GameBanshee Forums

I, me personally, as stated above, think that you should keep yer nutrition debate out of my "Misconceptions" thread, and go find yourself a thread of yer own!

17. Norway: People seem to think that the folks in the Dark-Middle Ages were significantly shorter because of their beds. The fact is that people slept sitting up, because the thought having your legs at level with your head would kill you in your sleep. Any tourguide knows this, as they do all over Europe.

Now GO AWAY, and leave me to my thread!

I went 'hitter' (hut) camping in Norway a while ago, which means I slept in a dozen Norwegian beds. They were all on the short side, not to mention the low ceilings they were placed under. One of the companions I was travelling with was bald, and he had whole stretches of skin coming loose from his head by the end of our trip. Ouch.

My theory is that ancient Norwegians were actually small humans with strong, possibly wooden heads. They somehow evolved from the trolls in their own folklore.

Chanak wrote:1. All (or most) Americans own guns.

Of course not. I don't, and no one else in my family except for my father does, either (he owns a .22 caliber "varmint" rifle). That's 1 out of 6 right there. None of my friends in the state of Texas (I lived there in the recent past) owned a gun, even though you might find that difficult to believe. I know of some current and former law enforcement officers who never owned a gun themselves - their police-issue firearm is and was the only one in their possession. One is a Georgia State Trooper (state police force), another is a former FBI agent, and still another was a city cop for a small town here in Florida until the paperwork involved in his daily job drove him nuts.

A footnote: after he left the police force, he returned to his original trade: Plumbing. So, in his own words, he went from being driven nuts by volumes of police paperwork and red-tape to being driven nuts by people's clogged commodes. Hmmm. I suggested he try turkey farming, but he wasn't amused.

Go figger!:laugh:

I visited a few small towns in Arkansas some weeks ago and one thing that made my mouth fall open was the large amount of rifles that many of these people own. More than that, people generally don't lock their doors in that area, so you can just go in the backdoor and see three, four or five heavyduty firearms hanging on the wall. Now, the locals there are among the friendliest, warmest and non-violentest people you'll ever meet, but still, for somebody from a country that has such radically different laws about guns that's very alien.

P.S.: Chanak, I didn't post this to debate you, of course. I visited other parts of the US where there was nary a gun to be found.

Norway is not a backwater farmland (well, most of it isn't )

Fiberfar wrote:Norway is not a backwater farmland (well, most of it isn't )

Oh yeah???? Have you been drinking Karsk again with the tractor club? And on a school night?

Fib is completely delusional. Norway IS a backwater country in every sense of the world. That's beyond dispute. The place Fib lives is one constant hoedown, complete with mullets and moonshine. On a global scale Oslo is a village, with yokels, dungheaps and people in straw hats sitting on the fence drooling and watching you creepily as you ride in. Our royal castle is a shoebox that fits nicely into any fireplace in any castle elsewhere in Europe. The fashion & glamour factor of a major A-list celebrity party in Oslo is roughly that of a Nebraska barn dance, only with less entertainment value. Drive five meters away from the sign that says "Welcome To Oslo" and you're in "Deliverance Country" where anything can happen.

Tricky wrote:

They somehow evolved from the trolls in their own folklore.

Evolved? Who's evolved?

Moonbiter wrote:Oh yeah???? Have you been drinking Karsk again with the tractor club? And on a school night?

Fib is completely delusional. Norway IS a backwater country in every sense of the world. That's beyond dispute. The place Fib lives is one constant hoedown, complete with mullets and moonshine. On a global scale Oslo is a village, with yokels, dungheaps and people in straw hats sitting on the fence drooling and watching you creepily as you ride in. Our royal castle is a shoebox that fits nicely into any fireplace in any castle elsewhere in Europe. The fashion & glamour factor of a major A-list celebrity party in Oslo is roughly that of a Nebraska barn dance, only with less entertainment value. Drive five meters away from the sign that says "Welcome To Oslo" and you're in "Deliverance Country" where anything can happen.

I agree, but where's the farms? Farming is going to hell here
We're backwater on everything else (with the exception of NTNU )

Evolved? This is the downward spiral! We're all going to Hell! (Hell, Norway )

Coot wrote:Go figger!:laugh:

I visited a few small towns in Arkansas some weeks ago and one thing that made my mouth fall open was the large amount of rifles that many of these people own. More than that, people generally don't lock their doors in that area, so you can just go in the backdoor and see three, four or five heavyduty firearms hanging on the wall. Now, the locals there are among the friendliest, warmest and non-violentest people you'll ever meet, but still, for somebody from a country that has such radically different laws about guns that's very alien.

P.S.: Chanak, I didn't post this to debate you, of course. I visited other parts of the US where there was nary a gun to be found.

LOL! The scene you described above is quite vivid in my mind, since I've seen it myself time and time again. I can only imagine how flabbergasted you must have been.

Coot: "Buh-buh-buh-by the way Mr. Turnipseed, is that a .50 caliber elephant gun I see laying on your kitchen tuh-tuh-tuh-table?"

Mr. Turnipseed: "Why shure thang it is, Mr. Coot. Wanna take her out back and shoot some holes in the woodshed? Maw won't mind. Junior does it all the time."

Coot: "Wuh-wuh-wuh-well, Mr. Turnipseed, I would be happy to oblige, buh-buh-buh-but you see, I have a flight to catch, my hayfever is acting up, and as it is I have to guh-guh-guh-go now." :speech:

The misconception is, as you pointed out, that all Americans live that way. Not all Americans drive trucks with a gunrack mounted on the backglass. That, and not all Americans will have a Pit Bull or Rottweiler in the bed of said truck, unrestrained and snarling at passersby. You won't find that everywhere...

...however, you will find that in certain areas. :laugh:

EDIT: I knew a fellow who owned a small farm in the Tennessee countryside (apart from Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga, that describes the entire state ). On the weekends, this was his entertainment: close to midnight on Friday and Saturday nights he would gather up one of his rifles, a box of bullets, something to drink and a flashlight. He would station himself at a good vantage point looking into his chicken coop, and proceed to shoot rats for hours. His method: he would listen for evidence of a rat in the chicken house. Upon hearing one, he illuminated the area with the flashlight, startling the rat. BOOM.

He had hired me to do some work on a polebarn he was erecting. We worked late into a Friday night, so he offered his couch as a place for me to crash out. I woke up that later that night to the sound of gunfire! I decided to investigate, which was how I discovered his...pasttime. Too curious to get the heck out of there, I sat down and watched him in action for a while. I'll be damned, the guy never missed one of those rats. He killed in excess of 14 that night. :speech:

Chanak wrote:EDIT: I knew a fellow who owned a small farm in the Tennessee countryside (apart from Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga, that describes the entire state ). On the weekends, this was his entertainment: close to midnight on Friday and Saturday nights he would gather up one of his rifles, a box of bullets, something to drink and a flashlight. He would station himself at a good vantage point looking into his chicken coop, and proceed to shoot rats for hours. His method: he would listen for evidence of a rat in the chicken house. Upon hearing one, he illuminated the area with the flashlight, startling the rat. BOOM.

Got quite a kick out of that. Most non-USians think of the US as being as culturally monolithic as their own countries, but it's more like the EU. You don't expect the Greeks to share the tastes, ideas, values, or temperament of the Swedes. Or either, of the Finns, the Brits, or the Roumanians. A shame our political "leaders" have to paper over the monumental differences by assuring the world we're all united. I think I can safely say that more than half the country would glady separate from their neighbors if it could be done easily and without bloodshed. And at least 10%, I'm afraid, would gladly do it if bloodshed was involved.