I went to Sweden once. Really. It was the middle of winter. We took the slow boat from Riga, Latvia, on Christmas day 1995. We then took a train from Stockholm up to some town in northern Sweden. Oh, the joy of spending Boxing Day at IKEA and eating $10 burgers in the land where the sun never rises!

So, on the way back to Stockholm, this time on a bus, we sit next to this lady. Young, maybe mid-thirties. She invited us to stay at her house rather than at the youth hostel we were booked in. Then she starts crying, literally, because the government was going to stop paying her workers compensation claim. What was her injury? I quote: "Working makes me nervous." We turned down her invite. That youth hostel was the best investment I ever made.

And in case you're wondering--four hours on the bus and every song was ABBA. Serious. It was on a loop. You ever hear ABBA in the original Swedish?

So to recap: Northern Sweden, in the dead of winter, on a student budget, ABBA in Swedish, and welfare moms.

Let's just say I didn't have the highest opinion of Sweden going into this post by Jeff (via Brian B.).

I might just add that Canada has a similar censorship law. It's the PC domino affect.

Posted by: Rusty at 03:38 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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