Archives for June, 2004

Weird Foods from Around the World is a compendium of eccentric dishes. There’s stuff like calf head and placenta and squirrel brain and mopane caterpillars. It would probably be a challenge to find something that people don’t eat.

Slovenia has one entry: Stewed Dormice. The description says:

A Slovenian cookbook had a recipe for a nice little stew of mice raised and fattened just for cooking.

I’ve heard of some funky Slovenian dishes, but this is the first time I’ve heard of this. (Although there apparently is an “edible dormouse.”) But still. Can anyone confirm it?

(Via Metafilter)

Pres. Janez Drnovsek: not a girl, not yet a woman. From the official president’s page.

What do Margaret Thatcher, Mother Teresa, Aun Sung Suu Kyi and Slovenian president Janez Drnovsek (shown above) all have in common? They’re all “Women Leaders,” according to a sociology course at Brandeis University. In this table, Drnovsek is mysteriously sex-changed and then sandwiched between Lidia Guilder of Bolivia and Elizabeth Domitien of the Central African Republic. I’m not sure how it happened, but I guess his first name looks a little bit like “Jane” or “Janice.”

Also of interest: Milka Planinc of Yugoslavia gets double-billing from 1982-86 as “Prime Minister” of a “developing country” and then again as “President” of a “developed country.” Both times for Yugoslavia.

(Via Mladina)

Lenny Kravitz in Ljubljana last week. Photos by Mateja Kuhar.

I think I was the only person who missed the Lenny Kravitz concert in lovely Ljubljana on Tuesday. However, I do have plenty of pictures to show, courtesy of Mateja. So let’s get it on!
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Marburg a. Drau, Adolf-Hitler-Platz, early 1940s.

Maribor, Glavni Trg (Main Square), 2004.

Atomik Harmonik: Slovenia’s new musical sensation. Click for photo gallery.

What do you get when you mix traditional Slovenian folk music and dance beats? Answer: Something really funky sounding. Or to be more specific: Atomik Harmonik.

Download their single Brizgalna brizga (.wma) and give it a listen. (Yes, that’s a rooster crowing.)

If I had to bet, I would guess that they will do extraordinarily well.

(Thanks, Martinovanje!)

Tito gets hands on with a female greeter, while communist bigwig Stane Dolanc (left) looks on.

Besides being President-for-Life of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980) was also known as a man with “busy hands.”

See Tito’s women for more of his amorous adventures.

(Thanks, La Flaca!)

The ex-pat community is pretty small in Slovenia, so it doesn’t take very long to figure out who’s who. Or where they are. Slovenes will often help you along, in the form of: “Oh, you’re from the US? Do you know X?” where X equals some Australian living in a village you’ve never heard of.

I never met Jason Abbott in real life, but we exchanged a few friendly e-mails in the past. We both arrived in Slovenia at roughly the same time and even made some vague plans to meet. Unfortunately, they never came to fruition. So I was a bit disheartened to read that he, like the former EC chief in Slovenia Eric van der Linden, is now leaving for Slovakia.

Jason’s final column in The Slovenia Times talks about “some of the things I will miss about Slovenia and some of the things that I hope Slovenia can and will address to boost the country’s prospects, prosperity, and popularity.” It’s good reading.

Best wishes to Jason, and good luck in Bratislava!

Yugoslavs decapitate two Germans in a Seussian WW2 propaganda poster.

The Catalog of Political Cartoons by Dr. Seuss has some fascinating WW2 propaganda drawings by America’s (most?) famous children’s author. About half of the roughly 200 cartoons are directed at Hitler while about 60 deal with Japan.

There are two under Yugoslavia, while Croatia makes a special appearance in this one — as a butterfly being clipped by Mussolini.

(via The Drool Factory)

How to say “Oh my God! There’s an axe in my head” in 102 languages. (Slovenian included)

The history of the phrase.

(via anastasiav)

Someone takes advantage of a Klagenfurt license plate to spell “Kurva,” a word that means “bitch” in many Slavic languages, including Slovene.