bits and pieces from the northern island.
Last night I had a dream. I was home with my family, my father was walking around with his cane and it all seemed perfectly normal. Then a few moments later during the same day, in the same dream, I don’t know how but I knew my father had died. I got scared. I kept … Read the full article →
I’ve read and heard more than once about people finding specimens of boletus edulis (aka known as porcino or cep) growing happily and undisturbed in gardens or other green spaces here in Iceland. Apparently, according to the rumors, this kind of mushroom is very commonly seen, but nobody really cares about it. Since I’m used … Read the full article →
I’ve been virtually leafing through Italian online newspapers during the last few days and I’ve been reading with horror about the Gheddafi visit turning into a variety show, with horses, showgirls and cotillons. The journalists of the main Italian newpapers didn’t bat an eyelid, and only talked about the glamour, with a little weak-humored skepticism … Read the full article →
Let’s accept it: everybody loves cats. Whoever doesn’t love cats is a weirdo, in the most negative sense of the word. From Lolcats to Burroughs, from Shrek’s Puss in Boots to Eliot, cats are and have been source of inspiration for many intellectuals, creatives and artists. They have the power to make people lose their … Read the full article →
Many years ago I read a book by Tove Jansson, entitled Moominpappa at sea (original title Pappan och havet, literally The father and the sea). In this book – I don’t remember if it’s the seventh or sixth in the Moomin series – Moominpappa all of a sudden becomes restless: his uneventful life in Moomin … Read the full article →
We create societies, we implement them, we adapt them to our needs, or to what we accept and codify as our needs. We build the structures, we choose people to manage them and to serve our purposes. Then why in the world we have such an insanely illogical bureaucracy? The only possible explanation must be … Read the full article →
Everybody knows dogs are unable to be prudent. They can’t – and maybe if they could they wouldn’t in any case – be bothered with notions like “abundance” and “shortage”. They take what they have for granted, if they are used to be pampered a bit. Kátur the dog would require a whole narration of … Read the full article →
Finding a rent in Reykjavík these days can be quite a serious business, and a rather stressful ordeal for your mental health. Be prepared to get acquainted with an implacable enemy, someone who has power over the mind of most Icelandic landlords and landladies. Be prepared to be at war with Mr Friend, the mysterious … Read the full article →