Rush Limbaugh said on his show yesterday, “the president of the United States is going to lead a war on traditional marriage”.
This was a sighting yesterday in Stockholm near Slussen. Could this be a counter-assault on the pink army? Has Limbaugh taken the war on the “pink army” to the streets of Stockholm? I think the ‘enemies of traditional marriage’ are about as ominous as this little band of preschoolers.

photo by Carolina Åkerlind.

It’s not quite the same as the 3am spontaneous drive-through wedding chapels in Las Vegas, but Swedes need a little time to get ready for spontaneity. On June 9 from 10am to 3pm, Skansen (in Stockholm) is offering the planned, unplanned wedding op for couples wanting to get hitched right and proper.

All straight or same-sex couples just need to pick between a religious or civil ceremony, take a queue number (what’s spontaneity without organization!), and wait for your very own 10 minutes of nuptial bliss. And while standing in line ends at 3pm, organizers have vowed to carry on offering for the groom/bride to kiss the groom/bride until no couple can claim they’ve never been kissed.

Prospective couples need only get their paperwork in order ahead of the day (hindersprovning or vigselintyg) pay 500kr at the entrance (visit to park included for the happy couple –guests pay accordingly) and the…wait your turn.

By the powers vested in me by the state of Skansen, I now pronounce you bridal couples to be.

Not sure if I should weep or wail with laughter over this new political-decision-gone-wild moment. In the picture, the face of Anne Lööf, leader of the Center Party, is the “decoration” on the piñata filled with goodies.

According to one of the organizers, Patrik Strand, “We had [Fredrik] Reinfeldt and [Anders] Borg, too. I think it looked like fun and afterwards candy and play money tumbled out,” quoted in an article in Sydsvenskan (in Swedish).

Well, I can suppose it’s not the same as slicing into a cake’s vagina. But what is the message the children are supposed to learn? If you don’t like their politics it’s ok to take a baseball bat to their heads? After all…you will get candy!

It seems the bar is exceptionally low for political party involvement or there’s absolutely no budget for political PR advisers. It’s a trite phrase, but it applies here:
What were they thinking?

Yesterday, about 40,000 people joined voices to sing together. Their purpose: to annoy Breivik. They sang
“Children of the Rainbow” by Norwegian folk singer Lillebjørn Nilsen. It is Nilsen’s adaptation of “My Rainbow Race,” written by American folk singer Pete Seeger.

The satisfactory charm of the protest was the reason behind why they chose this particular song. During the ongoing trial, Breivik had cited the song as an example of Marxist influence on Norwegian culture saying the song was “typical of brainwashing Norwegian student.”

In the Norwegian version of the song the chorus goes, “Together, we will live, each sister and each brother, small children of the rainbow and a green earth.”watch the event on YouTube. According to TheLocalNorway

The Swedish Cultural Minister, Lena Liljeroth, more likely in the news these days over her infamous FGM political gaffe, was among the community singers.

Liljeroth could use some good press about now. I just hope she didn’t sing in blackface.

Apparently if you google “stockholm” and “little italy” the first hit is one of my old blog entries, Pizza Feud: Stockholm’s Little Italy, is the first hit.

That’s what an Italian American did. He was in Stockholm for four days on business. According to Baristan of Dellos...cough…VIP at Hornstull an American walked in one evening. In flawless Italian, albeit smothered in thick Dixie drawl, he explained how he had found Very Italian Pizza. He had read about the feud, yep, right here on blatt radio, and decided to check it out.

This is one of the things I most love about life in Stockholm. So many unrelated things in my Stockholm existence eventually intertwines.

The copy cat pizza place seems to be still in business though barely. I hear it is for sale if anyone’s looking for a bad investment.

That was a friend’s Facebook status update just a few minutes ago. She’s somewhere downtown Stockholm.

A quick googling shows that Yoko has an exhibit at the Modern Museum of Stockholm (Moderna Museet) running June 5-Sept 9 2012. The Grapefruit Exhibition has its starting point in her work by the same name published 1964.

Welcome Yoko Ono. Glad Stockholm is bathed in sunshine for your walk about today.

I just heard on the news (here is an article from The Local,here’s an article in Swedish) that the city of Trollhätten won the bid for the SAAB collection.

I know that for those who understand they’re not, I’m preaching to the choir. But for those of you screaming, “Hell yeah, I do,” I’ll never convince you otherwise…so the following little anecdote might be just another a feel-good story for the attentive choir.

Christmas feel-good stories are always in season, so bah humbug to the rest of you

Bengt, a friend in a remote suburb of Stockholm, was desperately looking for a Santa suit for his son. On Monday and Tuesday most schools will celebrate Lucia, a celebration of light during the dark days of December. Children dress up as little santas, gingerbread men and tiny Lucia characters.

He had tried all the usual places and everything was sold out. So he put out the call on Facebook. (He did get an offer from some American friends to lend him one but the commute was a bit of a hassle.)

In the end, by phone, Bengt found ONE suit in the right size in a shop even further away from Stockholm. So he asked the salesman if he could put the suit on hold. The man offered to help out one (maybe several) better.

He BOUGHT the suit with his own money and drove it to Bengt’s house saying that it was on his way home anyway (although in truth it was a 20-minute detour.) Bengt gratefully both rounded up very generously but also threw in a bottle of glögg (seasonal, Swedish mulled wine) all the while thanking him.
The man tried hard to refuse the wine and after reluctantly accepting it parted saying “Thank YOU for letting me do you this act of kindness.”

So many think I’m crazy when insist that Swedes are kind and generous. But they are. They really are.

Here’s today’s sighting on St. Eriksgatan taken by a good friend.
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Dressing up Stockholm is far from new. The most celebrated street art influences is to dress up Järnpojken, the Iron Boy. The first time I saw him in Gamla Stan (Old Town) he had on a little scarf like in this picture.

He’s also known at “the boy who is looking at the moon” and is said to be Stockholm’s smallest statue. A work by the artist Liss Eriksson, it was erected in 1967.

Unfortunately there is still much of the traditional tag graffiti littering Stockholm, but perhaps a soft approach to street art can positively influence the taggers.

I wonder if these Swedish grannies in this story would ever yarn bomb a drainpipe. At least some penguins are going to be styling some Swedish design.

I don’t think there’s a need for a secondly (Did I mentions that they are young female Swedes dressed up in catsuits walking on the wings of an airplane? In flight. Looping and rolling?)

Chinese TV interviewed the two Swedish wingwalkers link to CCTV footage. (The interview is in English, the rest, Chinese.)

I don’t know if it’s common camera handling or the cameraman just likes the up-and-down-the-body of the Swedish purty-cats.

You can follow their blog updates here. (though I understand they have some Internet availability issues…updates certainly to come soon.)

Aftonbladet published this piece on them (in Swedish.)

Go Hella and Elin