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And now for something completely different.

Strange and amusing… and then beautiful… and then touching… and then somehow, in the end, strangely moving because innocence is so seldom seen and valued in this constantly coarsening era.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • jwm September 5, 2020, 3:42 PM

    If I were about forty years younger I’d drop some snickering comment, about riding my old hobby horse. Wouldn’t be appropriate for a guy my age to do so.
    Dammit.

    JWM

  • Margot September 5, 2020, 4:51 PM

    This goes with the hobby horse competition.
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1299731031730171905

  • Glenfilthie September 5, 2020, 5:02 PM

    I dunno. Kinda creeps me out. Maybe it’s just me… but I see a bunch of promising Karen’s and cat lady/batshit crazy rage heads in that bunch…

  • ghostsniper September 5, 2020, 6:36 PM

    female masturbation?

  • Auntie Analogue September 5, 2020, 7:45 PM

    When the emcee kisses the girl who won he puts his Lippizaner?

  • mmack September 5, 2020, 8:03 PM

    Gerard,

    It’s a mix of cute and creepy, but then I think when I was the age of these girls I learned to ride a real, live horse 🐴.

    Horses are beautiful, noble creatures.

    Who are dumb enough to be scared by a squirrel 🐿 or a rabbit 🐇🤦🏻‍♂️

    The only horse I want is on the grille of my Ford Mustang.

  • gwbnyc September 5, 2020, 8:28 PM

    I grew up next to a town of mostly finns.

    I got five bucks says every one of those hobby suffers depression.

  • Lance de Boyle September 5, 2020, 9:37 PM

    Ghostsniper, you WOULD say that. “female masturbation?” indeed.

    So would I.
    “Saayyy. That’s one LONG dildo, Lady. You could get two on that rod.”

  • Casey Klahn September 5, 2020, 11:00 PM

    I was ready to get all about Finnish women till I noticed the ages.

    I fell in love with Finland when I went. Yes, the depression. The back-biting and the heavy alcohol use. The long winters. What do they do up there in those long winters? Waits for the shoe to drop.

    The sauna stuff’s all true. Ahem.

  • Gordon Scott September 6, 2020, 3:40 AM

    In his book The Almost Nearly Perfect People Michael Booth points out that the Finns are very different from the other Scandis. Also, the heavy drinking is somewhat mythical; it turns out they drink less than the other Scandis. Finns look disappointed when told.

    How can you tell when a Finn is interested in a gal? He ‘s looking at her shoes instead of his.

    Two Finns meet after a long separation. They agree to go to one Finn’s house to drink. They work their way through one bottle, and as he’s pouring out of the second, one Finn asks, “So, how are you?”

    The other looks irritated and says, “Hey, I thought we were here to drink.”

    I’ve told these to a Finn gal who was raised near Duluth. She just looks solemn and nods, acknowledging their truth.

  • Anne September 6, 2020, 9:06 AM

    Highest on my list of favorite people!
    1. Never forget that after years of being occupied by Russia during the WWII they are THE ONLY country which paid off it’s war debt!
    2. Most importantly is this: SISU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu
    3. In case you haven’t heard they have one of the highest ranking school pedagogies in the world. From the beginning of this century we have been watching as their success rate rises. However, you must know this about Finland: school teachers are highly educated (Master’s degree or more) in their field of math, science, language–then they are trained in teaching skills. You do not get to be a school teacher in Finland just because your mommy was one and you can’t find a job (US). You also don’t get to be a school teacher in Finland because you worked so hard at the schools reception desk for so many years as is possible in the US! Here is a good introduction https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/
    4.With regard to the Hobby Horse sport, I see it like this: so many, many young girls never get to follow their dream and have a horse, so Finland drawing on it’s inner core of Sisu has developed this as a way for many more young girls to share in the glory of the horse. This is not to be laughed at, but rather to be respected–IMHO.

  • Gordon Scott September 6, 2020, 9:16 AM

    With due respect to the Finns, the UK paid off theirs. In 2006.

    I think the Brits had some WW I debt that was finally paid, a few years after that.

  • Anne September 6, 2020, 2:56 PM

    I stand corrected. Here is an excellent summary that might be of interest to all at this site:
    https://www.bis.org/review/r140514h.htm

  • gwbnyc September 6, 2020, 4:25 PM
  • Anne September 6, 2020, 5:40 PM

    gwbnyc—aahhh, thank you for that wikipedia entry!