Archives for February, 2006

A Yugo sandwich in Maribor. (Press play to watch) 

You’ve probably heard of carpooling as a method of saving gas. Well, there’s a Styrian alternative: strapping three cars on top of each other. Since only one car needs gas, everybody wins!

Mariborians: putting the mental in environmentalism.

(Thanks Miran!)

Matej (center): Roaming the earth like Caine in Kung-Fu. (source)

There is a 21-year-old man out there who left his house one day in July 2004 with nothing but a backpack, a guitar, and $200 and ended up walking over nearly 20 countries and three continents in 18 months. His nom de guerre is the peacehiker and — get ready for a surprise — he’s not from California. In fact, get ready for an even bigger surprise, because he’s a Slovene from the little town of Postojna.

His site has a lot of information about his journey, as does this profile of him by The Hindu newspaper. His large photo album on Flickr is also worth a visit.

I slept for 18 hours last night — a new personal record, I think. I seem to have caught a bug that is going around. At least I hope it’s a bug, and not the H5N1 that the head of the Veterinary Association, Vida ÄŒadoniÄ? ŠpeliÄ?, decided not to warn me about.

Updates soon now:

UPDATE: The interesting thing about sleeping for 18 hours is that 18 hours of work are waiting for you when you wake up. I’m happy to report that I’m still alive, and that the virus has withdrawn, but I’m still struggling for status quo ante bellum. In the meantime, please note that this story has gotten an important update.

I should be back into the swing of things soon. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes!

UPDATE 2: The better half also got infected. I therefore have to attend to the stipulations set forth in my marriage charter, particularly Article 6, §3: "For richer or for poorer, during moments of projectile vomiting and in good health, etc…" I guess we can call it a week and pick up on Monday.

And, no, I don’t know what the little asterisks at the end of this entry are.

The Second Satin Pajama Awards are on!

Some of you may remember that this site competed in the first European Weblog Awards. It also won, even though I was openly rooting for Petite Anglaise, who had promised to pose in pajamas in the event of her victory. The fact that this site prevented that from happening remains a mark of shame and agony to this day. It also made me one of the most despised men in the blogosphere.

But life is full of second chances, isn’t it? And now, as if on cue, fate has provided me with a fresh opportunity to right all my previous wrongs, undo all the damage I have done, and bring balance back to the force. Our very own Slovenian blogger, La Poulette, is in the running for "Best New Weblog" and has offered to pose in pajamas "smaller than a handkerchief"* if she wins.

Verily I say unto you: it is essential for Slovenia, and for this site’s moral redemption, that she triumphs. That’s why I’m asking you to help make it happen. Quite frankly, she’s up against some very serious competition, and she’s going to need what her good friend Satan once called "a vulgar display of power" in order to win. Here’s what to do:

1) Click here.
2) Scroll down to the category "Best New Weblog,"
3) Find the bubble next to "La Poulette" and click it. Hard. Maybe even grunt a little when you do. Suggested possibilities: "Ugh," "Mmpf," "Aargh," "Zsht," or — if necessary — "Awww, yeah!"

That’s it. Accept my heartfelt thanks in advance, and good luck Poulette! Polls close today at 20:00.

* Actual size may vary. 

UPDATE: Not since American Ninja 4: The Annihilation, starring Michael Dudikoff as the American ninja, has there been such a thorough annihilation of one’s opponents. Thanks to your votes, La Poulette demolished everything in her category and won the award. I feel that my crimes have thereby been absolved, and my sins washed away. As promised, she has posted a picture of herself in a gorgeous satin nightgown, looking like some kind of magically rising "puddle of Poulette." It’s glorious. Heartfelt congrats to her, and thanks to everyone for their support!

Slovenian skiier Vinko Bogataj in the classic Wide World of Sports intro.

Some people may not know that the Slovenian skiier Vinko Bogataj was something of a cult symbol in the United States for a long time. In the introduction to the immensely popular show ABC’s Wide World of Sports, they always showed a clip of him crashing during a competition in 1970. His crash was synchronized with the words "… the agony of defeat!" If you’d like to see it, there’s a video of the show’s famous intro here. [2.2 MB]

There’s also some interesting background on his story over at Ask Yahoo, where someone recently asked: "Who’s the ‘agony of defeat’ guy from ‘The Wide World of Sports’"?

The Transcript logo.

Transcript, the European internet review of books and writing, recently published a special issue dedicated to contemporary Slovenian writers, translated into English. The section Seven Urban Tongues has poetry by: Primoz Cucnik, Taja Kramberger, Brane Mozetic, Peter Semolic, Tone Skrjanec, Natasa Velikonja and Maja Vidmar. (I’ve followed their lead and left out any diacritics.)

There’s also some fiction: A Thin Red Line by Andrej Blatnik, Berlin-Metelkova by Suzana Tratnik, Under the Surface by Mojca Kumerdej (currently unreadable) and The Jump Off the Liburnia by local literary heavyweight Drago Jancar.

It’s a bit difficult to find Slovenian writers translated into English, so this collection is something of a novelty. 

(via CESLIT)

Ducks on the Drava: Doomed to Destruction?

The bad news: Bird flu has come to Slovenia.
The even-badder news: It appeared in koblerjev zaliv (Kobler Bay) on the Drava River, some 300 meters from where I live.

The encouraging news:  Slovenia’s Health Ministry says there’s nothing to be worried about, but notes that people should: "stay away from wild birds and not feed them or touch them."
The not-so-encouraging news: On Saturday I was feeding wild birds on the river — the ones at ground zero.

The what-the-hell-are-they-doing news: They found the dead swan on Thursday. By Saturday, tests had revealed that the bird was H5-positive. The results were promptly sent to the appropriate EU authorities — but not shared with Slovenes at home. Everyone here got the bad news from Brussels.

In the meantime, things are peaceful. Oddly so. I guess I was imagining some kind of scene out of Outbreak — men swooping in wearing contamination suits, shouting "Secure the perimeter! Secure the perimeter!" except in Slovene. But everything seems the same.

Across the channel, though, at least the British tabloid The Mirror is up in arms: Bird Flu… It’s just 798 Miles Away! Virus Kills Swan in Slovenia!

Sensationalism aside: Happy Valentine’s Day! (and does anyone have any Tamiflu?)

Nothing says "aphrodisiac" like a poisnonous amphibian. (source)

Is there anything on this earth, I wonder, that hasn’t been declared an aphrodisiac at some point? Wikipedia’s very limited list includes: oysters, potatoes, tomatoes, rhinoceros horns, turtle eggs, chocolates, and tiger penis. None of them have been scientifically proven to have any effect, but that hasn’t stopped people from continuing to try. And we can now add to the list: Slovenian salamander brandy, which according to this page, is a "medieval method of getting in touch with your deeper sexual feelings."

I’ve never heard of it, but it sounds positively fantastic. It’s said to be so powerful, in fact, that consuming the "poisonous mucus" together with brandy makes you so hot that you’ll get sexually attracted to plants and animals and other stuff outside your phylum. Now that’s an aphrodisiac!

(Thanks Susan!) 

A scene from Ali G Indahouse. Click to watch.

The otherwise forgettable movie Ali G Indahouse (2002) contains a joke about Slovenia, or at least about Slovenian women. It’s only worth noting because you almost never even hear the word "Slovenia" in major movies. If you’ve never seen this movie or heard about it, here’s a quick summary: (To watch the one-minute clip, click on the picture above or click here.)

Basically, Ali G is a wannabe-gangsta and dope who somehow makes it into the British cabinet. In this scene, ministers are talking about what to do about the "refugee problem." Ali G suggests only letting beautiful women in, and rejecting mingas. We then see a stream of pretty ladies walking through customs, until a frumpy girl is stopped and told: "Back to Slovenia!"

It didn’t make much of a ripple here. The magazine Mladina (oddly, in my opinion) doesn’t even mention the joke in its review. And although the first commenter there clamors for a "boycott," most people seem to be sane enough not to get riled up about it. In fact, the first (and best) reply is: "Obviously Ali G has never been to Slovenia. :)"

Jure RobiÄ? in action down under. (Source)

If you have some time, The New York Times recently published a wonderful story about the Slovenian extreme-cyclist Jure RobiÄ? in their weekend sports magazine. RobiÄ? is a local bad ass who transcends the boundaries of sanity when he races. And I mean literally. He gets paranoid, aggressive, loses short-term memory, weeps uncontrollably and hallucinates. At one point, he says, he thought that mujahedeen were chasing him — and pedalled faster. His wife also tells the Times reporter: "The first time I went to a race, I was not prepared to see what happens to his mind. We nearly split up."

My favorite quote, though, is probably this one about Mt. Stol: "Three years ago, I got angry at the mountain. I climbed it 38 times in two months." Quite frankly, it’s depressing that this man struggles to remain financially solvent.

Read the full article here: That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stronger (bugmenot) 

(Big thanks to Darko!)