Pretty much everything Will Ferrell does is funny — even in Swedish. Ferrell did a series of commercials in Sweden for Old Milwaukee, and in one of them, he even speaks the language. In this clip, taped directly off Swedish television, Ferrell says, “This is my boat. This is my woman. And this is my beer. Old Milwaukee. It OK.” [YouTube]
Bacon is awesome, right? I mean, I’m vegan and don’t eat the stuff, but I can honestly say that my mouth waters every time I smell it. Which is why I am happy to tell you about Squeez Bacon, a real, actual product that consists of partially reconstituted bacon made into an easy-to-spread paste. Developed in Sweden after World War II by a particularly creative chef looking for a new way to process bacon, Squeez Bacon is now available in the U.S. According to its advertising, “Vilhelm Lillefläsk’s Squeez Bacon® is fully cooked 100% bacon. Due to the patented electro-mechanical process by which Squeez Bacon® is rendered, it requires no preservatives or other additives. Each serving is as healthy as real bacon, and equivalent to 4 premium slices of bacon!” Slop some on a burger or use it to flavor your lemonade, no big deal. [$7.99, ThinkGeek]
So maybe you’ve heard about Sweden’s weird Twitter experiment, wherein they’re allowing perfectly average Swedish citizens to take over the country’s Twitter account for a week at a time. The nation’s current national Twitterer is a woman named Sonja, who seems mildly obsessed with Hitler and Jews and “The Little Mermaid.” Don’t believe us? Check out this Tweet…
It all started–as many revolutions do–with a school librarian. Lina Ehrin, a 32-year-old librarian from central Sweden, was in the audience of a national Swedish singing contest when TV cameras captured a shot of her cheering wildly with her arms raised–armpit hair clearly exposed. A fan of the show posted a screengrab of Lina on Facebook, which quickly racked up thousands of angry comments declaring Lina dirty, ugly, and disgusting for choosing not to shave her pits. To combat the hate, a group of young activists created a Facebook event page called Ta Håret Tillbaka! (Take the Hair Back!), where people could voice their support for Lina and post photos of their own body hair. With over 15,000 members and hundreds of photos shared, the movement is quickly gaining momentum. Lina, for one, is shocked at the attention: “I mean, there are wars going on in the world, yet crazy people are sitting here commenting on this … I can’t believe a little bit of hair on a woman is such a big thing.”
So, what do you think of this personal grooming drama? Do you shave your armpits? How often? Would you ever put down your razor to make a statement? [Vice]
You’re on notice, Sweden. You are supposed to be the land of gender equality, meatballs and easy-to-assemble LACK coffee tables. So what is this about a school principal telling a teenaged student who was raped that “guys do this kind of thing, you have to get used to it?” Keep reading »
For some, music isn’t just a hobby, it’s a way of life. Take Swedish heavy metal fan Roger Tullgren. How much does he love heavy metal? So much. In fact, he successfully petitioned the Swedish government to classify his heavy metal obsession as a disability. Now, thanks to an in-depth psychological analysis, the 42-year-old part-time dishwasher receives state benefits and has been granted a special dispensation to play his music at work and attend heavy metal shows during scheduled work hours as long as he makes up the time at a later date. Keep reading »
Most inappropriate Christmas card ever: the boss of a Swedish taxi company emailed holiday greetings to his staff featuring pictures of the company’s secretaries’ bottoms as they bent over in g-strings. According to IceNews, the Orebo taxi boss asked employees to match the secretary to the ass depicted in the photo in a multiple-choice quiz.”We couldn’t believe it. It was not even funny,” a female employee told Swedish newspaper, Nerikes Allehanda. The boss is now being investigated for sexism by the transport workers’ union, who first learned of the email after Christmas (although I wonder if the meaning of “sexism” and “sexual harassment” were lost in translation). And I’m sure you’ll be shocked — shocked! — to hear this guy has allegedly been accused of inappropriate behavior in the past. Try to keep your “Secretary” fantasies out of the office, people. [IceNews] Keep reading »
Sometimes you’re like, wow, when my boyfriend and I are together it feels like we’re the only two people in the world. Yeah, that’s a great idea, but the reality? Kind of frightening. A Swedish couple was long-distance ice skating–which is apparently a thing that you do in Sweden–when a boat broke up the ice floe they were skating on. The boat wake cracked the ice into small patches and stranded the pair. Thankfully, the couple was able to use a cell phone to summon help. They were rescued after just 12 minutes–and the rescue crew took this unbelievable pic of the event. [Gawker] Keep reading »
Usually “burning money” is a figure of speech. But Sweden‘s feminist party literally set fire to $13,000 (or 10,000 Swedish kronar) to symbolize the amount of money women aren’t getting every minute compared to men. An advertising agency donated the $13K, which members of the Feminist Initiative heaped on a BBQ. According to Sweden’s statistics agency, in 2008 the average salary for women was about 19 percent less than for men. Keep reading »
Possibly ruining my appreciation for the noble Swedes and their fine IKEA meatballs, a recent study has found that Swedish men with STDs think their infection is an affirmation of their manliness.
University of Skovde researcher Kina Hammarlund interviewed an unknown group of 16- to 30-year-old men and women for her dissertation and discovered it was only male participants who put on rose-colored glasses, seeing STDs like genital warts or gonorrhea as a rite of passage to manhood. It’s a telling statement about sexuality that men viewed STDs as something positive about their manhood, while women didn’t think it said anything about their womanhood. STDs could imply, even erroneously, that a guy is kind of a stud. But it’s hard to believe anyone would be proud of an STD. Could this study be bulls**t? [The Local via Feministing] Keep reading »
