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My eyes were misty when I finished reading an AP story by Helen O’Neill about a pastor who both stunned and challenged his congregation by handing out $50 to all of them with a caveat: They had to use the money to raise funds for the church. The parable of […]
The New York Times today had a piece about working cats who help out in delis and small bodegas all over NYC. The store owners say they’re invaluable, patrolling the aisles looking for rats and mice. The problem is that the health department has laws against keeping cats and other […]
What makes a party? What is it that makes you talk about it excitedly the next day? I think you can tell it’s a good party when you hug everyone who walks in. Like each person is worthy of that level of affection, they’re the ones you’ve missed, or haven’t […]
Today I met a man who spends his days meeting with people and officials from all over the world. He’s Tor Fossum, the Project Manager of the City of Malmo’s Environmental Department. He talks again and again to visitors from the UK, China, the US and others from around the […]
Bengt Almquist wasn’t sure what the English word was that describes his vast collection of machines. “Gadgets?” Well, sort of. I’d say it’s more like a thousand assortments of things. At the Johanna Museet, he’s got walls full of typewriters, including models from the 1880s before they came up with […]
An automatic organ was just one of the amazing things we saw today at the Johannes Museet, a collection of thousands of machines, all arranged together. The museum is owned by Bengt Almquist, whose father was the original tinkerer and collector of the family. 41 secs Here is a video […]
This is one of things I love about Sweden. This tree is ablaze with small candles, cranking out a whooshing noise as they burn in the cold Swedish night. Next to the tree, there are three rows of at least 150 candles each, all burning and emitting that same pleasing […]
The 12 km Oresund Bridge connects Copenhagen with Malmo, and has helped the entire Skane region prosper with new jobs, new tourists and a new flexibility to travel. Many Danes live here in Skane where taxes are cheaper and commute over the long bridge to work in Copenhagen.
This little seaside fish market stall is where the locals find the freshest herring and salmon for their Christmas tables. “Hey’ means hello, and ‘tack’ means thanks in Swedish, as you can hear in this 39-second video.
Turn on the lights in Malmo! I want to put one of these into South Deerfield’s town common…do you think I can get the ok from the selectman?
Kent and I are holed up in our monk-sized rooms in the monastery, er, Hotel Rica in downtown Malmo. No, they’re ok, just kinda small after the cavernous chambers in Stockholm we called home for three nights. Today we noticed that the darkness, which succombed Stockholm at 3:30 pm, hit […]
No Swedish break is complete without some rich cake or cookie and the obligatory strong cup of Joe. Here we are sampling their cappuccino, and a cheesecake at a cafe in Stockholm’s SoFo area. This cake was redolent of lime, a teasing key lime sort of taste, and coffee was […]