Fungus

« A birch tree afflicted by a parasitic fungus that causes massive branching which looks like bird's nests. »

I would always think that the dense bunches of branches in the birch trees were simply bird's nests whenever I would see a tree dotted with dark balls of branches and it was only recently that I found out that it is actually a fungus, Taphrina Betulina, that stimulates growth of the branches to form these "witches' brooms" or tuulenpesä (wind's nest).

Overall, Easter was a lazy four-day weekend where watching lots of disaster porn on the National Geographic channel made me wonder if they have been franchised by FOX. Where did all the interesting cultural documentaries go to? Canal+ must have had some sadist setting up the weekend schedule with the most boring movies of all time that they've already shown fifty times in the past month. There isn't a whole lot to do around these parts when you don't leave town and everything is closed for four days. I think the US would cease to function in two days without anything open for business except the 7-11 and QT.

At least Amazon was open for shopping with a few interesting new titles.

• The Twinkies Cookbook: An Inventive and Unexpected Recipe Collection from Hostess - Cooking with....twinkies. It's such an unlikely book that I have to get a copy just for the fun of looking at the recipes and pictures. Why not a book on science projects you can do with twinkies, such as freezing them in liquid nitrogen and launching them at other kids using a slingshot? (they smart pretty badly) We never did figure out what the filling was made out of even after putting it through a mass spec. Some speculate that the formula was brought to earth by aliens. :)
• The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science - The 16th century was a tumultuous time for free thinkers and scholars. A history of Paracelsus has the potential to be a really interesting read.
• Sweet and Low: A Family Story - A dark memoir about the family empire behind the pink packet of saccharine that may teach other such families to never disinherit the ones who know how to write well. :)

permalink Ω 18 April 2006, Helsinki

Three Years

« Looking south over Helsinki from the fire department's tower. (click photo for larger version) »

As of today, I've been in Helsinki for three years which is something of a milestone since a good percentage of expats, those who don't come to Finland with a fixed-term contract job, leave between the one and three year mark. There have been plenty of times where I desperately wished that Jarkko might have been from some warm, sunny and tropical Caribbean island, but I keep chanting my motivational motto to myself, "That which does not kill you, builds character."

Aside from baking more than the average Helsinki woman has in the last 40 years, leading my colleagues to believe that I'm crazy, and still being rather inept at speaking a language that causes even Finns to admit to having problems understanding their own people from other parts of the country, I have more or less found my niche. In the immortal words of Buckaroo Bonzai, "Wherever you go, there you are."

As a foreigner, I've noticed a dramatic increase in the past 12 months of articles covering the topic of immigration since it is an important issue in the current presidential election. The US has debates about Iraq and shifty foreigners and Finland has shifty foreigners and NATO. At least Finland isn't building a 700-mile long wall along the Russian border. I wish I understood what, exactly, the point of all the polls and superficially phrased questionnaires aimed at Finns and their attitudes towards immigration might be. Then again, I don't think the Finns know, either. Back in June, I noted this gem in the YLE news:

The group is concerned about the aging population and an impending labour shortage in the future.

However, the working group stressed that foreign workers should not take job opportunities from Finland's unemployed.

A statement that seems empty and inaccurate when you read the IMF report:

Wide-ranging measures are also called for to ease growing labor market mismatches and reduce structural unemployment. The sharp rise in vacancies in the recent upswing along with persistent high unemployment suggests a mismatching of skills and opportunities, as well as limited labor mobility between regions and occupations. The authorities' efforts to "price in" labor through subsidies for lower-skilled older workers are welcome if they are well targeted. As important, the temporary active labor market programs can help promote employment opportunities for underutilized segments of the labor force. In addition to these efforts, other supporting structural measures would be essential to achieve the authorities' ambitious goal of a 70 percent employment rate by early 2007.

And then you read bits that suggest that out of the 8,000 people in the net population gain last year from immigration that a large majority are returning expat Finns, many of whom are retirement age. I'm not entirely sure how repatriating citizens get lumped in with immigrants either.

The increased number of immigrants indicated by the statistics can be explained by the migration of Finns themselves. Some 40 percent of incoming migrants are Finnish citizens, and a major proportion of them are found in the group of the over 55-year-old migrants. No way will they be fit to serve as manicurists or masseurs in the next couple of decades.

I generally get really irritated when I see articles like these every week since it's known that the population isn't going to be able support the baby boom retirees in the way that they have become accustomed and, yet, these same people are the ones trying to quell immigration by stipulating that immigrants will not be competing on the same field for jobs as Finns. Given the time it takes for immigrants to settle in and learn the language(s) in Finland, roughly 2-5 years, and that the mass retirement phase of the boomers has already begun, it would seem too little and too late to allay the fears of those who are going to be very upset that the quality and quantity of social benefits are poised to decline. Who cares about a manicure when you might die waiting for basic medical care?

The riots in France had a predictable effect on the EU since everyone wants to know if the same could happen in their country. The Helsingin Sanomat Poll seems to indicate that at least half of the population thinks it could happen here and, at the same time, roughly 75% think that there is either enough or too many immigrants already in Finland. I suppose that Finland, given its attitude towards outsiders, is smart to keep the borders mostly closed since why invite people in if they are likely to face serious problems in integrating and living a normal life. France opened the borders but didn't appear to notice that large numbers of unemployed people living outside of the native society can breed serious unrest. It could happen here given the right circumstances. One person with nothing to lose is a danger to themselves. Thousands of people with nothing to lose is an army in search of an ideology.

I find these sorts of polls and articles to be a bit half-baked since random statistics don't tell you much nor do they serve much of a purpose save perhaps to assuage the fears of the geriatrics who are terrified of foreigners taking over their country and the young hipsters who hope that Finland might someday cease being an isolated backwater in Western Siberia. In the end, it doesn't tell us anything except that not much will change for foreigners and immigration, at least not terribly soon. The politician who speaks plainly about what fewer workers and more pensioners will mean over the next 10-20 years should prepare those retiring for the inevitable since it's likely far too late to change their firmly held attitudes.

The curious thing is that, aside from the nasty old grannies and the occasional asshole, I haven't felt any overt signs that I'm not welcome here. The worst I have to endure is usually annoyance after people figure out I'm not from around these latitudes. I work in one of the more 'integrated' Finnish (i.e. non-international) companies that boasts at least 6 non-native people in our 150+ person organisation. My colleagues even seem to like me, at least when I'm not threatening to slip them under the tiled floor in the lab. :) So, it's hard to reconcile the poll result that 75% of Finland doesn't want any more foreigners to enter Finland and what I personally experience daily.

My guess is that immigrant means something very specific to many people instead of the broader meaning of anyone who comes to live permanently in a country not their own. Of course, since the turnover amongst expats (which generally implies education, choice and means) in Finland seems rather high, they are perhaps not included. I'd really be interested in seeing the retention rate figures for educated westerners and Europeans who come with the intention of staying here, but leave after a few years. What the polls should be asking is what does immigrant mean. Russian? Somali with 10 kids? Damned Yankee? What? What makes this 75% think that there are enough or too many here? What makes them think riots couldn't happen here when there is a generation of Finnish born and educated children of Somali immigrants who reportedly have a difficult time finding a job?

I'd like to see a lot more numbers for patterns of immigration since, at least among the educated westerners here, there seems to be a lot of turnover and should Finland finally decide that they'd like educated foreigners to stick around instead of the Russian bedpan changers for the pensioners that they crack jokes about, someone should be asking why they leave and be receptive to the answers they receive. Presumably,the Directorate of Immigration officials keep track of foreigners and their justification for being here as well as if they are employed or not, etc. I'd also find a survey that asked why people aren't interested in more immigration far more interesting than the ones that have been published so far which don't tell me anything more than I already sensed on my own.

Finland can be an incredibly tough nut to crack, especially if you don't arrive here as a student, because it is a land filled with contradictions. I remember seeing Vieralla Maalla, a Finnish comedy, in the first year that I had been living here. The film was about a Finnish guy who dresses up as a black guy to research racism and somehow falls in love with a Finnish for Foreigners instructor while narrowly escaping getting beat up by drunk guys and harassed by the cops. It was a cute movie, but then I started to wonder how the parts that skimmed the surface of serious issues facing immigrants, especially those who are not white, could really be so amusing even with the distraction of boy meets girl. People often say that racism is limited and that it's just a few bad apples but then you see it in a mainstream comedy film and you wonder which has more truth to it.

I'm not an economist and therefore have no sure opinion on whether or not Finland needs immigrants, but it seems safe enough to draw the conclusion that the math indicates that without an influx of people to work and pay taxes, expectations for social services should be lowered since raising income tax isn't likely to be a viable option. How many Finns would change their opinion about foreigners and immigration if they are shown financial projections for the next 5, 10, 20 and 30 years? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that in a population ~5 million people, that isn't growing very quickly, the estimated 600,000 more pensioners and 300,000 fewer tax payers by 2030 should be shocking enough to get a lot more considered attention.

permalink Ω 24 January 2006, Helsinki

Oracle of Gravity

« The triple energy bolt logo of Helsingin Energia on one of their older buildings in Töölö. »

Finland's presidential elections were held yesterday and, because there was no clear winner with 50% of the vote or better, there will be a second round of voting for the top two contenders in two weeks. Of late it seems that major democracies around the world have been having more frequent troubles in selecting clear winners in elections, e.g. Germany, the US, etc. Does it mean that we are becoming more divided in our political views or, perhaps more likely, that our choices of leaders in just sucking more and more often?

The AP has a stringer up here who likely gets this kind of top fold excitement once only every six years or so, unless someone blows up a mall or gets a $500k speeding ticket. The wire story this morning had this to say about the important and solemn task of selecting a new leader in a sovereign country:

She bears a resemblance to the redheaded late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien, who has been promoting her re-election bid on his show as part of a running joke about their supposed physical similarities.

In one show, O'Brien presented a mock ad for Halonen in which he and two Finns discussed the election while ice fishing.

When they talk about Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, a rival candidate who finished third Sunday with just under 19 percent, a dead fish shoots out of the hole in the ice, prompting a joke about how the mention of his name makes fish commit suicide.

"Fish recognize a bad leader," O'Brien says in broken Finnish, to laughter from his studio crowd.

I was, like, bitch, what? Fish can recognise a tired, tired, absolutely overdone joke, too, but obviously the media cannot. For those who neither know nor care who Conan O'Brien is or have no idea why anyone interested in the outcome of the Finnish elections might be, there's a joke that O'Brien looks like Tarja in the same vein that Austin Powers assaults Basil's androgynous mother exclaiming, "She's a MAN baby, yeah!" It was cute at first, but it has gone too far when it enters the election news reports. What will Conan do when he's here in Finland in early February if Tarja loses? (He is apparently coming only for filming, not a studio show. Maybe the Quebequois fiasco put him off of hosting shows elsewhere.) Gads, is Finland so desperate for media attention that it will go to any lengths, including making a big joke out of a late night talk show host from the US and their president to do it?

Jarkko got a bathroom scale over the weekend. One of those snazzy digital jobs that not only tell your weight, but your water and fat percentage, too. I've not weighed myself in at least 10 years, but there's something so alluring about a scale as though a voice in the back of your head is shouting, "Oh! Great Oracle of Gravity, tell us our number!" If only it would print out my fortune and award me with a cupie doll when it is wrong it would be perfect. I don't suppose the special carny edition of bathroom scale would be terribly popular though. I did, of course, succumb to my curiosity and was surprised that I weigh less than I feel like I do, but more than is comfortable in my jeans. When 'relaxed fit' jeans are more like 'snug fit', it's time to face reality that, well, your size has incremented by one or two. I guess it's a bit better than the 'suck it in and don't breathe fit' or 'painted on fit'. :) So, maybe I'll start bringing my lunch to work more often and taking the stairs instead of the lift to try and decrease my gravitational mass. In the interim, I think I'll avoid the bathroom oracle of gravity.

And in the tradition of Greek oracles of gravity, et al, there is a new series of books from Canongate Publishers that is really quite good. I've just finished The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, that is a tale of Penelope, Odysseus' wife, during the years of the Odyssey which was quite an entertaining read. The next one I intend to read is The Helmet of Horror which is a retelling of Theseus and the Minotaur. The Canongate Myths Series is apparently a collaboration between 32 publishing houses and promises 100 titles by 100 acclaimed authors over the next few years. Authors from around the world are being invited to reinvent a myth of their choosing in 25,000-35,000 words. It is one of the most imaginative and original ideas in the publishing world I've seen in a long while. I wonder if any Finnish contemporary writers would deign to write an English retelling of the Kalevala from, say, Louhi's point of view? :)

permalink Ω 16 January 2006, Helsinki

Tahko

« A rustic privy in the woods of Tahko. As close to irony as it gets in Finland. :) »

A small gallery of photos from a trip to Tahko with a few colleagues back in early October.

permalink Ω 13 December 2005, Helsinki

Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

« Finnish whipped porridge with lingonberries and milk. »

There are few foods that are so basic as to transcend their lower station on the food chain and become something just about anyone and of which everyone has fond childhood memories. Porridge is just such a food. It's a hot and filling treat on a cold winter's day which can be either sweet with fruit or savoury with meat and cheese. Finland is a cold place for 9 months a year so it's no big surprise that porridge is popular here.

I was somewhat amused that aside from the Helsingin Sanomat running an article about porridge in September, two of the 'gourmet' sort of magazines in Helsinki have also printed articles about porridge in the past two months. People out in the countryside must be wondering what kind of dorks live in the cities where porridge needs to be rediscovered. Of course, in true cityfolk fashion, some of the recipes try to doll up a decidedly proletarian dish that no modern urbanite hipster would want to be caught preparing or eating. The attitude towards porridge is much the same in the US, though it is thought more of as a wholesome food for children, rather than adults.

Porridge is much more than a breakfast food in Finland which is both interesting and strange. The mannasuurimo, cream of wheat more or less, can be whipped and served with milk as a dessert. Latvia also features this in their national cuisine so I suspect that it is a Baltic regional specialty. I never even knew you could whip cream of wheat into such a pretty, billowy mound. I had tasted the vispipuuro from the supermarket where it comes ready-made in a plastic dish but I don't know how they can be compared as the texture and taste are very different.

One new thing I tried was the spelt manna/cream of wheat. Spelt is a sort of ur-wheat that has begun being cultivated again because it is more hardy and disease resistant. I don't know that I can go back to the plain stuff again as it has a slightly nutty flavour that is really, really good. If you can get your hands on a sack of it, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Aside from the whipped porridge, I gave a pancake recipe with mannasuurimo a try and also found it excellent. What's not to love about milk, eggs, sugar, spice and porridge baked together? There are also porridges made from rolled oats, rice, rye, potato and barley. Rice porridge is very traditional around the holidays and is served with fruit, cinnamon and milk.

I'd bet that porridge mixed with onions, carrots, blue cheese, sausage with a bit of mustard and lingonberry sauce then baked like a casserole would be pretty delicious and a nice change from the usual potato accompaniment.

A non-food related aside; I've had a week from hell at work so I've not answered much email in about 2-3 weeks now and my apologies to those expecting replies. (If anyone has a tale of woe regarding the absolutely abominable enterprise-level 'support' Apple sells with their systems in Finland, talk to me. Who knew that 30-minute response time would translate to 4+ weeks waiting for a replacement Xraid? ) If I survive the office pikkujoulu and subsequent hangover, I'll try to answer email and such soon.

Debessmanna / puolukka vispipuuro / whipped cranberry porridge

Makes: 2 servings
Time: about 15 minutes
Source: The Cuisine of Latvia

• 75g or 2.65oz lingonberries or cranberries or red currants (or just use about 3/4 cup berry juice)
• 2 dl or .85 cup water
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup mannasurimo/semolina/cream of wheat

1. Rinse cranberries. Crush and squeeze out juice. Place cranberry solids in a saucepan, cover with water, boil for five minutes and strain.
2. Add sugar. Gradually add semolina/cream of wheat. Heat until the semolina thickens, then add cranberry juice. Pour mixture into a bowl and cool rapidly.
3. Whip mixture until it becomes light and airy and has doubled or tripled in volume. Serve in bowls with cold milk.

« Pannukakku made with porridge and served with cranberry sauce and whipped cream. »

Ahvenanmaan pannukakku / Åland pancake

Makes: 1 9-in/23cm pancake
Time: about 10 minutes
Source: Ruoka & Viini, nro. 33

• 2 dl or .85 cup prepared manna- or rice porridge
• 5 dl or 2.1 cups milk
• 1,5 dl or 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 dl or 7 tablespoons sugar (reduce by half if you want a less sweet pancake)
• 2 teaspoons finely ground cardamom
• 3 eggs, whisked together

1. Heat oven to 225C/435F.
2. Mix porridge, milk, flour, salt, sugar and cardamom in a medium bowl. Blend in the whisked eggs with a fork until smooth.
3. Pour batter into a buttered pan and bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes. The pancake first cooks around the edges and puffs up, then it develops puffy domes in the center. When these rise and join together, the pancake is done.

permalink Ω 25 November 2005, Helsinki

There and back again

« Through Finland in a RAV4. »

I have always maintained that in order to understand, or at least attempt to understand, the US one must make the trek across country by car, bicycle or other mode of ground transport rather than flying from one major city to the next as the land and landscape are what made it what it is today. This, too, can be said for Finland as by making a road trip around the various regions it becomes far more clear what is rather less apparent in Helsinki, the New York of the rest of the country; Most of the population of Finland are either living off the land or, as in Helsinki, one generation or less removed from doing so. This alone explains a lot about Finns and Finland. We saw lots of snow, lots of denuded forests, lots of reindeer that Otava was quite curious about, more snow, the arctic circle, the International Coffee Cup Museum and drank Krouvi, a tasty new Sinebrychoff beer that tastes like Sahti without the deadly alcohol content that doesn't seem to be in Helsinki just yet but, sadly, no Northern Lights. I'll get the film developed sometime this week and describe our adventures of the Finnish road between Helsinki and Ivalo, roughly the same distance as Denver to St. Louis, but with the terrain and services of country highways through Maine and New Hampshire. "Hey guy, you can't get there from here." :)

permalink Ω 21 November 2005, Helsinki

Little, Orange, Tart

« Layers of rich chocolate cake sandwiched between a light and fluffy tyrni mousse topped with a sweet tyrni gelée. »

One of the more unusual foods in Finland is the tyrni berry, a.k.a. sea buckthorn, which is a tart and bright orange fruit that grows up north. Jarkko brought a bottle of the unsweetened juice to Boston once and sprang it on me without preparing me for the taste of the day-glo orange coloured fluid. My mouth puckered so hard from the tartness that I think it took a few hours for my face to return to normal. After all the trouble he went through of buying the juice and carting it all the way to the US, I'm glad he had a good laugh.

The herring market in early October usually brings with it quite a lot of tyrni products. It's an expensive berry since the fruit is difficult to pick and must be done by hand so, aside from jelly, juice and frozen puree, it's not very common to find products containing tyrni even in Finland. The Finnish word for the berry is rather recent with the first citation being from 1850 hailing from the old Norse þyrnir and old Swedish thörne. It is a virtually unheard of berry outside of cold northern climes and China though it appears that some attempts are being made at cultivating plants for commercial harvesting at more southern latitudes. The Berry Bible didn't have any recipes containing the sea buckthorn, but did include a rather informative description of it.

Sea Buckthorn Berry

Common Names: buckthorn, sanddorn (Germany), oblepikha (Russia), argousier (France), havtorn (Sweden). The name sea buckthorn is derived from its habit of growing near the sea with its thorny spines.

Scientific Classification: Sea buckthorns (Hippophae rhamnoides) are a member of the oleaster family (Elaeagnaceae) and related to the Russian olive and the oleaster. Their name is derived from the Greek language: hippo, meaning "horse", phoas, meaning "light", and rhamnoides, from their resemblance to the genus Rhamnus-the buckthorns. The ancient Greeks fed this plant to their horses to improve their health and to make their coat shiny. the Russian name for this plant, oblepikha, means "to cling to," referring to the berries, which are firmly attached to the branches.

Habitat and Distribution: Sea buckthorns are deciduous shrubs with round orange berries (they can be red or yellow, too, but not as commonly) that are native to the northern regions of Eurasia. They are particularly widespread in northern Europe and on the seacoasts of Romania, Mongolia, and China and are divided into eight subspecies by geographic location. they grow from sea level, preferring the slopes of riverbanks and the seashore, to 10,000 feet in the Himalayas.

In Russia families grow sea buckthorns in the gardens at their dachas. The berries are harvested at the end of summer and canned or made into jams or taken to the cities and sold at farmers' markets.

North American gardeners grow sea buckthorns as ornamentals for their colourful orange berries that remain on the bush all winter long.

History: Legend has it that the sea buckthorns were the food of Pegasus, the flying horse of Greek mythology. The medicinal qualities of these historic fruits are recorded in ancient Greek and Tibetan texts from as early as the seventh century, when the sea buckthorn was considered a universal healing agent. It was used to treat rheumatism, scurvy, tumors, skin diseases, and intestinal disorders.

Where they are grown commercially: Sea buckthorns were domesticated in Siberia in the 1930s and are often called Siberian pineapple after their similar flavor. In Eurasia this shrub is one of the most widely grown northern fruits.

Russia, Mongolia and China are the largest producers of sea buckthorn products in the world. The berries are harvested commercially and processed for jellies, juices, liqueurs, candy, vitamin C tablets, tea, ice cream, cosmetics, and medicines.

Currently, many countries, including Canada, Russia, China, and Scandinavia, have breeding programs for this berry. With recent scientific studies showing their high antioxidant levels, which give them protective and anti-inflammatory properties, production is likely to increase in North America if a sea buckthorn can be developed that can separate easily from the plant so it can be harvested mechanically.

Sea buckthorn plants are available for home gardens. To order, see One Green World's web site, www.onegreenworld.com.

So, when I noticed a recipe for tyrni in the most recent issue of Ruoka & Viini, I decided to give it a try since the juice is good when it has been sweetened and I vaguely remembered that it is Jarkko's favourite berry. Thus begins my saga of 1 week and 3 cakes.

The original chocolate cake recipe called for 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks along with a decilitre of ground almonds. The big problem with this recipe; the cake was dry to the point of being nearly impossible to slice into two layers and, once layered, the cake was too hard to go well with the soft mousse which made it fall apart when eating it. The chocolate flavour was dulled by the almond as well which I didn't think complemented the tangy zing of the tyrni either.

I went looking for a simple, moist, chocolatey cake recipe that might work in its stead. The soft, rich chocolate cake I found has the perfect texture to accompany the mousse. I have always avoided slicing chocolate cakes into layers whenever possible since I'm not very good at it and they tend to be very delicate. However, it becomes an issue with this cake since the springform pan is necessary for building the cake. I did make one cake with 2 layer cake pans and baker's cellophane but it was an exercise in patience. The springform pan is far easier to deal with but, unless you have two of them in the same size, you're going to have to slice the cake into layers. It helps to have a long, sharp serrated knife and a pancake spatula or two to assist in positioning the cake without damaging it in the process. The chocolate layers are the most difficult part of this cake.

The mousse is easy to make though I decided to whip the cream first since it requires that the bowl and beaters are clean, dry and cold and getting that out of the way is more efficient. I also added the cooled gelatin-fruit juice mix to the cream cheese mixture without the whipped cream and chilled it while the cake was baking and cooling since it is too runny to whip with the cream and expect it to be fluffy. Chilling it a bit makes it firmer and easier to whip. If you can't get or don't want the added liquor, you can simply add an equivalent amount of juice and extra sugar.

It's a beautiful cake and one must enjoy the bright orange qualities of it as well. Allow the cake to warm up a wee bit before serving and decorate with dark chocolate swirls and possibly some tyrni purée or berries. This cake is so good that only one of the three I made got taken to work and my taste testers loved it. If you don't have tyrni juice or jelly available, you might substitute cranberry or raspberry successfully, too.

Chocolate-buckthorn mousse cake

Makes: one 20-24cm/8-9.5in cake
Time: 35 mins prep + chilling and baking time
Special tools: springform pan
Source: Ruoka & Viini

chocolate layer cake

Makes: 2 8-9in/20-22cm cake layers
Source: CI

• 1/2 cup or 1,25 dl cocoa (natural)
• 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
• 1.25 cups or 3 dl all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 cup or 2,5 dl whole milk, room temperature
• 1.5 sticks or 170g unsalted butter, softened
• 1.25 cups or 3 dl sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature

buckthorn mousse

• 200g or 7oz philadelphia cream cheese or other tuorejuusto (softened)
• 1 1/3 dl or 1/2 cup tyrni/buckthorn jelly
• 3 tablespoons tyrni/buckthorn liquor (optional)
• 2 dl or 3/4 cup whipping cream
• 3 2g gelatin sheets or about 1 .25oz gelatin packet
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup sweetened pure tyrni/buckthorn juice

buckthorn gelée

• 3 2g gelatin sheets or about 1 .25oz gelatin packet
• 1 dl or 1/2 cup sweetened pure tyrni/buckthorn juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 dl or 1/2 cup water

1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 350F/175C degrees. Grease two 8-9.5 in/20-24 cm round baking pans or one springform pan. Line pan bottoms with waxed or parchment paper; grease paper as well. **(note: I used a 24cm pan so a 20cm pan might need to use a little less of the batter else the layers might be a bit too thick. YMMV.)
2. Whisk the cocoa, instant coffee, flour, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl and set aside. Add vanilla to the milk and set aside.
3. Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer set at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in sugar; beat until mixture is fluffy and almost white, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating 1 full minute after each addition.
4. With mixer on lowest speed, add about 1/3 of dry ingredients to batter, followed immediately by the milk/vanilla mixture; mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into batter. Repeat process twice more. When batter appears blended, stop mixer and scrape bowl sides with rubber spatula. Return mixer to low speed; beat until batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.
5. Divide batter evenly between pans. With rubber spatula, run batter to pan sides and smooth top. Bake cakes until they feel firm in center when lightly pressed and skewer comes out clean or with just a crumb or two adhering, 23 to 30 minutes or about 45-50 minutes if using single pan. Tranfer pans to wire racks; cool for 20 minutes. Run knife around perimeter of each pan, invert cakes onto racks, and peel off paper liners.
6. For the mousse: Place gelatin sheets in a bowl of cool water for a few minutes. Heat the juice in the microwave until hot. Squeeze water from the gelatin sheets and dissolve in the hot juice. Set aside to cool.
7. Whip the cold cream to stiff peaks and place in the refrigerator until needed.
8. Whip softened cream cheese, jelly and liquor together until fluffy. Beat in the fully cooled gelatin-juice mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and whip again until smooth. Place into the refrigerator for about an hour while the cake cools. Don't leave the gelatin-juice mixture in the cold for too long as you only want it to thicken, not gel.
9. After the cake has cooled and the layers are ready, remove the whipped cream and the cream cheese mixture from the refrigerator and whip them together until smooth and fluffy.
10. Wash the springform pan ring, if using a springform pan, and position it on the pan with the bottom cake layer in place. Pour half of the mousse over the bottom layer and make even with an offset spatula. Gently place the second layer of chocolate cake on top and repeat with the other half of the mousse, taking special care to make the top even and smooth. Cover top with plastic wrap and place flat on a shelf in the refrigerator for an hour or two. Microwave the gelée juice, sugar and water until hot and dissolve gelatin. Set aside to cool while the mousse is firming up in the refrigerator.
11. Remove the cake from the refrigerator, remove the plastic wrap and slowly pour the cooled gelée mixture into a spoon held just above the mousse. Replace the plastic wrap and refrigerate the cake for another few hours or overnight.

permalink Ω 25 September 2005, Helsinki

The Finnish Riviera

« Butterfly shutters on Hemulen's house at Moomin World in Naantali. »

Three small galleries of photos from a short trip through the Finnish Riviera:

• Moomin World
• Unikeon Päivä, a.k.a. Sleepyhead Day
• The Finnish Riviera

I don't remember precisely when it was, though I suspect I noticed the Naantali brochure when we were anxiously waiting for Otava's arrival in the Stockholm ferry terminal, that I read a blurb about a town called Naantali throwing someone into the water early on a mid-July morning as part of a tradition called "Unikeon Päivä", a.k.a. Sleepyhead Day. It claimed that the last person sleeping would be chased into the harbour and be doomed to being sleepy for the rest of the year. I thought to myself, "Wow, there's a contest I could win every year, not to mention that it sure would explain alot." It also mentioned Moomin World and a spa whereupon I was immediately sold on the idea of paying a visit to Finland's "Sunshine Town", the Finnish Riviera. My desire grew as seasons marched on and I hadn't been further outside of Helsinki than Espoo.

I didn't have much holiday time this year as it's my first year working and no one tells you that you accrue holiday time at a rate of 2.x days per month until April which then determines your annual allotment. This means instead of the fabled and seemingly impossible 4-6 weeks of annual holiday, you get only a few days if you start work in November as I did. And you only work 5 days a week but you have to have 6 days of holiday to take a week off which is some throwback to times that few remember or know why it remains done this way. I didn't know you could take unpaid holiday time in lieu of having paid holiday on your first year, either. So, I had a few days worth of flex-time that I scheduled for a 3-day tour of the Finnish Riviera through Hanko, Raasepori, Naantali and Uusikaupunki.

All roads lead to Hanko, at least this is how it has appeared since I arrived as there are countless signs that say "Hanko" along the roads. I've been wanting to know all this time what is so great about Hanko that everyone needs to know which roads go there. The country is too small to have something like signs in western Colorado pointing to St. Louis which is 600-800 miles away since it's the nearest point of civilisation around that drivers will recognise. In fuckallnowhere you either live there or keep on driving in hopes of finding something other than country and western on the radio. So, in the interest of figuring out what the big deal about Hanko was, we drove there first. Not too far from Hanko along the King's Road is Raasepori Castle. I had been there before, but it was a nice pitstop for coffee.

Hanko is the southernmost town in Finland which explains the abundant signage. It is also a rather large port hosting the largest guest harbour in Finland as well as acres of imported cars waiting for transport. The tallest lighthouse in the Nordic countries, Bengtskär, is near the coast as well. We walked around the old town, had lunch in the seaside casino whose interior is straight out of a 1970s ABBA music video and went on our way since it was somewhat dreary and rainy. One thing I noticed as we were strolling around town was that there must be some cosmic law regarding seaside towns and all the crappy kitsch that goes with them since even Finland isn't immune to its relentless ubiquity. I always wonder who is buying the lighthouse door knockers or the stuffed viking pirates.

From Hanko, it's an easy drive to Naantali which is just north of Turku since much of the 4-lane highway has been finished, though large chunks of the 2-lane donkey cart road between Helsinki and Turku remain. Jarkko booked a room at the Naantali Spa Hotel as the town has been historically well known for its spas since 1863. Elvis, too, was staying at the spa in the Footsteps of Elvis exhibit, reportedly the largest of its kind outside of Graceland. It was entertaining to see the busloads of geriatric Finnish Elvis fans pay 12 eur to relive a bit of their youth. I was hoping for poodle skirts and Elvis impersonators, but no such luck. The spa had flag poles in the front driveway which displayed the flags of their guests' countries. The next morning I looked up and there was old glory waving in the breeze and it made me feel really uncomfortable though I'm sure the intent was just the opposite.

After a relaxing dinner in old town, and a bit more wine than we needed, we wobbled back to the hotel to rest up for visiting Moomin World. My vision of Moomin World was decidedly American in scope and concept. I remain rather pouty that I was denied the joy of blueberry Moomin pehmis (soft-serve ice cream) touting the "Made with real Moomins™" mark of quality. I missed the Moomin-shaped water tower that should have rightly been a towering landmark visible from miles around. The Moomin Shop had gifts mostly for kids and less Moomin merch than what you could find in Stockmann. I delighted in the fantasy of a Moomin merch paradise with unique items you could only find at Moomin World that I could send to friends and family. I respect the fact that the Moomin franchise, Tove Jansson's family, has told Walt Disney to piss off and that they are trying not to be complete commercial money grubbers but, c'mon, they're charging 16 euro per head for Moomin World, why not make some interesting and unusual merch available only in Naantali to make the trip even more special. Yes, I'm bitterly disappointed that I didn't find any fun Haisuli miniatures or cookie cutters. I'll live. :)

The park itself is cleverly appointed with features straight from the Moomin books that those who have read the books will delight in. It's not an amusement park with roller coasters or thrill rides, no, it really is just about the Moomin stories. There are, unsurprisingly, lots and lots and lots of young children. So many, in fact, that the two of us wandering around without such an accessory felt more than a little out of place, even suspect. The Washington Post ran an article, Invasion of the Moomins, back in 2001 about a visit to Moomin World which is interesting since the Moomin really aren't known at all in the US for some reason. Not much has changed since then. I was rather surprised at the complete lack of anything in English for children who aren't Finnish or Swedish. Even the tourism office and website seemed to have precious little for the non-local tourists. The Moomin books have been translated into numerous languages but Moomin World doesn't seem to be as welcoming to children from elsewhere in the world which is a pity since the books are endearing to both children and adults who might enjoy Moomin World if they had the opportunity.

After leaving Moomin World, we returned to the hotel to enjoy the spa part of the spa hotel. :) It was sorta funny sitting in the co-ed turkish steam bath wondering which vague shape in the thick fog was Jarkko. The cycle of sauna->pool->sauna continues to be unexpectedly refreshing even as I keep telling my colleages that St. Louis' summer is actually quite like the Finnish sauna only without the benefit of being naked or having the ability to flee the oppressive heat when you've had enough. Massages came next as Jarkko insisted on us both having a session of trying to take the stiffness down a notch. It's so weird when you stuff your face in the padded hole on the massage table and a complete stranger begins rubbing your fat down while you think of nothing in particular and hope that you don't relax so much that you start farting. :)

We rose the next day at an inhumanly early hour to go see the event that brought us to Naantali, Unikeon Päivä, a.k.a. Sleepyhead Day, where one unlucky, upstanding and prominent member of the community gets dumped into the harbour at 7am. There's little information about Unikeon Päivä in English and what little there is tends to be inaccurate so the following is from Vuotuinen Ajantieto by Kustaa Vilkuna which is a bit of an authoritative classic on Finnish calendar lore and holidays.

The Sleepyhead Day: 27.7

The strange "Unikeko" name is met already in the calendar of the Hemming hymnals in 1652 before which it had to have been in common use because is not a late translational borrowing. In other languages, there is only talk of the "seven sleepers". The origin of the memorial day is from the seven martyrs from Ephesus, the young men Maximianus, Malcus, Martinianus, Dionysius, Johannes, Serapion, and Constantinus, who fleeing the persecution of the emperor Decius slept the years 249-447. The earliest record of this legend is from the year 570. In the Nordic countries, the day was celebrated already in the Middle Ages. In Finland, the seven sleepyheads day was originally on 26.6, as well as in a couple of bishoprics of Denmark. In the middle of the 1700s, the day was moved to its current position, which is the same as with most saint calendars of the Swedish and Norwegian bishoprics.

The belief that if one sleeps late on Sleepyhead Day that one will be sleepy for the whole year is probably of a relatively late origin. The one who stays last in bed will be called "the sleepyhead of the house and the laziest one for all the year". But, if one went to the stables early in the morning with one's eyes closed, both the man and the horse became equally early risers. A horse is a naturally early riser. These kinds of portents have earlier belonged to the end of the "keyri", i.e. the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the new one. One portent of the natural kind is the common adage: "If it rains on the sleepyhead day, it will rain seven weeks straight."

To the summertime holiday and spa season of Naantali belongs the continuously happy sleepyhead tradition with early wake-ups, vespers, and other festivities. The current custom, which in recent years has grown into a three day carnival, was started in the heyday of the Naantali spa in 1889. The masseuses started amusing their guests in a folk-like manner. The loud and colourful procession and dumping a well-known figure who slept until seven into the sea have become the high point of the festival.

The Finnish almanac is probably the only calendar left these days which still has "Sleepyhead Day" in it. Since 1973 it has been printed alongside the popular name, "Heidi".

So here we were sitting around the harbour at about 6.30 in the AM, after having had a bit too much sangria the night before, waiting for the thrill of watching someone get tossed into the harbour. Clearly, my threshold for excitement had reached a new low. At one point I looked to my left and Jarkko noted that the President was about 20 feet away on the presidential boat which had come over from Kultaranta, the President's summer residence, across the bay. I thought that not only would that never happen in the US, but wondered why Tarja wasn't having breakfast with some world leader or something more, well, world leaderish instead of hanging out on a boat waiting for somone to get tossed into the bay, especially after her husband was Unikeko in 2002. Soon after, the majorettes marched onto the pier followed by a few guys dressed like Venetian gondoliers carrying a body draped in a grey wool blanket. They carefully, almost apologetically, tilted the stretcher towards the water and the chosen Unikeko of 2005, Risto Rinne, the CEO of Neste Oil, plopped into the water with little fanfare but much applause.

Afterwards, people dispersed for breakfast and a children's costume contest where, surprisingly, the themes were very similar to Halloween costumes in the US as there were superheroes, pirates, and political figures. There was one pirate who had his little sister dressed up as his wench, a set of twins were made up as golfers and one little girl made a convincing 1920s flapper. The majorettes gathered in front of a small tourist choo-choo tram, the Unikeko arrived and the parade proceeded to wind through the streets with costumed children, adults clad in pyjamas, and grandmothers knitting on the go following behind. The festivities would last for the rest of the day. We went back to the hotel for breakfast and headed for a tour of Kultaranta, but the next tour wasn't until 1pm and we wanted to get home at a reasonable hour as I had to go back to work the next day, so we departed and drove towards Uusikaupunki.

We visited Uusikaupunki specifically to see Bonk Industries, an elaborately conceived and executed museum fabricated for the sole purpose of giving the town a bit of tourism appeal. The town apparently felt like they needed some historical cachet so they made up Bonk Industries and the exhibits are so beautifully and meticulously crafted that it's convincing until you start to read the story which is pretty over the top. Uusikaupunki's tourist office also had a surprisingly large number of publications in English as opposed to Naantali which is a far larger, more touristy town that has very, very little in English, including their web page which had the English events and news sections under construction for most of the year. The second local attraction that wasn't created solely to attract tourists was the Myllymäki hil windmills where there used to be dozens of them for grinding grain before more modern machines forced them into obsolescence. It's a lovely little town that I'm sorry we didn't get to enjoy more time in. It is also worth mentioning that many of the towns along the southwest coast host festivals that they must coordinate with each other since, if you plan carefully, you can make your way through the towns hopping from one festival to the next. Had we time to stay, Uusikaupunki had a music festival starting the next day.

Southwest Finland is the so-called Finnish Riviera because it enjoys more sunshine during the year than much of the rest of Finland which, in all honesty, isn't really saying much. :) It is also the area of Finland that embodies the image of Finland and Finnish life that is most familiar to foreigners, most likely due to being a popular area for tourism. It is a beautiful, but populous, part of the country. I have yet to visit eastern Finland and Lapland, but maybe next year.

n.b - I had intended to write this earlier with more witty anecdotes and humour, but I've been tired, sick and unable to do much other than gape at CNN for the past week. So, if anyone made it this far, I hope it didn't make for horribly dull reading.

permalink Ω 5 September 2005, Helsinki

Talkkuna

« Talkkuna Blueberry Pie »

I watched Jarkko dump a bunch of powdery stuff into his yogurt one morning to make it into a gloopy sort of porridge. Curious, I asked to try it and it tasted a bit like a cold, creamy, malty cereal. When he told me what it was, I hadn't ever heard of it, hadn't ever tried it even though I likely passed by it on the shelves in the grocery hundreds of times. A week or two later I noticed a wee new book, Pieni talkkunakirja, all about talkkuna so I bought a copy to read more about this mysterious and reasonably tasty new foodstuff. The book is short but it's beautifully put together and has quite a lot of factoids about talkkuna along with some recipes containing talkkuna. When I started poking around with google to find more information about talkkuna, I found that the author keeps a blog and is currently working on a book on Finnish fleamarkets that I'm looking forward to reading [He also has a very interesting collection of Finnish pulp fiction book covers]. The book has more information about talkkuna than most people would ever need or want to know, but I'll share a bit of the highlights, slightly condensed and paraphrased, since there appears to be virtually nothing in English available on the net about it. :)

Talkkuna came to Finland in the 1700's but it had been eaten in similar forms long before then. It is believed that it arrived in Finland from the Slavs and reached Karelia and Vepsä first. (Interesting that it arrived in Eastern Finland first, but is a traditional food in the Southwestern part of the country.) Talkkuna was often used as a snack food and dessert. There's a similar food Estonia called "kama" that's served cold. It isn't a seasonal food but it is eaten quite often in Autumn with the harvest and in winter. Urbanization has largely destroyed much of the talkkuna tradition as the city dwellers have either forgotten about it or shun the dry, strange flour from the countryside. Many of the people from the larger generation [baby boomers?] also have not introduced their children to talkkuna. The Helsinki University Savo Guild have been known to have a talkkuna celebration, "Talakkunat", in late November in past years dating back to 1887.

Talkkuna consists of cooked ground oats or barley which sometimes includes ground peas or other flours. Everywhere save Northern Finland talkkuna is used in various foods and there is quite a bit of variation in the grains used from region to region. In Northern Karelia talkkuna is made with barley and in Häme and Southwestern Finland (i.e. Turku) the base of talkkuna is oat flour. In the South Talkkuna can also be found to contain rye and wheat. Traditionally, the tasty and nutritional ingredients are peas and beans which are ground and mixed with the other flours. Talkkuna is traditional in Häme, Southwest Finland and Satakunta (i.e. Pori and Rauma). In Central Finland, the talkkuna is dried in the oven which makes for a darker and stronger tasting flour. In the Savo, Kainu and Oulu regions, talkkuna is typically called 'puurotalkkuna'. It is usually made from barley and coarsely ground. It is not consumed plain, instead it is boiled in water to make a porridge then served with butter or lard.

Talkkuna is known elsewhere in the world, too. The word "talkkuna" is from Indo-European roots. In Afghanistan the word in Pashto is "talxan", in Mongolian it is "t'alxx" and in Russian it is "tolokno" which is the likely origin for the word in Finnish. In Scotland, it is called "brose", a cold porridge of oats that can also be mixed with peas and greens such as nettles, shallots and cabbage. Scotland's cold porridge is an ingredient in a drink called Atholl Brose, which is a mixture of oatmeal, honey and whisky. It can also contain cream. The drink was named due to the Earl of Athol having beaten an enemy by secretly filling a well with the alcoholic concoction. I've never seen this whisky so I've certainly got to try it now. :)

There are a variety of different talkkuna flours in the grocery depending on which grocery you shop at. I've only tried two of them and both of them must be from central Finland given their strong, smokey flavour. I decided to try making a blueberry pie from the Pieni talkkunakirja and find that talkkuna has a very appealing taste in baked goods. This recipe was easy, quick and quite tasty though I think it might have tasted better with a less aggressive talkkuna. My only complaint was that the crust was a wee bit on the dry side which might be solved by adding a bit of milk. I also added talkkuna to the blueberry filling as partly for taste and thickening properties. Vanilla ice cream also takes the pie from good to excellent.

Talkkuna-Blueberry Pie

Makes: 1 pie, approx. 12 servings
Time: about 1 hour including baking
Source: Pieni talkkunakirja

Crust:

• 125g or 1 stick butter
• 0,75dl or 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• about 0,5 dl or 1/4 cup whole milk (optional)
• 2dl or 3/4 cup wheat or all-purpose flour
• 0,75dl or 1/3 cup talkkuna flour
• 0,75dl or 1/3 cup potato flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Filling:

• 1 litre or 4 cups blueberries ( or about 4 200g packages of frozen blueberries )
• about 2-4 tablespoons potato flour or corn starch (dissolved in a little bit of water or blueberry juice)
• about 3 tablespoons talkkuna (optional)
• about 1dl or 1/2 cup sugar

Topping:

• Vanilla ice cream or sauce

1. Heat oven to 200C/395F. Mix filling ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. If using frozen berries, allow to thaw and adjust the amount of thickener if there's a lot of excess juice
2. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time, beating until fluffy. Add milk.
3. Mix dry ingredients together and gradually add to the butter mixture. It will form a firm dough-like ball. Place dough in ~ 27cm/11in tart/pie pan and press evenly over the bottom and sides. Pour filling over the crust and bake for about 20-30 minutes until filling is set and crust is brown.
4. Cool and serve with vanilla ice cream or sauce.

permalink Ω 31 July 2005, Helsinki

Coup de main

« A tribute in snow to the Swedish King Gustav III on Suomenlinna. Gustav staged a coup de main to retake the fortress in 1772. The walls of the fortress were nicely done and the bust of Gustav looked as though it were rising out of the sea which the exposed grass and the distortion of the 15mm lens seem to exaggerate a bit. »

permalink Ω 7 April 2005, Helsinki

Does my ass look fat in this?

« "Back in my day, we didn't have bras. We had to hold them up with our bare hands!" I'd love to know what this sculpture on a building in Stockholm means, if anything. Maybe it's a plastic surgery hospital inside. »

Ever since I moved here, I have come to be very fascinated by the Finnish curiosity for what foreigners think of their country. A number of people, including my own father-in-law, have commented that they find my boring corner of the internet interesting because of my outsider view of life here. I suppose I find it strange because as an American I already either know what people think of the US given how many rants I have had delivered to me from those wearing Nike shoes, Levi's and a Mets baseball cap or because the US is so big that it is something different for everyone, even those who live there, which I don't take personally. And, mostly, I just don't care.

Finland seems both vain and insecure as though it were a woman asking a boyfriend, "Hey, does this make my ass look fat?", as if the answer were going to dispel her doubts about her own self-image. Or, more to the point, why do Finns care about what foreigners think of Finland when, like America and most other places, it is always a bit different for everyone? What has made me wonder about this recently is the popularity among Finns of an American Libertarian's blog, Finland for Thought.** In the US, Phil would be just another guy cutting and pasting news into his blog, as if there aren't enough of those already, but here he's considered a political pundit because, I am told, there's so little public political discourse. Of course, of the several people I asked about this, none of them discuss political issues on their blogs but find a foreigner who writes only in English with a no-big-government, no-taxes slant to be a good change of pace. Hey, who said irony was dead? What about all the parlimentarians with a blog? You know, the folks who actually represent the people in the government? I suppose politicians are supposed to be too diplomatic to offer opinions in the wrong language about issues they've not had more than 3 years of experience with just to be controversial. Well, unless they're the President of the US.

Perhaps the reason political opinions in Finland are not often spewed randomly on the net, where they will be cached by the search engines for as long as there is power to run the machines to ensure that they resurface to haunt you at some later date, is that people who can't chat up their neighbour about the weather, or even grunt and nod to them, generally aren't going to blurt out critical statements that will either find a friend or an enemy. You know, if you can't get to "Hello" you just aren't going to make it to "Fuck off" without a bottle of koskenkorva to help you get there and, really, discussing politics while bombed is a cherished American tradition that nobody wants to imitate. A very high percentage of the Finns I know say they email their political representatives and, amazingly, receive replies on issues that they have concerns about. This seems far more efficient and, frankly, more Finnish. If only Americans would even bother to vote much less email their representatives. Then again, every time I've written a politician back home, I've never received a reply. Bitching on the net and over too many beers at the pub is as good as it gets for us Yankees.

I'm guessing then that F4T is more a magic combination of from-the-hip pot stirring and curiosity/insecurity feeding which may make for a fabulously popular TV series on Nelonen. Hey, Phil, you can star in your own show finally! I'm envisioning a Finnish Hardball but with foreigners who read only what scarce local news is available in English and then argue animatedly about some random issue. :)

**Disclaimer: I know Phil and while I'd buy him a beer, I probably won't vote for him when he runs for public office. This isn't a personal attack, but a sincere curiosity. If you're Finnish, however, and feel a slight burning sensation, that's just the sarcasm missing your funny bone.

permalink Ω 30 March 2005, Helsinki

Begins with L, ends in U

« Does every office party come equipped with a portable disco ball and ABBA tunes at the ready? I was drunk on 2 ciders by 7pm and I'm surprised I could hold the Leica steady, especially since I was a bit too amused at the choice of music. A modern adaptation/interpretation of the Kalevala could be pretty entertaining in the hands of the right satirist. Väinämöinen in a polyester leisure suit out on the dancefloor.... »

It's Lönnrotin/Kalevalan Päivä again and this year, aside from promising myself that I will read the Kalevala straight through, I will finally learn how to say Lönnrotinkatu without writing it down for the taxi driver who invariably gives me the "where in the fuck?" look or explaining that I'm talking about the street between Bulevardi and Kalevankatu, the one that begins with 'L' and ends in 'u'. I think it is the only street downtown that has L or Lö as the first letter[s]. My life is full of small, insignificant, yet daunting ambitions.

permalink Ω 28 February 2005, Helsinki

The Popcorn Berry

« Lumimarja, a.k.a. snowberry , that grows rather well around Finland. When the guys at work told me it was the 'famous Finnish popcorn berry' I was willing to believe it since it does look like popcorn on a stick, but when they asked if I had seen the yellow variety known as the 'buttered Finnish popcorn berry' I knew I was being toyed with. :) »

While I was walking to the bus stop this morning, I thought I saw 'vuokraamo' in the window of a gunshop that usually has a few rather serious-looking samples on display. I thought, wow, there's something you never see - Gun Rentals. Can you imagine the clientele? The promotions? "Rent 5, get the 6th for free!" Ah, well, I misread the sign.

It's amazing how work kills your freetime. :) Sifting through the Tunisia pictures, getting them online and annotated has taken a bit longer than I had planned this week, but everything should be together by tomorrow as once the puppy comes I'll have even less time for the next few weeks while we get him all settled in.

There's a tyynysota on Monday at noon, in the railway station square, where the world's record for largest pillow fight will be attempted. The event will last about an hour and the duration of the pillow fight itself will be approximately 15 minutes. Bring your own pillow and inner child. I'm disappointed that I'll be too busy with the puppy to help Finland achieve greatness in tactical pillow warfare.

permalink Ω 14 January 2005, Helsinki

Arriba! Arriba! Sofa Sofa!

« Petteri "isä" Suomalainen and Jere "poika" Alenius disguised as Cheech and Chong selling sofas in Finland. »

Being an expat, sometimes it is not the differences rather the similarities between your new home and the old that are the most curious. Behold the sombrero dudes above who were featured in an article in today's Helsingin Sanomat about their weird commercials ranging from Mexicans to Sherlock Holmes and Watson to genies on a magic carpet. About 30 years ago, there were 2 Jewish appliance salesmen in St. Louis, the Slyman Brothers, who starred in their own disturbingly cheezy commericals of them sitting on top of the arch and waving. They were joined by Steve Mizerany who would run into trees while on roller skates or dress like a boozing pervy Santa for the annual "Christmas in July" sales. Two guys offering debt consolidation services also had some really funny cave men commercials with boobalicious cave girls sitting on their laps. The heiress of these pioneers is Becky the "Queen of Carpet", a rather corpulent lady in a shiny satin gown and tiara flying around the arch on a carpet.

These guys are a touch of home, even if it is freaky to turn on the TV late at night, suddenly see two Finns dressed as Speedy Gonzalez and wonder if I'm hallucinating. The continuity director forgot to send them somewhere for a tan as they are the most glaringly white Mexicans I've ever seen. :) They mention in the article that commercials that don't get talked about are bad/not as effective and, well, I've not been able to blot out the Slyman Brothers after 30 years in spite of the electric shock therapy so I would have to agree. I hope they try dressing up as Vikings sometime soon as that would be really amusing and show a sense of humour a little closer to home. :)

permalink Ω 5 December 2004, Helsinki

Hell's Lake

« Helvetinjärvi, Hell's Lake, in Autumn viewed from the shore and a few other photos of the colourful season. »

When we escaped the city for the weekend, we happened to be driving near Helvetinjärvi National Park and decided to stop and walk to see what earned the name of "Hell's Lake". It's only a one kilometre walk to the lake, but it takes a little time since the path has many gnarled and slippery pine roots along the path in addition to beautiful scenery. I noticed one woman grumbling to the man with her because she wore shoes that you'd expect to have difficultly wearing on a city sidewalk.

I hadn't really gotten out to see much of Finland's more remote wilderness or geologic features so this place was very interesting on both counts. The lakes formed in gorges caused by faults in the bedrock which means they have very steep sides and are very deep. The pine forest that surrounds the lakes is dense, mossy and boggy. There are lots of little streams that look appealing until you notice the water is brown from filtering through the surrounding peat bogs. We only walked as far as Helvetinkolu, but I wish we would have had the time to walk along the trail to Haukanhieta. Finland's National Parks really are quite gorgeous and I hope to visit them all.

permalink Ω 1 November 2004, Helsinki

Need Mo' Sunshine

« A cute barcode sticker reads "I need mo' sunshine" on a grey day. »

November is only a few days away and summer seems like it never really came this year since it rained more often than not. The days already are dim/dark by 5pm and the disorientation of sunlight at midnight seems like a vague memory. All those endless hours of light will be replaced with darkness. The upside to the sun not rising until 9am is that even night people like me can feel like there's hope for us becoming morning people afterall, even if it is only a solar illusion. November is very aptly named the 'Dead' month as without the colour of the autumn leaves or the brightness of snow, it is the darkest and most dreadful month of the Finnish year. I'll take -25C with snow in January before any day in November with it's dark gloom.

I read recently that a group of sticker graffiti artists were nabbed in a big bust down on Iso Rooba, in particular the prolific "Let me love?" person, which was very sad news. It's difficult to defend an urban artform that so many people dislike on perfectly sensible grounds, but the sticker and stencil art is often well done and they never do what the teenage fuckheads with the cans of spraypaint do, namely write fuck in as many forms possible on any surface they come across, including beautiful Jugend buildings and stonework where it is butt ugly and difficult to remove. Sticker and stencil art is often found on downspouts, ugly metal utility boxes and other places where they aren't going to do any permanent damage. I wish the cops would bust the kids who always seem to have a spare can of paint around and not a single grain of sense.

And, some people might remember Aaron Huey who walked across America with his Leica and his dog, Cosmo. I asked two publishers where I knew a few people to consider publishing his book, both of which came back with a "not original" rejection which, in publisherese, means something like "it won't sell". Updike just published his latest in a long, long lifetime of "not original", but somehow it sells. I don't understand how a guy this talented could get the HAND while some of the photobloggers who take random pictures of their feet, dinner, window, etc. are supposedly getting book deals these days. I really hope to see American Ocean in print someday. In the interim, he has finally been featured in Smithsonian Magazine's November Issue so maybe there's hope that someone will see what I see in his pictures and publish the book.

permalink Ω 27 October 2004, Helsinki

Build it and they will come

« The lucky horseshoe and outlet mall of Tuuri. »

I have previously lamented the lack of roadside attractions in Finland before but no longer. I saw an article in FinnAir's magazine about a giant horseshoe on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and knew I had to pay it a visit.

Tuuri is 145 kilometers north of Tampere. I wasn't expecting throngs of buses and old folks swarming around the whole 'outlet mall' sort of attraction. It's the same in the US since noone would bother going to Freeport, Maine, just for a few L.L.Bean shirts, but add a whole array of brand name outlet stores to the same street and people from miles around will come. I wouldn't have expected the Tuuri horseshoe and shopping outlet mall to be the most popular tourist attraction in Finland. I mean, it's not really on the way to or from anywhere except maybe Oulu. Do that many people really go on holiday to shop somewhere?

The shops apparently do enough business to be second only to Stockmann's in sales every year. For a place that's out in the middle of nowhere, that's pretty impressive. Vesa Keskinen, the owner, is planning a 5-star hotel and thinking big for the future. I'm starting to get the idea that Ostrobothnia is the Texas of Finland where everything is bigger. They also host the Miljoona Pilkki which is where 27,000 or so people go out onto the ice to fish and freeze their arse off in early March and is allegedly the world's largest such event.

One thing they need to work on is the postcards as they aren't anywhere near as cheesy as would befit a giant horseshoe out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe one postcard could feature the horseshoe with space aliens landing in the parking lot to fill up on salmiakki and vodka.

permalink Ω 17 October 2004, Helsinki

Baltic Jugend

« A Jugend building on Korkeavuorenkatu painted with a castle-like shadow in the late afternoon sun. »

Helsinki has some of the most beautiful Art Nouveau, a.k.a. Jugend, architecture in abundance. Much of Katajanokka and Töölö were designed and built during the few years that Jugend was popular and so hold the greatest concentrations of the style. The Finnish Museum of Architecture is currently showing and exhibit titled Architecture 1900 - Baltic Art Nouveau which explores the collaboration of Jugend architects from Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga and St. Petersburg. The years between 1890 and 1912 were likely the most interesting years in modern history and the buildings and designs reflect the meeting point of old and new. The exhibit is full of photographs, drawings, old postcards, currency designs and other bits of interest from the period in all 5 cities. Out of the sample, I'd have to say that Finland had the most beautiful overall style. There is a book to accompany the exhibit that is nicely designed, although it doesn't include all of the photos and drawings from the exhibit. Entrance is only 3,50€ and the book, in English, is 26€. All of the captions are in Finnish, Swedish and English as well. It will be at the museum until 29 August when it moves on to Stockholm.

The Musuem is also sponsoring a number of lectures and guided tours on the topic of Jugend architecture. It doesn't state what language the lectures are in, so it is likely safe to assume that they are in Finnish. There are, however, a few guided walks/tours that are in English.

• Wednesday, 18 August 2004, 6pm, MFA ≈ Finnish Architecture and Interaction around the Baltic Sea in the Early 1900s - Prof. Pekka Korvenmaa and Metropolitan Models - Town Planning in Finland - Timo Tuomi, Head of Research.
• Wednesday, 25 August 2004, 6pm, MFA ≈ Patrons from St. Petersburg Sponsoring New Finnish Architecture - Anna-Lisa Amberg, Ph.D. and Bonds around the Baltic Sea: Finnish - European Networks - Prof. Marjatta Hietala
• Thursday, 26 August 2004, The Night of the Arts, 6pm, MFA ≈ Architectural office of Usko Nyström-Petrelius-Penttilä: apartment building for six sections of the city in Helsinki - Eija Rauske, Researcher
• Saturday, 21 and 28 August 2004, 2pm and Thursday, 26 August 2004, 7.30pm (free entrance after 4pm) ≈ Guided Exhibition Tours
• Tuesdays 10, 17, 24 and Wednesdays 4 and 11 August 2004, 6pm, MFA ≈ Guided City Walks - Tuesdays, Facing the Stone City - Art Nouveau in Helsinki (Suomeksi) and Wednesdays, Art Nouveau Architecture in Helsinki (in English). Fee is 5/3€. Call (09) 8567 5100 for more info.

permalink Ω 15 June 2004, Helsinki

Stuffed Animals

A few pictures from a trip to the Helsinki Hall of Taxidermy, a.k.a. the Finnish Museum of Natural History.

Ok, it's true, we were bored while Jarkko was on 2 weeks of holiday that didn't include a trip somewhere and also featured the 4-5 day Easter holiday. What do you do when you've got a few days to kill, no car, no plane tickets and don't want to sit at home answering email or aimlessly surfing the web from the couch? The Finnish Natural History Museum seemed like a good idea one afternoon. We went, we saw, we were impressed by the taxidermic skill and then we went to dinner. If you're into taxidermy and dioramas, head straight for this museum as it has them both in abundance.

permalink Ω 24 April 2004, Helsinki

Hvitträsk

A few photos from Hvitträsk, the former home of Eliel Saarinen. The description of Hvitträsk from the brochure: Hvitträsk was built between 1901 and 1903 by three architects; Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen. The main building, designed in the National Romantic style, built of logs and natural stone, was both a common studio and a home for Eliel Saarinen and Armas Lindgren.....

Jarkko and I took a bus ride out into the boonies of Kirkkonummi, just west of Espoo, to visit the museum since my hometown is St. Louis where the Gateway Arch is about the only thing people remember about the city and it was likely the only Finnish thing I had encountered, aside from a Nokia mobile, before meeting Jarkko. Eero Saarinen, the son of Eliel, designed the Arch to represent and pay tribute to the role St. Louis played in the settling of lands west of the Mississippi River. As a kid, I rode up to the top of the Arch in the freaky pod elevator cars and promptly got sick from the rocking to and fro. I was content, after that, to play glow-in-the-dark frisbee in the park with some beers instead of making the trip to the top. We have an annual 4th of July VP Fair on the grounds which draws several million people for the impressive fireworks and we often refer to the Arch as a giant croquet wicket with affection. It is a beautiful and sublimely elegant monument that everyone in St. Louis truly admires. A recent issue of Suomen Kuvalehti featured an article about the Arch and the fight to get minority workers on the building crew which was no small task since St. Louis was then, and still remains, one of the most racist cities in the US.

I don't remember if we were ever taught in school that Eero Saarinen was Finnish since, in the US, you don't really think of people with unusual names as being anything other than American when they're living in US, especially when they're famous for designing other buildings like Dulles International Airport and part of JFK Airport. I hadn't ever read that he was born in Finland and lived at Hvitträsk until he was 12, when the family moved to Michigan in 1922. The house at Hvitträsk, his father and the group of talented architects there certainly influenced his architectural style which had a more modern flair while still retaining some of the softness and organic forms. It is interesting to see the house and the contents not only because it is a stunning work of art, but also as a monument to some of the greatest architecture that was ever built and those who designed and built it. Why can't or why don't we have buildings like these anymore?

permalink Ω 23 April 2004, Helsinki

Dustbowl

I've never been a big fan of springtime with all the, "In like a lion, out like a lamb", quips regarding its variable weather. I like weather that isn't going to change its mind at mid-day that 13C with sunshsine isn't doing it for Mother Nature and decides that snow flurries are much better. If spring were a person, she'd get a free trip to the local nuthouse and be prescribed Zoloft for those mood swings after a few days of that crap. The weather has been gorgeous this year with only one brief winter flashback a few weeks ago so I can't complain. It's warmer now than it was in June last year and I was even sweating today. I don't know that I'll be able to return south during the warm months ever again as I might melt or burst into flames.

Helsinki has an altogether different hazard of spring; grit. Where once stood mounds of snow remain only piles of pea gravel on the sidewalks and streets. After months of being driven and walked over while embedded in the snow and ice, the thick gravel gets ground into the pavement which generates tons of ultra-fine dust and grit awaiting a breeze to set it aloft. Since the weather has been warm and dry, Helsinki is a swirling dustbowl of this grit, especially on days with strong winds. Even a passing car, bus, tram or train can leave you diving for cover from the ensuing gritty backwash that makes it hard to breathe. You feel it cover your hair, your face and, worst of all, your mouth. I watched a grit devil come speeding up the street towards me and even though I turned my back to it and covered my camera, I still felt like I had just been rolling in a sand dune. While the rest of the world worries about the loss of topsoil, Finland replenishes it every spring. HB's fur has a surface area approximately equal to that of Texas, so he loves all the dirt procurement opportunities the grit season has to offer. Perhaps I should just sow some seeds on him and cultivate a chia-chia garden. :)

There are those who say that spring officially begins in Helsinki when the streets and sidewalks are cleaned, the grit removed and the cafés resume outdoor service. Grit removal is a serious and coordinated business with the street cleaners traversing the city in a grid. Signs are placed a week in advance to warn those who park along the street that they will be towed if they park there on the designated day. The crews come with their own tow trucks who stay pretty busy since they tow all the violating cars to the block that they just cleaned. I'd love to see the faces of some of the drivers who come looking for their car only to find it has mysteriously moved one block over. I'm sure the ticket and the tow charge they receive in the mail or under the wiper is far less mysterious. :) I've been hoping for a good Missouri-style gulleywasher to freshen things up, but the street cleaners and the fog of dirt should be over in another week or so, just in time for Vappu to fill the streets with summertime dirt.

permalink Ω 20 April 2004, Helsinki

I, I Aku Ankka

"I, Donald Duck - 70 years in the life of a duck" is an exhibit at the Päivälehti Museum between now and 31 December 2004. Jarkko and I visited it last week and I took a few pictures. Donald Duck, a.k.a. Aku Ankka, is incredibly popular in Finland and it's charming when I see an older man sitting on a plane caressing the pages of the latest Aku Ankka magazine. I had never heard of this national addiction until Jarkko took me aside one afternoon to break the news to me that he had 30 years of Aku Ankka comic book serials in storage at his parent's house and that they would really like their garage space back. It took a moment for it to sink in that I had married a grown man who reads Disney comic books. I could understand a porn collection or a few boat anchors masquerading as old computers, but a fetish for a duck who doesn't wear pants? Donald Duck was quite possibly the last secret vice I would have imagined. :)

The exhibit had a brochure with a brief description of the history of Aku Ankka in Finland, the items on display and why Finns have a special fondness for the half-naked quacker. It doesn't mention, however, that Aku Ankka has been given awards for its outstanding use of the Finnish language. Jarkko has often pointed out some clever passages or regional dialects and encouraged me to start reading the comics to help my Finnish language lessons along. I'm going to have to give it a try and buy some of my own since I suspect Jarkko wouldn't like me mussing his copies.

The Disney character Donald Duck - Aku Ankka in Finnish - made his debut in the movie "A Wise Little Hen" on June 9, 1934. Subsequent research puts the official date of his birth at March 13, when his egg was laid. Donald Duck first appeared in cartoon strips on September 16, 1934.

It is no surprise that Donald Duck should be the Finnish favourite among the various Disney characters as he somewhat resembles the soldier Sven Dufva and the farmer Paavo, two epic characters of Finnish national poet J.L. Runeberg. Life is tough but one gets by. At work, for instance, Donald often finds himself in a desperate situation but he is always ready to meet any new challenge.

The Donald Duck 70th Anniversary Exhibition at the Päivälehti Museum introduces the house where Donald lives with his three nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. The exhibition assembles the furniture usually found in Donald's home: the armchair, round rug, book case, TV set and the nephews' three-layer bed. Over the years Donald Duck has introduced the Finns to several interesting details in the American way of life and American culture. [from the brochure in Finnish these 'interesting details' are: Santa Claus, apple pie, round metal garbage cans, round door handles and Television.]

Aku Ankka, the Finnish Donald Duck cartoon strip, first appeared in the daily Helsingin Sanomat in May 1936 and in the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat in February 1941. The definitive breakthrough came in 1951 when the publisher, the Sanoma Corporation, began to issue the comic book Aku Ankka. It so happened that the first issue appeared on Walt Disney's birthday, December 5th. The first edition printed 34,017 copies. In 1951-1952 it was printed at the press on Ludviginkatu Street - the building that now houses the Päivälehti Museum. In 2003, Aku Ankka was Finland's largest magazine, with a circulation of 294,500.

Films occupy a leading role in the world of Donald Duck and so he has a movie theatre of his own in the exhibition. Donald has appeared as the principal character in a total of 128 Disney movies of which eight have been nominated for Oscars. He got an Oscar for the propaganda film "Der Führer's Face" in 1943.

The birthday celebrations at the Päivälehti Museum continue through the year. The exhibition provides a substantial program with a variety of themes and events. Welcome to the World of Donald Duck!

permalink Ω 13 April 2004, Helsinki

Truth in Advertising?

Perhaps it is because I come from a culture where advertising pervades every aspect of waking life and which wouldn't surprise me if paid product placements would start appearing in our dreams, but I give some extra attention and curiosity to the advertising in Finland. I've noticed that Finnish advertising tends to lean towards a more straightforward and clean style than much of the aggressive in your face advertisements in the US. This is not to say that both countries don't have their own respective loads of crap, but overall I think the softer sell and elegant design is more attractive. However, I wasn't prepared for a new trend of blatant truth in advertising lately. It's refreshing, yet disturbing since it goes against all the usual rules of the advertising grift.

The ad above is from last weeks Nyt Magazine which is attempting to recruit young engineering students with "Sex can wait...". Never mind that the guy is dressed like a 1970s fashion disaster complete with afro and seriously tragic rainbow shades, is telling young nerds the truth that their chances of getting laid are so slim that years of toiling for an engineering degree is a far better option a successful sales ploy? I mean, I've spent my life around these sorts of guys who at the mere mention of the word boobies go completely quiet. Sure, sex can wait, but getting an engineering degree isn't going to make you dress better, bathe regularly or get you laid, ever. Well, unless you come into some serious cash which, in Finland at least, probably isn't going to happen. So, I think the slogan needs a little tweaking to something more like, "Those who can get laid get MBAs. Those who can't, become engineers. Enroll in our engineering program now!" Sex can sell anything as even the most casual observation of modern advertising will show, but not getting sex as a marketing tactic? It's hilarious, brutally honest and I'd love to see if their enrollment increases. :)

[update: Ignatz sent me the American version of the sex can wait advertising ploy. The billboard is sponsored by the Kansas City Missouri Department of Health. Did I miss the memo that engineering is the new priesthood? Does sex make you stupid? What? The unwritten subtext to this billboard is that KC is much like St. Louis in that the black population live in the post-apocalyptic downtown with an educational system handicap. So, the real message here is something like "We already have enough black crackhead single mothers so dream that you can get into and afford a college education and, while you're at it, keep your dick in your pants." Of course, studies show that kids who participate in these 'just say no to sex until marriage' campaigns still have sex and often unprotected sex. Maybe the government will start offering scholarships for abstainers through their churches as soon as Dumbya gets a second term.]

The Finnish Army also has a new campaign which has a poster that shows a doctor's Porsche, an engineer's BMW [which still won't get them laid], and a soldier's car that makes a Boston beater Yugo held together with duct tape look good. In the US this ad would be amusing, yet deadly. As the North St. Louis wise old saying goes, "You can sleep in yo' car, but you can't drive yo' house." A more pure or elegant distillation of the American love affair with the automobile would be hard to come by. The US TV commercials for the Marines always show an attractive, beefcake white guy wrestling with some demonic enemy in a video game style of unreality. Honesty is refreshing but reality has not been a traditional tactic in military recruitment. The classic "Uncle Sam Wants You" poster is brief for a reason since finishing the sentence would leave less to the imagination and the power of your mind to see what it wants to see. I wonder what happens to the engineering student who graduates and goes into the Army. Well, I guess if they're not getting laid, a sexy car won't seem so important.

[update: Jarkko has informed me that I have been had. :) I did wonder about the kil.fi domainname but considering Helsinki is hel.fi and Finland hasn't deployed armed forces outside of Finland, I didn't give it more than a passing thought. It is, apparently, a parody of mil.fi attempting to dissuade people from joining up. I suppose I should feel a bit better that it took him a little while to catch on to the joke. :) So much for my optimisim about truth in advertising.]

I'll hope to see this trend continue into the fashion and cosmetics industries where reality is in cryogenic suspension. And what about those foods that advertise themselves as 100% "organic"? :) That always cracks me up, but maybe that's because I'm a chemist. I don't know that advertising culture could survive a trend towards honesty, but it certainly would be entertaining to see more of it since it is charming and compelling in a field of carefully crafted manipulations of varying levels of integrity.

permalink Ω 3 April 2004, Helsinki

The Fazer Chicken

Easter is defined by calendrical engineers as "Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon after vernal equinox." I have a hard time remembering what day of the week it is most of the time so I rely on a far more simple algorithm to determine when Easter is approaching; the arrival of Easter candy in the stores. It is less precise but accurate enough since the candy is the best part of the holiday.

Mämmi is back in the groceries, little hens and chickens are everywhere, chocolate bunnies, feathers, daffodils in pots and grass seed packets at the cashier since it's traditional to grow some small pot of grass for the return of the sun and warm weather. I didn't notice the Fazer Mignon eggs last year but these are the neatest Easter chocolates ever. They are real eggshells filled with an almond-hazelnut milk chocolate. The logistics of eating one of these eggs is complex and merits more study. The egg shell is removed rather easily with a brief bit of refrigeration. However, getting your teeth around a rather large, solid chunk of chocolate can produce at least 10 minutes of pure entertainment. Those who prefer to eat, not wear, their chocolate might use an egg slicer on a reasonably warm egg. The box mentions that these have been around for more than 100 years....

Mignon is an Easter tradition created by Karl Fazer in 1896, the second oldest product in Fazer's range. A genuine eggshell filled with fine nougat chocolate made with almonds and nuts. In the olden days they were delivered as an Easter treat even to the Tsar of Russia and his family....

What is it about Tsars and eggs? :) Anyway, I bought a few of these eggs, just to see if they were real eggshells and my results are inconclusive since, although they look and feel like real eggshells, the eggs are all perfectly sized. Does Finland have a chicken that lays identically sized, blemish-free eggs just in time for Easter? If so, I wonder if the chicken is pals with the Cadbury Crème egg rabbit or the Marshmallow Peeps. :)

update ~ Two people sent me links to articles about the Fazer Mignon eggs written in Finnish. I am amazed to find out that they are not only real egg shells, but that they are filled by hand, all 2.5 million of them each year. I made PDFs of the two articles and added translations for those who might be curious: Finnfood's Mignon - A Perennial Favorite of Easter [approx. 60k] and Mignon - the Classic of Easter Eggs [approx. 258k].

permalink Ω 19 March 2004, Helsinki

All Must Die

A Finn embraces their inner Darth Vader and a paint pen.

The New York Times had an article A Word to Finns: 'For Your Own Good, Blow Your Top' [pdf] the other day and it is the most banal and cliché story I've read about Finland in the US media yet. I don't know if there has been a single story written in the US press that doesn't comment on how quiet or sullen the Finns seem in comparison to the chatty yankees, save maybe the ones about Nokia when they remember it isn't a Japanese company. The article is full of stereotypes and it confuses suppressing emotions with being taciturn. Non-Finns seem to take particular offense at this cultural difference but I find the silence is one of the most endearing features of Finnish culture. Never again will I ever have to politely endure some random person telling me how their husband is screwing the babysitter while waiting to pay for my groceries or comment on the weather.

Imagine, if you will, the young Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. The young Anakin and Luke were both in touch with their feelings, both lovesick puppies making an ass out of themselves and generally blithering idiots whom the force would have done well to seal their gaping, whining oral cavities. Darth Vader on the other hand was a guy dressed in a stylish black ensemble, like many Finns and, aside from the heavy breathing, spoke only occasionally in a basso profundo voice. Darth was in touch with his feelings as he reached out to Luke to inform him that he was his father and then later that he would die. Darth was a no-frills, in touch with his inner dark side kind of guy. Quiet, thoughtful, no whining. Who would you rather share a land speeder with, whiny Luke or wheezing Darth? No contest, really.

Here, experts say, a car accident brings, not blame and insults, but a polite exchange of information. A bus breakdown causes no complaints; rather, the Finns on the bus will file off and try to push it to the next stop.
[...]
Here, it is not unusual to walk into a restaurant and spot most people eating dinner in silence, content to chew and not chatter. Silence is a sign of wisdom and good manners, not boredom and half-wittedness.

Oh my god, a whole busload of people who, instead of bitching about the bus, the personal inconvenience and threatening to sue the driver for making them late, these people shut up and get the bus moving again! Clearly, this is a sick, sick, culture that needs a swift infusion of more American TV shows and movies so that they can get the script right! We were out to dinner at a Russian restaurant recently and it must have been obnoxiously loud yankee night as there were 3 groups of them surrounding a few tables of quiet Finns who looked positively terrorized, ourselves included. It's possible to dine without conversation and not have to wonder if you're killing yourself with silence and kermaviili.

Silence is a beautiful thing when you witness the sheer power it has to make people feel extremely uncomfortable without even trying. I watched a CEO of a company who was interviewing Jarkko and I together nearly turn himself inside out because Jarkko did what came naturally. It was a beautiful and sublime moment that I still regret not having captured on video. I've had countless Americans ask me if Jarkko 'hated' them because he didn't chat them up in a social situation. I'll admit that the first time we met his silent stare didn't really communicate his fond feelings and, in fact, I thought I had bored him into a near coma, but it eventually worked out in the end. :)

While it may be true that Finns do not emote enough, it may be due to the fact that it's just not really practical in a world that is mostly self-absorbed and doesn't really give a damn about your personal problems. Every time someone asks you, "How are you?", they are expecting a "Fine. You?" response to the script. They aren't asking for the litany of woe you might have. Save the emoting for people who care. Perhaps it would be more prudent to have classes in how to listen to other people and be sensitive instead. When people talk a lot it doesn't mean they are dealing with their feelings. My father was a gregarious man who loved to talk but what killed him was years of indigestion/acid reflux due to being a closet worry wart that eventually caused esophageal cancer. It's not the emotions or that you tell someone about them rather how you internalize them. An anger management class isn't likely to change your lifestyle or behavioural patterns overnight if at all.

I mean, the president has something like a 90 percent approval rating --please," Dr. Furman said. "For our country to keep up with competitiveness, we need to respond differently.

Yes, Finland needs to have a president like Dumbya to really be competitive since his approval rating is down and most of the world thinks he's an idiot unlike Tarja Halonen who is a smart woman doing a good job that people approve of as well as being a respected leader among other nations. A president the people elect and like must be a sign of a fucked up culture for sure! A seething pool of dissent and countless hours of ranting talking heads flinging poo at each other like monkies would be much, much better. Think of all the political pundit blogs Finland could have! Thanks Dr., I needed a good laugh. Have you considered relocating to the US?

So, I hope Finland keeps to its cultural pride in sisu and silence and doesn't go the way of the US with their own Jerry Springer show and people venting petty, selfish anger at every available opportunity. Embrace your inner Darth Vader, not your inner Luke Skywalker, and exploit the power of silence. Building a death star would be kinda cool, too. Even Russia wouldn't mess with Finland then. :) For the non-Finns I recommend getting a large dog and walking it daily as HB nearly always draws a crowd of friendly, chatty Finns out on the sidewalk.

permalink Ω 14 March 2004, Helsinki

Wireless Finland

The Helsingin Sanomat ran an article in the paper earlier this week about the growing number of wireless access points in Helsinki and around Finland. The article included a nice map noting the locations which I scanned in and offer here in a small ~60k jpg and a large ~240k jpg. It seems that most of the current hot spots are catering to the business traveller judging from the number of hotels and business centers listed. There are a few cafes and a movie theatre or two listed though and my hope is that it finds sufficient interest to keep spreading. I've had wireless at home for years now and find it luxurious to sit on the couch with my laptop even now. I'd really like to see WiFi in public libraries in addition to more coffee shops since students would benefit a lot from being able to use their own computer while doing research or homework.

There are two companies offering WiFi; Sonera and DNA. DNA seems to be geared more towards the local geeks and ala carte folks while Sonera is mainly in the hotel and business traveller market. Sonera Homerun doesn't appear to have a pricing structure on the net. The DNA WLAN service has three different price plans which range from €5 per month with a per minute fee to €90 for those with a serious porn habit and large downloads.

Until mobile phones get much more sophisticated displays, surfing the net or reading email with them more than occasionally isn't as attractive as having a small laptop and WiFi in convenient spots around town. WiFi really means WIreless FInland. :)

permalink Ω 28 February 2004, Helsinki

Film Heroes

I noticed a poster for a photo exhibit in a camera shop window and decided to go have a look since the theme was interesting. Valkokankaan Sankarit, Heroes of the Screen, is a provocative collection of photographs by Malla Hukkanen taken around Finland of tiny movie theatres that are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Hukkanen tells the story of these indie theatres in vivid colour on 35mm and panoramic film. I took my time looking at the faces of the people he captured so poignantly in and around their theatres and wondered if they were still in business. I'd love to see more of his work.

I have never really liked the giant 20 screen megaplex theatres that are so common in the US nowadays as they often show the same movies for weeks on end, have stale popcorn and they're as large and impersonal as a shopping mall. The small independent theatres have fresh popcorn, interesting films and often a small staff who remember your name if you're a movie junkie. It's ironic how the people who evangelise how the internet and social software are "revolutionising" our social lives when, at every turn, nearly every part of our daily lives away from the computer are becoming more and more impersonal and isolated. Hukkanen's photos will likely be a testament to the future of a time when people went to see movies and each other without the aid of a computer.

The Living Picture Museum [Elävän Kuvan Museo] is hidden away in a small warehouse in an out of the way neighbourhood, but it has an impressive collection of projection cameras and movie theatre ephemera, including an ushers costume from Kinopalatsi last worn in the 1960s. It's a short walk from the Sörnäinen metro station and it's worth the trip if you wax nostalgic over old movie theatres or enjoy photography that tells a story.

Living Picture Museum: Heroes of the Screen
Vanha Talvitie 9, Verkkosaari, Sörnäinen

Open: 29 Jan through 28 Feb 2004, Tues - Sun 12-6pm
Free admission!

permalink Ω 17 February 2004, Helsinki

Kiasma

It seems common practise that people don't go see the sights and attractions in the city they live in either because they think that they should go elsewhere to see the sights or that they might look like a tourist in their own city. This is why I enjoy having visitors from elsewhere to give me an excuse to visit places I've not been to before, even though they're right down the street. Last week we went to Kiasma, Helsinki's contemporary art museum, with a friend visiting from the US. The exhibits are a bit of a mixed bag, but it is a fine collection overall. I especially liked the "Faster than History" exhibit, a collection of artwork from Baltic countries which included a series of photographs of 3 shivering men clad only in underwear standing in front of churches and a number of film shorts, a few of which had me laughing out loud. The artwork in the picture is "Gun. So What?" if I remember it correctly. There was a gun on a tripod and several bottles suspended on a plate of glass with a light lending a dramatic effect. The way it came out in the photograph, taken with a Lomo, is pretty cool as it looks like a bullseye drawn with light.

permalink Ω 14 February 2004, Helsinki

Penkkarit

Penkkarit photos

Last year around this time, I was walking home in my post-Finnish class daze when, seemingly out of nowhere, trucks filled with drunken kids throwing candy at people on the sidewalks began whizzing down the Esplanadi. I wondered what in the hell was going on and called Jarkko who didn't remember right away what the mayhem was all about. It's called penkkarit, the day that 18-year old students get to dress up, get drunk, pile into trucks and throw candy at people while driving around the city. People all over the city hoot and wave at them as they go by and even the elderly stoop down to pick up the sweets littering the sidewalks. What a fun thing to do. I was thinking that there would be no way that kids could do this in the US since noone would eat the candy for fear of it being tainted with anthrax or somesuch. It's good to see that there are some places left where kids can still have harmless fun. :)

I had planned to go down to the harbor and take pictures of the kids gathering there, but I was running late and didn't make it in time. Taking photos of rapidly moving objects and people with a manual camera does present a bit of a challenge, especially when the sun keeps popping in and out of the clouds and wrecking your exposure setting. :)

permalink Ω 14 February 2004, Helsinki

A year later

Yesterday, we celebrated the anniversary of our arriving here one year ago and today I remembered why I don't get drunk very often...the day after. :)

When we left Boston last year, both Iceland and Helsinki were warmer at the time even though friends and family were joking about how cold it would be in Finlan