, cradle of Scandinavian arrogance. I once worked for a Norwegian company and was required to travel to Oslo. Older Norwegians were friendlier and many spoke English. The younger Norskes were not nearly as friendly and rarely spoke English in our presence, unless required to do so for business reasons. Hospitality, we soon learned, was to be found on the other side of the North Sea. One thing that I noticed particularly was how many Norwegians in my company referred to themselves as vikings and to us Americans as cowboys. This was back in the 1980's, but it does not seem that things have changed much. Quisling, the label, has dropped from cultural consciousness, apparently. A viking would "kick (us) on the leg", whereas a quisling would only bite us on the ankle. Hey, hey, yah, yah! An observer at the time of my travels, and I wish I could recall his/her name, noted that the Norwegians sent their socialists to Oslo to run the country, but sent their kroner to Wall Street. I do not believe that has changed much. Your comments about Norway and Norwegians brought back some memories, and I thank you for that."
3. This one was sent in large point bold.:
"Norwegian patriots working with British Intelligence (and against overwhelming odds) destroyed Hitler's heavy water project just before it reached fruition. See, eg, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-1945."
4. "I liked your Norwegian writeup, too. I have friends and relatives in Sweden and have visited them a dozen
times. They seem to treat Norwegians like Michigan Trolls treat U-Pers, or New England treats people from
Maine."
B. Light Beer!
1. "You may know all about this, but the first lite beer was made and marketed by the Peter Hand Brewery here in Chicago. They had the same trademark logo that Miller uses today. They were struggling to save their brewery so came up with the idea of selling more beer to women with the argument that 'it wouldn't make them fat.'
Well, that campaign went nowhere, and what was left of Peter Hand was bought out by Miller. Miller took a long step back and thot way out of the box and came up with the concept, pitched directly to men, forget women: `If you dring our lite beer you can drink more
beer and not get any fatter than you already are.` The rest is history."
2. "I'm on a low-carb diet, and also like the _occasional_ beer, so I was pleased to read an article about Michelob coming out with a low-carb beer. It also mentioned that Miller Lite is low carb. A bottle has 2 or 3 grams of grams while on the diet I'm allowed at least 20 grams a day, so it's not a big deal. I give Michelob credit for picking up on this trend in dieting. Very few other mainstream food suppliers (e.g. restaurants) have."
C. Richard "What's a little fondling between rationalists?" Dawkins.
1. An excellent blog from Espana, by Xavier Basora.
2. "I am, however, more interested in the comments of Richard Dawkins, alleged religious thinker. Should Dawkins turn out to be the resolute rationalist that he represents himself to be (atheism = rationalism), then he should understand that he is not an atheist but an agnostic. His case of disbelief is serious, but not terminal. If Dawkins does not know everything that can be known (and I am not aware that he asserts otherwise), he allows for the possiblity that one of the things that he does not know is whether God exists. The mere possibility of God's existence becomes the rational view. Hence, Dawkins is an agnostic, for an atheist could not concede the existence of such a possibility."
3. "I found your weblog from a link on Instapundit. Normally when I follow a link to a weblog I haven't seen before, I like to scroll down and read a couple of days worth of entries. I was surprised to read what you said about Richard Dawkins. I had seen a link to the story a couple of days ago, but I didn't read it because Dawkins' opinions on religion are, shall we say, predictable. But surely history has proven that no world view or ideology has a monopoly on violence. People have committed Christian-inspired murder as readily as any other kind. It is ultimately not religion or its lack that cause murder; it is human nature."
As a Catholic, I could not agree more.
This sucker's long enough. More later.
Organized by Topic:
A. Norway/Norwegians.
1. I stand corrected.
"Humbly beggin' yer pardon sir, but I think the simile
"folded up like a cheap suit"
is slightly off. I believe it is either 'folded like a bad hand' or 'unraveled like a cheap suit', though in any case, it does describe a country that makes France look like it really should belong on the Security Council."
2. "I was steered to your site this evening by Rod Dreher at The Corner, National Review Online. Your comments about the nautical rabbit/Nobel Prize/former president connections were on target, as were your observations about Norway, cradle of Scandinavian arrogance. I once worked for a Norwegian company and was required to travel to Oslo. Older Norwegians were friendlier and many spoke English. The younger Norskes were not nearly as friendly and rarely spoke English in our presence, unless required to do so for business reasons. Hospitality, we soon learned, was to be found on the other side of the North Sea. One thing that I noticed particularly was how many Norwegians in my company referred to themselves as vikings and to us Americans as cowboys. This was back in the 1980's, but it does not seem that things have changed much. Quisling, the label, has dropped from cultural consciousness, apparently. A viking would "kick (us) on the leg", whereas a quisling would only bite us on the ankle. Hey, hey, yah, yah! An observer at the time of my travels, and I wish I could recall his/her name, noted that the Norwegians sent their socialists to Oslo to run the country, but sent their kroner to Wall Street. I do not believe that has changed much. Your comments about Norway and Norwegians brought back some memories, and I thank you for that."
3. This one was sent in large point bold.:
"Norwegian patriots working with British Intelligence (and against overwhelming odds) destroyed Hitler's heavy water project just before it reached fruition. See, eg, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-1945."
4. "I liked your Norwegian writeup, too. I have friends and relatives in Sweden and have visited them a dozen
times. They seem to treat Norwegians like Michigan Trolls treat U-Pers, or New England treats people from
Maine."
B. Light Beer!
1. "You may know all about this, but the first lite beer was made and marketed by the Peter Hand Brewery here in Chicago. They had the same trademark logo that Miller uses today. They were struggling to save their brewery so came up with the idea of selling more beer to women with the argument that 'it wouldn't make them fat.'
Well, that campaign went nowhere, and what was left of Peter Hand was bought out by Miller. Miller took a long step back and thot way out of the box and came up with the concept, pitched directly to men, forget women: `If you dring our lite beer you can drink more
beer and not get any fatter than you already are.` The rest is history."
2. "I'm on a low-carb diet, and also like the _occasional_ beer, so I was pleased to read an article about Michelob coming out with a low-carb beer. It also mentioned that Miller Lite is low carb. A bottle has 2 or 3 grams of grams while on the diet I'm allowed at least 20 grams a day, so it's not a big deal. I give Michelob credit for picking up on this trend in dieting. Very few other mainstream food suppliers (e.g. restaurants) have."
C. Richard "What's a little fondling between rationalists?" Dawkins.
1. An excellent blog from Espana, by Xavier Basora.
2. "I am, however, more interested in the comments of Richard Dawkins, alleged religious thinker. Should Dawkins turn out to be the resolute rationalist that he represents himself to be (atheism = rationalism), then he should understand that he is not an atheist but an agnostic. His case of disbelief is serious, but not terminal. If Dawkins does not know everything that can be known (and I am not aware that he asserts otherwise), he allows for the possiblity that one of the things that he does not know is whether God exists. The mere possibility of God's existence becomes the rational view. Hence, Dawkins is an agnostic, for an atheist could not concede the existence of such a possibility."
3. "I found your weblog from a link on Instapundit. Normally when I follow a link to a weblog I haven't seen before, I like to scroll down and read a couple of days worth of entries. I was surprised to read what you said about Richard Dawkins. I had seen a link to the story a couple of days ago, but I didn't read it because Dawkins' opinions on religion are, shall we say, predictable. But surely history has proven that no world view or ideology has a monopoly on violence. People have committed Christian-inspired murder as readily as any other kind. It is ultimately not religion or its lack that cause murder; it is human nature."
As a Catholic, I could not agree more.
This sucker's long enough. More later.
