You won't tell on me, will you?

[Guest]

I just might do that. Test the waters, so to speak. If you guys fly off the wall, then I know that I need to tone down my communistic visions somewhat.

Flicka, do write something. And I think you SHOULD make them (I do not call myself an American except by geography) fly off the wall.

Perdita

 

[ffreak]

Do you know how much work you have to do to please ONE woman, before she'll even let you in her bed? (Washing dirty dishes, doing laundry, buy groceries, vacuum-clean the livingroom, clean the oven...) Now multiply that by 12...

When you finally get into that bed, you won't have any energy left!

Now, see I have solutions to these:

dirty dishes - who needs dishes - and there are tongues,
laundry - not if you don't wear clothes,
buy groceries - it's supposed to be stocked - we're trapped,
vacuum-clean the livingroom - too cold for dust to come in,
clean the oven - just what I had in mind,

Now multiply that by 12...

Ok, you win, wouldn't last that long.

But I can dream.

 

[TheEarl]

I'm seriously considering moving in with him, but I'm still not sure. I mean, Sweden used to be socialistic, and now it's going more and more towards the conservativeliberal edge. USA has never even PRETENDED to be anything but conservativeliberal.

Earl, as for the living on benefits... If the companies refuse to give you anything but a part-time job, on which your salary will be evern lower than the benefit-money... then why would anyone scrub toilets, fry burgers, or wipe old people's butts, when they will get as little money from staying home and watching soap operas?

That's why the benefit is so low. The social services want people to be so unhappy about their low benefit that they will try to find a job to make a decent salary.
Problem is, there ARE no such jobs anymore.

Welcome to Catch 22.

Svenska: Come move to England. We have a government that is technically left-wing, but in reality it's slap down the centre. They're half-hearted about their ideals and never fully commit to anything for fear of offending someone. Sounds like you wouldn't get too homesick.

I can only speak about the benefit situation in England, but people don't have any motivation to go and do the menial jobs, but they also don't see the point in improving so that they can go for better paid jobs. They're getting free money. Why should they change that?

I have a friend who is a teacher and she told me about this child in one of her classes. Half the time this child seems nicely financially supported and half the time she's on free school dinners and struggling to have money for school trips. It turns out that she only has one parent - her dad - and he finds it very hard to keep a job. The only jobs he can get are minimum wage. Yet as soon as he is offered one, he gets off the social and works his arse off trying to make money. He actually makes less money working than he would from the social, due to taxes and loss of benefits, but he still takes the jobs and works his arse off. He doesn't want to depend on the system and most of all he doesn't want his daughter to grow up thinking that it's okay to depend on the system.

I have a lot of respect for that man.

The Earl

 

[gauchecritic]

I'm really glad I wasn't here this week for this thread. If you don't think much of me now you all would definitely hate me if I'd replied to any of these posts. Politics? We don't need no stinking politics.

Gauche

I'd rather be poor in Europe than the US. I'd rather have positive government than the government I deserve. I'd much rather the Euro so I can see exactly how the thieving, greedy, multinational bastards are ripping me off. I'd rather do something I like for nothing than be paid for something I hate.

In the 70s there was a saying: We pay taxes for our health and welfare and to keep the lame and lazy.

But then, that was when we paid proper taxes.

When I was in the Party (yes you can blame me for Tony but then I really didn't want to see my wife cry again on election night out of frustration and fear of yet another capitalist Tory government) I remember a supposedly staunch socialist (teacher [phys. ed. small excuse]) espousing that he'd much rather be taxed on what he bought than what he earned. That was the closest I have ever come to actually punching anyone.

 

[Lovepotion69]

I want to write a column highlighting Sweden to the Swedes. From someone who was born there, but didn't find her missing pieces until moving abroad, and also got to see her home country in a new light.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Problem is, Earl, that England is like its houses - pretty and charming viewed from the front, while the back yard is an awful mess.

I saw that when I was in London this summer.

 

[ffreak]

Hey Flicka, sounds like LovePotion is volunteering to me. Keep it up and you'll have a complete staff on your hands.

 

[SlickTony]

If we join the EMU, I'll seek political asyl in the US.

So do it already. You're already married to an American. Y'all two get together, and our unemployment rate is lower than yours. Everybody wins.

Actually, the emu is not an extinct bird. There might not be as many of them as there once were, but you can not only find them in zoos, there was a trend a few years back to breed them for meat, on account of emu meat was supposed to be a very healthy meat, nice and lean. However, I've never gotten a chance to eat any of it, although I'll try almost anything once. I've just never run across any in the butcher shops I frequent. And I don't think the emu-as-meat movement ever got off the ground probably because people were stopped by the initial $8 per pound price and it must not have been judged delicious enough to create a demand which would result in an increase in supply which would in turn drop the prices.

There were people in Louisiana, where I used to live, who were hoping to make money from the scheme. I used to occasionally drive past an emu farm in Cameron Parish.

 

[TheEarl]

Problem is, Earl, that England is like its houses - pretty and charming viewed from the front, while the back yard is an awful mess.

I saw that when I was in London this summer.

Svenska: I would come and see the SE and SW of England before making a judgement. London is almost a completely different country to the rest of England and those two areas are incredibly beautiful if you know where to look.

The Earl

 

[ffreak]

I only did a flyby of those areas last year, but from the plane at least, there were lots and lots of woods.

 

[gauchecritic]

Svenska: I would come and see the SE and SW of England before making a judgement. London is almost a completely different country to the rest of England and those two areas are incredibly beautiful if you know where to look.

The Earl

Also, (never miss an op.) try The North, the place whereof is asked the question "And was Jerusalem builded here, in England's green and pleasant land?" (From the hymn 'And did those feet' more egregiously known as 'Jerusalem' which is the title of a song. Hymns are known by their first line they don't have titles)

Gauche

 

[Svenskaflicka]

So do it already. You're already married to an American. Y'all two get together, and our unemployment rate is lower than yours. Everybody wins.

We're not legally wed, we're what he calls "commonlaws". In Sweden, we have a word for people who live together as husband and wife without being married, "sambos", but I've learned that outside of Sweden, people look shocked when I introduce my black husband to them and tell them that he's my "sambo"... Go figures...

But, as we don't live together, we're "särbos", which means "people who although they don't actually live TOGETHER, live as husband and wife even though they're not really married".


Sweden - it's faaaaaaaaaantastic!

 

[Guest]

Sweden - it's faaaaaaaaaantastic!

Svenska, do you know why Sambo gets that reaction? I'll tell you if you don't.

-----------
Gaucheman: your Northerness reminds me of something my former Sh're prof. told me t'other day. In the Wakefield Cycle's "Second Shepherd's Play" a character, perhaps the 2nd shepherd, can't recall now, says insultingly to another, "A turd in your Southern eye!"

Purr

 

[Svenskaflicka]

It's a racistic word, right?

It just doesn't mean anything like that in Swedish. SAM comes from SAMMAN = together, and BO=live. SAMBO is short for SAMMANBOENDE, which literally means "living together".

 

[Guest]

There's an old children's book called "Little Black Sambo" which was read to every school child in the U.S. until sometime in the 70s I think. So we grew up knowing it as a name for a black boy, though then the term was colored or negro. Sambo is African and not very smart, and gets chased round a tree by a tiger until he turns into butter (I never got that but it's the story).

So yes, Sambo is a derogatory term now.

Perd

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I think I remember that story! I found mum's story books from the 50'ies, and there was a story about that boy. Now, if I remember correctly, the story ended witht he tiger melting into butter, and S and his parents put the butter on the pancakes they had for dinner, right?

Anyone got a problem with the word särbo?

 

[Guest]

Yes, you're right, I only remembered the butter. Särbo sounds fine, plus if you use it with most English speakers they won't know the diff.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I wonder how people would react if Hubby would introduce me to his family as his sambo...?

 

[Guest]

Idians from India

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I must admit that I didn't get the part about the butter, either. Why did the tiger turn into butter???

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

I wonder how people would react if Hubby would introduce me to his family as his sambo...?

O, Flicka, he must. That would be so gauche*, and then you explain the term very seriously. Well, maybe not to his family, don't know how they are with you two, but definitely to outsider persons (at the office, at a party, etc.)

Perd


Hmmm. I have Gauche on my mind since reading his "word" thread entry. Entry, ooh. Stop it, Perdita.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I saw this movie last week, about a senator who was tired of all the falsaries of politics, and son he went on a tell-the-truth spree, and shocked everyone by not only telling everyone the truth they had only suspected - that neither him nor his fellow politicians give a damned about common man, as common man is just a poor, uneducated schmuck who can't afford to bribe him - but also by rapping the truth, dressed as a gangster.
By the end of the movie, he has won the election, and people are talking about making him the president. He then turns to his new girlfriend, a black woman about half his own age, and says that he's afraid that she will get tired of him, as he's white. She puts her hand on his cheek and says:
"Awww, baby - you know that you're my nigger!"

First time that a MOVIE has ever rendered me speechless.

I just sat and stared at the screen, trying to realize what she had just said.

Anyone but me get what's wrong with that scene..?

 

[Guest]

Anyone but me get what's wrong with that scene..?

Flicka, I'd have to see the movie, the whole context and style of it. I can see it working but I can't tell really.

Perd

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I don't remember the title, but it was something along the lines of "Senator Bullwinkle", or something like that.