My daughter knows that it doesn’t pay to leave things to the last minute; any stress, and the parents start with sarcastic comments and yelling. So, hoping to get an early start on Christmas, yesterday she organised a wreath- and gingerbread-making evening. We made four wreaths of about 40 cm diameter and listened to carols. I figured that if we continued for a week we could sell them for enough money that we wouldn’t have to work next year at all, practically; but nobody cared. The rose hips come from the garden and the sprigs of Christmas tree come from the pile down the road.
When we woke up, this had happened during the night:
Myself, I’m not a big fan of snø. I like it when it hangs in the branches, though that lasts for about five minutes. My daughter and the dogs were delighted.
A Bad Guide 
Any sign of snökaos?
(Presumably not, since this must be a pretty late deboo by local standards.)
We don’t get useable snø until January, and I think (hope) this lot will just melt in a couple of days. Unlike in England, ordentlig snökaos requires more depth, colder temperatures and proper ice.
We decided this weekend that winter was nearly upon us and that we must therefore bring in the last of the summer crops. So we harvested skeins of cherry tomatoes. I think we’re now looking at a big chutney-making.
AJP: It always sounds as if you’re growing enough to feed the whole of East Anglia, Dearie. Do you supply farmers’ markets? I’m sure bottled tomatoes are good for something Italian.
Oh, what fun. Time to look for my Norway webcams. I think this one is the Christmas tree in the center of Oslo.
http://www.webcamsinnorway.com/webcams.php?viewcam=165
No, now I see the harbor. It looks like you can’t select one for a link. I suppose you have to click on each one individually. The tree in the city center should be at “Youngstorget”, and “Voksenlia” is showing me a gorgeous sunset (local time about 4:30) over hills in the background. “From Frognerseteren” shows a road up on a hill overlooking a fjord (?) with lots of snö.
I’d no idea they already had a tree in Youngtorget. We briefly had an office there, good shopping. On the horizon, to the right, on the Voksenlia webcam I can see the place on our hill where I’ve been taking the goats every day.
Beautiful view of the pines under snow!
AJP: It’s been beautiful here today. The temperature has gone down and the snow is still in the trees. The dogs had quite a day. now they’re asleep.
They have a new map, which is kind of fun:
http://www.webcamsinnorway.com/map/
Of course the tree will be up here already, in Daly Plaza–after Thanksgiving is the big shopping frenzy–but I can’t find a webcam for it.
Daley Plaza
A queen was visiting Chicago and asked “Is Mayor Daley still alive and does he still run Chicago?” The answer was no and yes.
On the horizon, to the right, on the Voksenlia webcam I can see the place on our hill where I’ve been taking the goats every day.
I know the owner of that camera from language discussions on no.fag.spraak.diverse. It’s a small net. The picture in full resolution is found on his website , along with meteorological and seismographical observations.
His other website is in Latin.
Trond and I have got our weather forecast in Latin! How many people can say that? Norvegia est omnis divisa in partes tres, something like that. What a classy guy. He probably ends every day with Iacta alea est!
I’ve never made a wreath — always bought them ready made. Do you start with some sort of frame?
Damn. It was the dollar sign.
We still only have water coming down down here.
But I should prolly go check if there’re any apples left to rescue.
The sloe is beautiful again this year, but I don’t have room for them in my freezer.
Oy Tannenbaum: Do you start with some sort of frame?
We used the pages of old New Yorkers, twisted up and twisted with each other in a snake until it was long enough (a tip I learned in math: make it a bit longer than three times the diameter, actually quite a bit longer, so you’ve got enough to tuck in to the beginning of the snake). You wind string around it tightly to stop it falling apart. Then you start with Christmas tree branches, lapping them to cover the stems; wrap each one with string as you go.
Do it for a week, and you’ll be able to take a sabbatical next year.
For $9.95* we can mail you some old Christmas tree branches.
*(postage not included)
While we’re waiting for the Twinkletrees to get cammed-up (and Norway’s traditional one in Trafalgar Square will only be lit on wednesdag), the Gävle goat is already world-facing and awaiting its pyromane.
Beauriful pictures of the snow, Crown. I like looking at snow like this, as a pretty, distant image. The cold wet reality is unappealing. Of course, since Dec 25 here will likely see me barbequing at the beach in temperatures between 25-35C, I needn’t worry about actually having to touch snow.
Stu — and only three weeks until you’re being barbequed — where have you been? It’s cold (-7 c), but too cold to be wet. We have many, many words for the different kinds of snow, I think over 700, but only two or three for getting rid of it. It’s the wrong way round.
I hadn’t seen the Gävle goat before; we have small ones like that, I’d never thought of burning them. The other webcam shows a pigeon that’s bigger than a bus; I’m hoping it has to do with perspective.
AJP: Surprised that the dog is on a leash in your rolling acres …
Haven’t I ever told the story about how Topsy ran away and ended up in jail at the police station? Poor Tops. If she’s not on a lead she runs down to the dog run (which is closed for the winter). The little one’s okay loose.
That’ s very fat straw goat, I think it was made from square bales. Our Swedish-American ones here are rounder and I think much more graceful.
This was a poor year for pumpkins here, something about dampness. Even now I have one of my smaller pumpkins split in half and baking hollow side down on a cookie sheet in the oven (the other one became an ex-pumpkin). I love the taste of pumpkin, but have no idea what to do with it next, or if the decorative ones are even good to eat.
We don’t have rose hips here, I don’t know why. In Denmark I saw lots of them when we were out walking my relatives’ dog, and I even saw them made into jam.
In Chicago we have tons of words for snø removal–if only our poor ex-mayor Bilandic had known some of them he might not have spent his retirement years obsessed with snø photography.
That’s the Danes, we don’t make our dogs into jam. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a poor ex-Mayor of Chicago.
The interwebs say teh straw goat is called a “julbok”.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=KQV&um=1&sa=1&q=+julbok+image&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&start=0
Bilandic was a tragic figure. When the notorious Blizzard Of 1979 hit, his response to the crisis was “what snow?” But every little Polish and Lithuanian grandmother in Chicago could look out of her front window and see plenty of snow. The common people in their little Chicago Bungalows had had their lives disrupted and wanted an effort, but Bilandic was rich enough not to care. Bilandic lost reelection in a landslide, and since then every single snowstorm has been met with armies of snow trucks and Streets and San Department employees working OT round the clock.
Now if only they could get those commuter trains with the overhead electric wires to work without icing up….
In my youth my housemate and I once baked a pumpkin for hours to no avail. We concluded that not all varieties are meant to be food.
The interwebs say teh straw goat is called a “julbok”.
Christmas is “jul” (cf. “yule”, which is the same word). Goat is “bok”. QED.
They sell littler ones in IKEA across Yoorp and for all I know beyond; the big one at Gävle probably has structural issues, although I don’t think D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson covered julbocken in any detail.
(I hold that it is a tradition to burn the julbok on Epiphany, but I have a feeling I may have made that one up.)
See Julebukk on Nynorsk Wikipedia for a comprehensive summary.
The short version: Probably Pre-Christian tradition of celebrating the goat at mid-winter, maybe connected to the god Thor, picked up Medieval images of the devil and became a tradition of dressing up as a buck and/or carrying a straw buck around in the neighbourhood during the Christmas holiday. In Sweden this eventually became the straw buck Christmas decoration, in Norway our form of Halloween with children dressing up and going from house to house singing carols for cakes.
The word ‘julebukk’ left another trace in Norwegian:
Metaphoric extension: jålebukk m. “vain or affected man, show-off”
Back-formation 1: jåle f. “vain or affected woman, show-off”
Back-formation 2: jåle v. “show off, dress up or act vainly”
Back-formation 3: jål n. “showing off, affectedness, vanity”
Derivation of the verb: jåleri = jål.
Stu — and only three weeks until you’re being barbequed — where have you been?
In the sage words of David Byrne – “when I have nothing to say, my lips are sealed”. Hat’s posts have seen long threads with very, what I would euphemistically call, forthright exchanges of opinions on matters I know nothing of, so no commenting there. I have come here and admired the calming pictures, but have had nothing worthwhile to add. Also, I have been trying to make a start on efforts to catch up on a backlog of 30+ old Hindi films I have not had a chance to watch.
the big [julbock] at Gävle probably has structural issues, although I don’t think D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson covered julbocken in any detail.
Well, I don’t know anything od straw structures, but I do know that The Norwegian Institute for Building Research (or whatever they brand themselves in English) know their responsibility:
Oh, I forgot to finish the links properly:
Press release
Building detail documentation
On my boyhood autumn Sunday afternoons we would pick rosehips. We’d hand them in at school on Monday, where they were weighed and we were paid. If we collected some suitably large amount over the season we were given a lapel badge. The hips went off to the manufacture of Rose Hip Syrup. I suppose it was the remains of a war time system for gathering Vitamin C.
I’d buy some of your wreaths!!
For our summer Christmas …
That’ll teach me to complain.
Frost this morning (and tonight as well by the looks of it). Had to go to a job-seeking course (not as bad today as yesterday – the point that I really have to step it up was driven home quite well). I usually go by the small back roads to skip a light. Bad idea. Went all the way down as I tried taking a turn at speed. At least nothing broke this time and my hip and wrist are only a little sore.
On a bicycle, Sili? I’ve been thinking about a bicycle but it seems like the wrong season. Maybe one of those stationary fan bikes.
We still have vitamin C from rose hips. It’s very trendy.
http://www.google.com/products?q=vitamin+c+rose+hips&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=VrAVS8TMPIG-NteD9aQG&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCUQrQQwAw
The Julbok:
Aren’t goats native to the Mediterranean or at least to warmer countries than Scandinavia? Could the original of the Julbok (millennia ago) have been some kind of reindeer?
Could the original of the Julbok (millennia ago) have been some kind of reindeer?
I’d rather see it as a mid-winter celebration of fertility spreading through Europe with the domestication of animals, with the he-goat the more or less arbitrary choice in Scandinavia. The Nynorsk Wikipedia article (while maybe speculative when it comes to the detailed development of the tradition through the centuries since heathen days) lists similar traditions involving goats or other farm animals all over Europe. One could even include the ancient greek Dionysia, I think.
m-l, I think goats are originally from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and it’s from there that they get their liking for mountain slopes and a tolerance of different ranges of temperature.
Julia, I’m delighted to see you again, although you’re not appearing as a white & black cat, unfortunately. Please feel free to use Spanish (I just press the “translate” button).
Different goats (they are advertising sweaters made from their wool):
http://www.eric-bompard.com/index.v2.php?
There’s more if you click Our universe -> “The Goats” Advertising
¡Muchas gracias! Pero siempre estuve aquí, sólo que callada sin hacer comentarios (acting as wise cat…)
Good.
Sili, I’m really sorry. Whenever Norwegian kids slip over on skis their parents go “opp igjen!”, like it never happened, but I’m not so stoical. I think you should buy some catfood, light some candles, take a hot bath and then lie in bed for at least a week.
Whenever Norwegian kids slip over on skis their parents go “opp igjen!”, like it never happened
Why would you tell someone to get up if they hadn’t fallen over? Is this a Norwegish folk custom?
opp igjen!
A hot bath, yes, and I think a small glass of wine would ease the muscle aches, but isn’t Sili supposed to be job seeking? For that matter, I just remembered that I’m supposed to be job seeking too, but I don’t know anything about it.
opp igjen ..is that pronounced like “up again”? My brother’s kids always got “uh-oh”.
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DvB: Is this a Norwegish folk custom?
I suppose I mean they then pretend it had never happened, though what you’re suggesting is more interesting. But, yes, it’s why Amundsen reached the Pole before the bunch of Englishpersons (but at least Englishpersons would rather die than eat their dogs). I would certainly eat Amundsen before I’d eat Topsy.
Trond and AJP, thank you for the clarification.
Julia, hay otros/otras ahi que entienden espan~ol.
… And others, who are hoping to learn.
The detail of Trond’s Papperkakeborg building links just got more interesting as I realized I could copy and paste the text for translation. Not sure about the metric measurements though. The Papperkakeborg looks worthy of assimilation.
Y si que hay gente aquí que entienden un poco de español.
Yes, I meant to say that is a great one. I think that’s a typo: it ought to be pepper-, not “papper”.
From Marginal Revolution:-
AJP: This is all very well, but you need raisin-covered goats.
Christ□□□ is coming? On what day?
AJP: Jesus is coming. Look busy!
As some of you may have guessed the pepperkakehus recipe is made on the template of the paper version of a series of pre-approved construction details issued by the Institute for Building Research (or whatever et c.) and used by virtually every architect and engineer in the country.
The online version of a detail can be seen at here(front page only for non-subscribers). Oh, I just happened to pick the detail on corrosion in reinforcement bars. We glean from that that the mundic problem is unknown here.
‘Papper’ is Swedish for ‘paper’. I think I prefer ‘pepper’ in pastry.
‘Opp igjen’ is pronounced something like oppie YEN.
As Trond says, byggforsk, the state-run dept. of building research, is used by all architects and engineers here. It’s also consulted by civilians. Homeowners go in there and ask how to put in a skylight or insulate the roof or whatever it is, and the experts there will show you material samples and give you large-scale drawings showing the appropriate construction details. They’ll show you how to build a house if you’re interested.
The Building Centre in London is similar, but in my time it was never as well-known as the Oslo one is to absolutely everyone here. Norwegians are maniacs for diy and building their own houses, though.
There’s nothing comparable in New York, I wonder why not. I suspect it’s because there is no state intervention in this kind of thing, despite its relevance to energy conservation.
We have a family recipe from Denmark for a tiny cookie called Pebernoder, but it doesn’t have any pepper in it. Nuts either.
There’s nothing comparable in New York, I wonder why not.
If NY is anything like Chicago, and I have heard it’s more so, there are tons of regulations in place for construction, some say to protect the public, others say to protect the unions. For example, just for electrical wiring you need not only an electrician but an electrician licensed to work in Chicago, and there is an electrical code for Chicago on top of the one for Illinois.
There used to be a blind tenant in my old building with an electrical license. He was popular in the neighborhood for repairs because an unlicensed person would do work under his license and he would collect a fee for it. The guy really creeped me out though because he did the electrical work in the dark. One day I came home from work and there was a man inside my apartment crouched down in the dark. Yup, it was him. He had decided to change some outlets in my apartment without notifying anyone. After that, I changed my locks. He never forgave me for that.
My theory about Chicago building codes is that I just do the work, do it quietly, and never bother about building permits. I’ve never done anything big anyhow, just minor carpentry and wiring, tearing out walls and hiring someone for the drywall, etc. Building an entire house might be different though, someone would probably notice it.
Byggforsk isn’t the Building Dept, they aren’t the people who issue building permits. They are a separate institution which gives you free information about building techniques. There are equivalent organisations in EU countries. They are a good thing. I’m well aware of the NYC Building Dept, their regulations and the methods of their overweight, greasy-haired goons. In my day they were so notorious that architects hired “expeditors” on behalf of the owner, people who could cut through the bureaucracy and pay the necessary bribes without our having to get involved in their illegal activity.
Political contributions are also a fact of life for those who want to do business in Chicago. If you can’t afford “expeditors” and you want to live the dream, you’d best move away. I have seen people build their own houses in downstate Illinois, my inlaws had several, but I’m not sure those rural areas have a large enough population to support that kind of DIY center, also the people who want to do that probably already know how.
No, it’s not a do-it-yourself service. It’s a national research institution providing pre-approved solutions in building technology. The closest American correspondance I find is The Building and Fire Research Laboratory at The National Institute of Standards and Technology.
As Crown said, Byggforsk’s series of Byggdetaljer (“Building details”) is so straightforward that the leaflets are used not only by professionals (which it is) but even by do-it-yourselfers, and that their experts usually provide answers and help whenever someone calls or pops up with a question, even if this is not their primary designation.
As he also said, there are similar institutes in most European countries. I don’t know if they provide similar publications everywhere. Or anywhere. Our cosmopolitan host will know more about this.
Or maybe he didn’t encounter them. I think architects are supposed to be more deeply involved in technical details in Norway than most places. That’s both good and bad.
Norwegian architects are less interested in creating technical building details than architects in Britain, the US or Germany (the only places I know well). They’re likely to accept technical building standards at face-value and less inclined to try something new or rework a technical solution to suit an aesthetic concept. Snøhetta, which has an international client list as well as lots of foreign employees, is a remarkable exception. Elsewhere, American architects do the best drawings; Germans have DIN standards for everything, require the most of their architects — you have to estimate construction costs literally to the last nail, and pay the extra yourself if you make a miscalculation — and build the best; British architects are the most creative at utilising technology.
You’re right, and I don’t know why I said that. What I meant is that Norwegian architects are supposed to be in charge of technical details on a petty level (and I know Danish, Dutch and British born and raised architects that are frustrated by this), but they have little room for technical innovation (and I know Danish, Dutch and British born and raised architects that are frustrated by this, too) and often very little interest in it. Some of this may have to do with the level of engagement of the engineers. But I don’t really know more than I’ve been told, since I’ve never had a job outside the country.
The only thing I can think of is Underwriters Laboratory, but they’re more into testing electrical cords and consumer products than architecture.
http://ulstandardsinfonet.ul.com/scopes/
There’s also the extension service, a collaboration between universities and government, now hugely underfunded to the point of near non-existence. It’s more on farming side, but I’ve seen a publication of theirs about winterizing basements.
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/
There’s the Chicago Architecture Foundation too, but I think they do mostly history. Years ago they used to do walking tours which were published in the paper; in theory there was supposed to be something like a $3 fee, but nobody cared about that.
http://www.architecture.org/aboutcaf.html
Maybe no one thinks we need any more architecture than Skidmore.
No, it’s nothing like the Underwriters Labs or Lloyds. They have that here, it’s called det Norske Veritas (they test a lot of marine things too). But that’s what I mean, there is no equivalent in the United States, as far as I know.
Yah, on the bike.
And to add insult to injury, Weds morning my gears were frozen. And impatient that I am, I managed to wreck the mechanism completely in an attempt to wrench them loose.
Good thing I don’t have many people I need to buy gifts for Christmas …
—
I’m looking for work, yes. Need to write a better CV. Lossa good tips from the consultants, but when I sit down with it, myself, my mind goes blank – just as when I was supposed to do research.
But I can hardly start doing the carpet bombing of unsolicited applications until my armoury is up to the job.
Stay in bed for at least a week. Don’t forget catfood, though.
Oh, I almost forgot what I was going to ask about the Pepperkakeborg (and I’m glad I can have confidence in the structure of the design). Does the “borg” part mean castle? The online translators aren’t giving me anything for borg in any language, but this sounds a lot like the Star Trek characters (remember Seven of Nine and “resistance is futile”?).
Lossa good tips from the consultants
I remember an exercise I did in a ESL teacher training class with resumes. We passed a dozen or so real resumes around the classroom (with the personal information inked out) and got 30 seconds to look at each one. Then we had to choose. All the student-teachers chose the same ones. They told us that’s how long real employers get to look at resumes. Of course if you get called for an interview, they will use the resume for talking points, so you want to have things on there you want to talk about–as well as your primary qualifications that will get you in the door to interview–listed prominently.
If you google CVs you will get a lot of useful stuff you can use for various formats.
I now have an indoor bike. Sili’s mishap convinced me.
Is this because your new apartment is so much bigger? I’ve always kind of wanted a skateboard, but we have no space to use one.
Does the “borg” part mean castle? The online translators aren’t giving me anything for borg in any language
Really? I get “castle” in Swedish & Danish with the google translation machine. I think Norwegian just uses festning (fortress); probably Trond knows more. For some reason Norwegians have a habit of mistranslating “palace” as “castle”, and I’ve never understood why.
I’m sure -borg is cognate with -burgh (Edinburgh) etc. in English, as well as burg in German (but, I guess, not berg, which is a hill). There are lots of -borg place names in Sweden and Denmark especially near borders, of course. Flensborg is the Danish name for Flensburg on the (nowadays) German side of the border. Helsingborg (Sweden’s closest point to Denmark, 4km from Elsinore (Helsingør) on the other side of the strait in and out of the Baltic. (The actual castle at Elsinore is called Kronborg.) I know the main source of revenue for the Danish king during the Thirty Years War was charging a toll for shipping leaving and entering the Baltic. The toll booth was Kronborg.
I think Norwegian just uses festning (fortress); probably Trond knows more.
Borg and festning are the same kind of thing. The former term seems to be more used with older objects, the latter with younger (~ post-Reformation). More about that later.
For some reason Norwegians have a habit of mistranslating “palace” as “castle”, and I’ve never understood why.
Banally, because that’s what we’ve been taught in school. I don’t know, but I think one reason may be that Norwegian ‘slott’ has drifted from “castle” to “palace” since the glossing became established in the education system. Akershus in Oslo is not only a ‘festning’ but also a ‘slott’, and the hill in Tønsberg that used to be a fortress is called ‘Slottsfjellet’.
There are lots of -borg place names in Sweden and Denmark especially near borders, of course.
There are several mentions of borg in the sagas. Kings built them and named them. Borg, now Sarpsborg, is a town founded by Saint Olav, Sverresborg, is the name of two fortresses built by king Sverre in Bergen and Trondheim, and Elvsborg is a castle at the point where medieval Denmark, Norway and Sweden met outside present day Göteborg in Sweden.
Homesteads named Borg or Borge are everywhere. One used to think that these were cognate with borg “fortress”, especially since many of them were located near a bygdeborg “parish fortress”. But that fell out of fashion as it became clear that most Borg(e) farms never had a fortification even if they’re all on or close to steep hills. The current explanation is that while borg “fortress” is a Wanderwort the toponymic element is a zero-grade derivation of the same root as berg, meaning something like “stand tall”. This inherited word is also known from the migrating Germanic tribe of Burgundians “those standing tall”. Since fortresses were built on high places the wanderwort was early conflated with the native one. (I don’t have my books where I am right now, so take this is an approximation.)
Sili:
You might like to try this downloadable format for a resume. I know the chap who runs this site and he makes a good living (from books about job-hunting) so I presume his resume format must be successful.
(though of course it’s the content which counts in the end…)
http://www.jobwinners.com.au/cgi-bin/page_form.cgi?jobwinnersS+26S+S+Lucy%20Wan
My current bike has a hub gear that freezes every winter and the spiked winter tyres from my old bike didn’t fit, so I had to stop cycling with the winter cold. Just this week I finally managed to get it to a workshop to have oil-filled gear cables and new spiked tyres.
We’ll see how it turns out. On my way to work I have to get down a steep hillside just outside my house, and that is hard enough on feet, and at the bottom is a large area of solid ice that leads right into a highway. Once down and still healthy the rest is on cycleway, though.
That was my problem, Trond. It happened last year, too, but of course I didn’t consider that it could happen again this year – even after all the rain. And then when it did happen I just had to see if a bit of violence would do the trick. So rather than paying for a blow of air and some grease, I had to fork over 500,- for a whole new mechanism. It does work really smooth now, though.
Good idea, Nijma, but a stationary bike won’t take me all that far around town, I fear.
Thanks for the CV advice. I’ve already done what I always do when work lurks: started doing other stuff – so for a start my bathroom’s nice and clean now.