THAT PESKY OLD BALTIC
It is well established now that the eastern Baltic region is one in which I am very interested. Now it turns out that there is even more than the history, politics, and cultures and drew me in the first place. The Moscow Times reports on some Finnish and Estonian archeologists who believe that there may be 100,000 wrecks in the Baltic Sea. 100,000. That is insane! In addition, because of the low salt content in the Baltic, the relatively cold temperatures, and the long, long history of seafaring around the Baltic, there are lots of well-preserved wrecks.
One wreck that they mentioned is in Stockholm, Sweden. L and I were in Stockholm in April of 1992 (I think). It was Spring in Germany, and we were heading from Stockholm to Munich to see a friend. Thus, we brought light weight jackets, expecting to have similar weather from Stockholm to Munich. How wrong we were. Sweden is WAY, WAY north of Munich. Stockholm is halfway up Sweden. It was cold. It snowed. We still walked all over the city, rode the subway out to the Clockwork Orangesque suburbs, etc., but we were COLD. Then it started to sleet. We saw a building that looked public and warm, so we ducked into it. It turned out to be the museum for the Vasa.
This ship was the most magnificent ship of its era. It was built in 1628 as part of the battlements for Sweden's involvement in the Thirty Years Was (1618-1648) in Germany and Bohemia. Apparently at the last minute, the King of Sweden, giving the ship things that she was needin', ordered a second gun deck built on the ship. Because the order came from the king, it was obeyed without question. Because it was obeyed without question, the ship was extremely top heavy and flipped over in the bay off Stockholm the first time it encountered a wind. Such a weight distribution was particularly troubling in an era when ships were wind powered! In any case, the Swedes raised the almost perfectly preserved Vasa in the 1970's and built a fantastic museum around it in the 1990's. Clink on the museum link above. The ship is astoundingly well preserved, and they have one of those you-guide-it internet viewing deals. Very cool.
LABELS, LABELS, LABELS
CNN reported today on some high school kids in an overwhelmingly white school in Omaha, Nebraska. Apparently the school has an outstanding African-American student award that is awarded around Martin Luther King's birthday every year. Now, this award seems a little ridiculous, since 56 of the 1,632 students at the school are black. Yes, 3.4% of the student body. Thankfully, this school is educating its student body well enough to recognize irony and hypocrisy when they see it. Thus, several students made posters touting the candidacy of Trevor Richards for the award next year. Trevor is white. However, Trevor is from South Africa. Hence, Trevor is an African-American as any literate person would understand the term. It may not be what the school meant, but it is what they said.
Trevor and his friends were disciplined. It is apparent that the teachers taught irony and hypocrisy by example, rather than as concepts…
THE CHI
Winter finally came to the Chi. It is cold outside and a light (1-3") snow is falling. I'm glad that we finally got some real weather. For the weather we were having, I might as well have been in a San Francisco summer ("The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Mark Twain) as a Chicago winter. Now I know I am in the Chi.
It is well established now that the eastern Baltic region is one in which I am very interested. Now it turns out that there is even more than the history, politics, and cultures and drew me in the first place. The Moscow Times reports on some Finnish and Estonian archeologists who believe that there may be 100,000 wrecks in the Baltic Sea. 100,000. That is insane! In addition, because of the low salt content in the Baltic, the relatively cold temperatures, and the long, long history of seafaring around the Baltic, there are lots of well-preserved wrecks.
One wreck that they mentioned is in Stockholm, Sweden. L and I were in Stockholm in April of 1992 (I think). It was Spring in Germany, and we were heading from Stockholm to Munich to see a friend. Thus, we brought light weight jackets, expecting to have similar weather from Stockholm to Munich. How wrong we were. Sweden is WAY, WAY north of Munich. Stockholm is halfway up Sweden. It was cold. It snowed. We still walked all over the city, rode the subway out to the Clockwork Orangesque suburbs, etc., but we were COLD. Then it started to sleet. We saw a building that looked public and warm, so we ducked into it. It turned out to be the museum for the Vasa.
This ship was the most magnificent ship of its era. It was built in 1628 as part of the battlements for Sweden's involvement in the Thirty Years Was (1618-1648) in Germany and Bohemia. Apparently at the last minute, the King of Sweden, giving the ship things that she was needin', ordered a second gun deck built on the ship. Because the order came from the king, it was obeyed without question. Because it was obeyed without question, the ship was extremely top heavy and flipped over in the bay off Stockholm the first time it encountered a wind. Such a weight distribution was particularly troubling in an era when ships were wind powered! In any case, the Swedes raised the almost perfectly preserved Vasa in the 1970's and built a fantastic museum around it in the 1990's. Clink on the museum link above. The ship is astoundingly well preserved, and they have one of those you-guide-it internet viewing deals. Very cool.
LABELS, LABELS, LABELS
CNN reported today on some high school kids in an overwhelmingly white school in Omaha, Nebraska. Apparently the school has an outstanding African-American student award that is awarded around Martin Luther King's birthday every year. Now, this award seems a little ridiculous, since 56 of the 1,632 students at the school are black. Yes, 3.4% of the student body. Thankfully, this school is educating its student body well enough to recognize irony and hypocrisy when they see it. Thus, several students made posters touting the candidacy of Trevor Richards for the award next year. Trevor is white. However, Trevor is from South Africa. Hence, Trevor is an African-American as any literate person would understand the term. It may not be what the school meant, but it is what they said.
Trevor and his friends were disciplined. It is apparent that the teachers taught irony and hypocrisy by example, rather than as concepts…
THE CHI
Winter finally came to the Chi. It is cold outside and a light (1-3") snow is falling. I'm glad that we finally got some real weather. For the weather we were having, I might as well have been in a San Francisco summer ("The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Mark Twain) as a Chicago winter. Now I know I am in the Chi.
posted by David at 3:23 PM
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