That's How It Happened

36 Hours In Stockholm
I spent Saturday morning through Sunday night enjoying the rainy Swedish capital. I don't think I've ever spent a whole day in Scandinavia without it raining at least twice. Despite my efforts to appear cosmopolitan, I'm not a great international eater. There are several cuisines I would be happy never to taste again: Moroccan, Mexican, Egyptian, most of Sub-Saharan Africa, and maybe Turkish too. However I do love Swedish food. I think maybe the long winters traditionally left them low on firewood, because they don't cook much of their food. Most stuff is either raw or cured. In 36 hours these are the animals I ate raw, or next to raw:

1. Herrings, assorted.
2. Salmon, cured in dill and salt (gravad lax).
3. Scallops, 100% raw.
4. Roe Deer, a really fantastic bloody steak.
5. Reindeer, a cured ham.
6. Roe, all kinds except the expensive endangered Caspian kind.

Next to Japanese, Swedish might be the least cooked cuisine of all. The only raw native (edible) animals I didn't get to try were crayfish (out of season), and bear (unethical).

I bowled back-to-back games of 181 and 180 today. Amateurish, but still a success by my standards. Perusing this article on the manufacture of bowling pins, I was unsurprised that weight for weight the pin factories make more sawdust than pins. However I was very surprised to learn that the sawdust is not wasted: it gets used to make candy.

Rich Hollywood celebs are having more fun than you and I: How do I rent a camel for a private party in LA?

Turlough provides the incredible details of both mad honey and drunk bees.

For US readers who probably missed it, check the story of Alex Ferguson and the Soup. A mystery player (almost certainly Thierry Henry) assaulted Sir Alex with a can of either pea or tomato soup, as they left the pitch on Sunday. I'm not sure if a trans-atlantic parallel can be drawn. It's something like Ken Griffey Jnr squirting Joe Torre with ketchup in a fit of post-match pique.