Us Lund University foreign students. . . we are a rowdy and culturally misguided bunch:

Kissing man arrested in southern Sweden
Published: 28 Mar 09 16:17 CET

The so-called kiss man that has showered unwanted attention on women in the southern Swedish town of Lund has been arrested, police confirmed on Saturday.

The man stands accused of having molested 17 women, 14 in Lund and three in Malmö.

The man's modus operandi was identical in all of the attacks, according to local newspaper Skånska Dagbladet.

He approached the women to ask for road directions, or alternatively advice on which present he should buy his 10-year-old cousin or niece. When the women replied he then proceeded to give them a hearty hug, kiss them on the cheek and moan in their ear.

The attacks occurred in March and April 2008 and then the "kiss man" went off the radar.

Lund University's security department was then able to solve the mystery when the man resumed his public displays of unwanted affection in January and February of this year.

Police were able to apprehend the man when university library staff identified him as he attempted to borrow some books.

The man was arrested and three Lund women have positively identified their attacker in a police identification parade. The man was remanded into custody on Friday.

The over-zealous Romeo has been identified as an exchange student and in his defence has offered the explanation that in his culture it is natural to kiss women on the cheek.
TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

An Open letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton: Part 2

Dear Mr. President,

I have just realized that the ambassador to Sweden position is open as well. That will do, too. See my previous post. I speak better Swedish than Danish.

Sincerely,

-Stephanie-

An Open letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton

Dear Mr. President and Mrs. Clinton,

It has recently come to my attention that there is a vacancy at the United States Embassy in Copenhagen and I am writing to help you fill it. With the recent departure of James Cain as ambassador, there is a large gap in the embassy staff and I can think of no one better to fill it than myself. I'm young, vibrant, in touch with Danish society, can order a hot dog in Danish, know my bicycle traffic signals and almost have a master's degree.

Not that knowing about Danish culture is a requirement for the job. In an article written shortly after Cain's arrival in Denmark 3.5 years ago, Cain was said to have admitted that "his knowledge of Denmark is limited to his family's hosting of some Danish exchange students and a school performance of a Hans Christian Andersen play." But he's also noted to have been a major fundraiser to the Bush-Cheney campaign. While I didn't contribute to any political campaigns, Barack Obama is my Facebook friend, which is just as powerful as money these days.

I understand that Mr. Cain had to work his way up to the position of ambassador to Denmark. After all, he took a leave of absence from his law firm to become the COO of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes - and Danes really love hockey. After being a chairman for financing on the Bush-Cheney campaign, he vacationed worked as President Bush’s Emissary to the Philippines for the Inauguration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004. I mean, he really had to pay up work hard to become the ambassador to Denmark. I too have worked hard. I left my job as a journalist to get married and move to Sweden (which is closer to Denmark than Alaska is to Russia) and have been a tireless goodwill ambassador for the US since I have been here - spreading the good word about peanut butter, Jelly Belly beans, big people and big cars. I'm proud to be an American, and I'll never let the American people down.

And Unlike Mr. Cain, I know what REALLY happens at the end of The Little Mermaid and have sat through not one, but TWO Danish adult birthday parties. It is not until you have experienced this that you can say you have truly been amongst the natives.

I'm a fast learner too, and I'm sure I can pick up the nuts and bolts of the ambassadation business. Please contact me for an interview, you will not be disappointed.

Sincerely,

Stephanie

Don't worry, it was probably just ABBA...

This just in from CNN:

Dog walker 'met man from another planet'

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British military investigators interviewed a woman who claimed to have met a man from another planet while she was walking her dog, newly released Ministry of Defence files have revealed.

The woman said she had been approached by a man with a "Scandinavian-type accent" dressed in a flying suit-style outfit while out walking on a sports field near Norwich, eastern England, in 1989.

She claimed to have been "completely terrified" during the 10-minute encounter. Running home, she said she had then seen a large glowing object rising vertically from behind some nearby trees.

The woman called a local military base to report the encounter the following day. A cover note on the file of the incident describes it as "one of our more unusual UFO reports."

The incident is just one of around 1,200 sightings recorded by investigators between 1987 and 1993, according to the files released by the National Archives on Sunday.

On another occasion, military officials took the unusual step of briefing ministers about an unidentified flying object photographed in the sky over Scotland alongside an RAF fighter jet.

Witnesses claimed to have seen the large diamond-shaped object hanging in the air for about 10 minutes before it ascended vertically at high speed. Fearing intense media interest, investigators also commissioned detailed drawings of the object.

The files also reveal that the Ministry of Defence abandoned plans to build a computer database of sightings out of fears of a public relations disaster should details of its existence ever be revealed.

"I personally doubt that the the MoD would lose much if we filed UFO reports in 'WPD' (the waste paper basket)," one unnamed official wrote of the project.

When in Rome. . .

Long ago, a soothsayer told Julius Caeser to "beware of the Ides of March." Caesar died on that day, but there is still some uncertainty as to whether the soothsayer was referring to his death or the birth of a girl who would some day take over world - that's me.

So, to celebrate that momentous occasion, and my 24th birthday, we had an Ides of March birthday dinner party at our house last night complete with mandatory toga dress, Roman (Ok, Italian) food, roman techno-music, and gold-themed decor. To make it a little more multicultural, guests represented nine countries and sang "Happy Birthday" in nine languages. Most were a translated version of the traditional American "Happy Birthday," but the most colorful version came from the Danes - a long song that involved many instruments, barn animal noises, and audience participation. Leave it to the Danes to be different.

Here's a excerpt from that song:



To their credit, it was after quite a bit of Roman vino had been served.

Overall it was the perfect way to ring in #24 - a year that is sure to bring as much change, excitement, and happiness as the last!

Just doing their job...

Free education, free health care, and all those other social benefits are a great use of taxpayer money. As for our public police force, well let's just say this gives a whole new meaning to coffee and donuts.

Swedish cops 'baked cake' in the nude

Published: 14 Mar 09 13:23 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/18218/20090314/

The nine Swedish cops in western Sweden that posed naked with a weapon at a party, posed nude on several more occasions, it has emerged.

The cops are reported to have frolicked naked in a gym and also while making a "sandwich cake".

The Local reported in February that the nine male officers had posed naked at a party celebrating the end of their training to serve in special tactical units. All were aged between 30 and 40-years-old.

It has now emerged from an internal police investigation into the party antics that this was not an isolated event, according to local newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP).

Colleagues have reported that the nine officers have been witnessed lifting weights in the nude in a police gym also frequented by female police officers.

On another occasion the officers baked a "sandwich cake" (a savoury layered cake of sandwiches) for their instructors.

When the instructors were set to eat the cake pictures were produced showing at least one of the men placing his penis on the cake.

The investigation report states that it has not been able to verify the allegations over the antics, which occurred in the police officer's free time.

"This is as yet unverified information," Erik Nord at county police to GP.

When the details first emerged of the police officers' behaviour in the beginning of February the nine officers were consigned to desk duty.

It is now up to the police disciplinary board to determine whether the men should receive a warning over their conduct at the party.

hey speed racer...

My professor Lars has a strange hobby: he races cars. Not regular cars, teeny tiny "slot cars." His hobby got so intense that he built a very big race track in his house, and that very race track was used for the World Championship of Slot Car Racing a few years ago in Lund. Basically, slot car racing involves pulling a trigger at just the right speed to allow the car to go very fast on the track without falling off He let us test out the track last week:

Here's a video of our race. My team came in 2nd place, not too bad for a rookie!



(Subscribers can go to kinchfamily.blogspot.com too see the video.

Happy Fastelavn!

It's cold in Denmark in February. It's dark and it's snowy and it's... well, maybe a picture will help with this description:

Danes have a dramatic desire to beat those winter blues and get ready for spring in February. Their solution? Dressing up like deamons, hitting stuff repeatedly with baseball bats, and eating so much candy and sweets that they're put into a sugar-induced catatonic state until spring. 

Works for me.

Here's a video of last Sunday's event in Nanna's neighborhood:

(the girl with the big red thing that can't walk is a mail box)

Yes folks, that's the concept of Fastelavn, a one-day holiday that coincides with Fat Tuesday (last week). It's part-Halloween, part-Mexican birthday party, part-Danish ingenuity. Basically, people dress themselves and their kids up in costume and head outside, where they meet up with other kids to beat the crap out of a wooden barrel full of candy with a baseball bat. 

The one who breaks the barrel gets more candy. The one with the best costume (done by a democratic voting process) gets even more candy. The one who gets the last piece of wood down gets even even more candy. 

Side note: Despite being a very health-concious society, Denmark must have the highest candy-consumed per-capita rate in the world (Dental care is free for kids, so why not?). 

In Nanna's neighborhood, the adults got a try too. First the women, then the men. The barell was full of candy, but the adult prizes were Denmark's second most precious commodity: booze. 

Despite the enthusiasm, we didn't win.

And Now, the rest of the story. . .

There are small senses that we remember dearly from our childhoods. For me, The smell of pine, the taste of honey, and the sound of a Boston Red Sox game being broadcast on a scratchy radio all transport me back to days spent with my father. 

On one of my many long drives from Rochester to Western MA I was listening to the only radio station available on a particularly vacant stretch of Interstate-90 and I was instantly transported back to my younger days of riding in the car with my dad. I couldn't figure out why though. The voice sounded so familiar ... and then at the very end of the broadcast it hit me.

"I'm Paul Harvey. And now. . . the rest of the story."

Paul Harvey, arguably one of the most well-known voices of radio died today... but his voice will always be in my memory.