Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

White supremacy is terrorism.

No one could have predicted…

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Up Helly Aa!

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Up Helly Aa!

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I have just enough Viking blood to find the whole Up Helly Aa concept charming. Per The Scotsman:

IT is one of the biggest and most famous fire festivals in the world and goes ahead every year – no matter the weather – on the last Tuesday of January.

Come heavy snow, gales, rain, sleet or even sub-zero conditions, Up Helly Aa in Shetland will see over 1,000 torch-baring guizers parade through the island’s capital of Shetland before setting a Viking Galley ablaze.

After that, there is one ‘helly’ of a party which continues with dancing across numerous halls throughout Lerwick until the early hours of the next morning…

Trevor Jamieson, of Shetland Museum and Library, said: “The significance of the name UpHelly-Aa has been variously interpreted over the years, but most commentators suggest that the expression owes its modern form to the Old Norse for weekend or holiday being the word Helly, thus Up-Helly-Aa being the end of helly or holidays…

“There was a strongly romantic Nordic revival towards the end of the nineteenth century, and it was perhaps unavoidable that the festival would somehow become tied with the Vikings.

“The first galley was burnt in 1889…

On the evening of Up Helly Aa Day, over 1,000 heavily-disguised men form ranks in the darkened streets. They shoulder stout fencing posts, topped with paraffin-soaked sacking.

More than 40 squads of guizers visit a dozen halls in rotation. They’re all invited guests at what are still private parties. At every hall each squad performs its ‘act’, perhaps a skit on local events, a dance display in spectacular costume, or a topical send-up of a popular TV show or pop group.

Every guizer has a duty to dance with at least one of the ladies in the hall, before taking yet another dram, soaked up with vast quantities of mutton soup and bannocks…

It’s January in the Shetlands, one needs all the anti-freeze one can drink!

Much more detail (and charming pics) at the link. This year’s procession will be livestreamed here, starting at 19.00 GMT (2pm EST, if my math is correct).

I first ran into the story of Up Helly Aa at Slate, with Matthew Brenmer’s “Fire Island: Europe’s largest fire festival features Vikings, ninjas, and men in dresses” —

Neil Robertson stood atop his Viking longship, staring blankly into the distance. His shaggy face was flushed red with the heat of a thousand flaming torches, and the plume of his raven-winged helmet shook gently in the breeze. The men carrying these torches were raucous, drunk on joy and the whiskey they kept in their tunics. They gathered in a great incendiary ring around the longboat that clogged the night air with thick smoke. Some of the men, like Robertson, dressed as Vikings, while others came as women, Ninja Turtles, and Power Rangers.

The crowd shouted up at their man, calling his name and pleading for him to do what they had all come to see. Robertson, however, remained impervious to their pleas. He stayed silent and seemed somewhere else in his mind. He was euphoric but also incredulous. He had waited 15 years for this moment. He had seen countless other men go before him, and it was now his turn.

The roars from the mob were getting louder. The torches heaved and swelled in a sea of fire, but Robertson held onto his time for just a second longer. He couldn’t let it finish.

Then he raised his ax. The noise stopped. Torches everywhere lowered. The air was bitter with paraffin and heavy with the crowd’s breath.

Fifteen years had come to this…

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  2. 2.

    sm*t cl*de

    The Shetlands: Designed to make Orkney Islanders feel grateful for the temperate nature of their climate.

  4. 4.

    Schlemazel

    @raven:
    Those are my people too, though I assume mine must have been the bookkeepers and cobblers.

    Actually, family legend is that my ancestors were mining engineers for the king of Sweden.

  5. 5.

    Central Planning

    Adding last Tuesday in January in Shetland to the bucket list

    Four of my five kids have succumbed to a stomach bug over the past 10 days. I think they may have finally gotten me. I guess the good news is I can attend my customer meeting remotely :/

  7. 7.

    sm*t cl*de

    The men carrying these torches were raucous, drunk on joy and the whiskey they kept in their tunics.

    Imma pretty sure that what they kept in their tunics was whisky.

  9. 9.

    satby

    I’m relieved to see that last night’s rain was all dried by blustery winds before it could freeze on the roads. Driving to school in the dark on icy roads this winter has been more nerve wracking than I expected, so every not icy day in winter is welcome. Hard to believe that January is almost over.

  10. 10.

    Schlemazel

    @raven:
    Probably not unlike what My Grandma would have said about the Norsk! There are not fights like those between brothers!

    As a kid my family was invited to a pow-wow by a very nice Chippewa friend. It was quite a party with a lot of costumes, drumming & dancing. One woman had a particularly beautiful buckskin dress covered in rows of silver cones that jingled when she danced. Late in the evening she went to sit down but in order to not crush those bells she lift her dress well past her waist. My mom was shocked but our friend just rolled her eyes & poofed out “Sioux!” in that way meaning “what are you gonna do,they don’t know any better”. Since I had heard that exact tone taken between Sweds & Norwegians in my neighborhood I found this to be a hilarious insight into human relationships with their neighbors. We really are all the same

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    Update on the saga of my swollen left pinky:

    I had the finger biopsied this afternoon. The biopsy sample came out looking chalky. The doctor, taking the sample, the doctor assisting her, and the professor watching the whole thing are all but sure that means it’s gout. It will take another blood test and the biopsy result to confirm it; but if they’re right then it’s not any sort of tumour. I will still need a bone graft, which will entail fusing the joints at either end of the phalangeal bone, so I can’t bend the finger afterwards. But at least amputation will not be necessary.

  13. 13.

    satby

    @Amir Khalid: Gout stinks, but it’s better than the alternatives. I’m sorry this is still going on and hope that now you’re on the way to resolution. Feel better soon Amir!

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid: I don’t know, at least with amputation you know that finger will never bother you again. ;-) Glad you get to keep all your body parts a little while longer.

  19. 19.

    sm*t cl*de

    @raven:

    Oh what my grandmother, Ingeborg, would say about the Svenskas!

    if I am informed correctly, the Swedes tell Danish jokes.Meanwhile the Danes’ jokes — all five of them — all involve Norwegians. But everyone tells jokes about the Finns. Except the Finns, who tell jokes about Estonians. Then there is no-one else to point to and the Estonians tell jokes about Estonians too.

  20. 20.

    BGinCHI

    That is really, really cool. I’m glad to see something goes on in the Shetlands besides shivering and sheep buggery. Just kidding…pretty much.

    Here in Bergen last week they a huge celebration for the 100th anniversary of a huge fire that burned a lot of the city. Fire is still taken very seriously here, since so many of the houses are made of wood. The fire department hauled out all their equipment, had a parade, and then built a huge bonfire by the harbor, apparently to draw attention. They also projected flames onto the side of a huge white building so that it looked as though it were burning.

    Thousands of people turned out. The Norwegians take things seriously in ways Americans never would.

  21. 21.

    Germy

    WaPo: GOP senator calls out Donald Trump’s ‘many affairs’ in lengthy tweetstorm
    Trump has also said: “I have too much respect for women in general, but if I did [write about my love life], the world would take serious notice. Beautiful, famous, successful, married — I’ve had them all, secretly, the world’s biggest names…”

  22. 22.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Germy: I’m pretty sure that Sigmund Freud would suggest that bragging about one’s conquests in the sack is a way of compensating for another shortcoming…

    ETA: If they’re such a secret, why is he talking about them?

  24. 24.

    Randy P

    @sm*t cl*de:

    Meanwhile the Danes’ jokes — all five of them — all involve Norwegians. But everyone tells jokes about the Finns. Except the Finns, who tell jokes about Estonians.

    My Finnish relatives thought this skit (the Norwegians making fun of the Danes) was hilarious.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk
    The gist of it is, nobody understands the Danish language. Including the Danes.

  26. 26.

    Randy P

    A few years ago I was in Edinburgh briefly (my only trip there, far too brief). Midsummer, I think. A little before the opening of the big Edinburgh Festival. There were posters up for an upcoming Norse Festival, with the slogan, “This time they’re invited”.

    Which struck me on so many levels, especially:
    – Obviously the Vikings had been there and done what Vikings do
    – Countries that aren’t the US have international relationships that go back millennia. I struggle to get my head around that.
    – I don’t really know my European history.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    @many above

    Ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds,
    At the battle of Copenhagen.
    Ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds
    Chased by one Norwegian!

  29. 29.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Amir Khalid: Oh ow! Judging by other comments, that outcome’s less bad than it could have been, but it still sounds nasty. So sorry.

    @Germy: As has so often happened in this R primary season, my first reaction was “That can’t be real. It must be a joke.”

  33. 33.

    Germy

    @Iowa Old Lady: Trump is threatening to boycott the next debate if Ms. Kelly is allowed to moderate:

    It makes sense that Ailes would be worried. While it remains highly unlikely that Trump actually doesn’t show up on Thursday, he continues to threaten the relationship between Fox News and its viewers. During his CNN interview, Trump played on Ailes’s leak anxiety, hinting that he has dirt on Kelly and is willing to use it. “Maybe I know too much about her,” he said.

  37. 37.

    Randy P

    @Germy: The guy’s a real prince, isn’t he? He seems to sink lower every week. And improve his standing among his brownshirts.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    @Amir Khalid

    The good news is that gout is eminently controllable these days. And use lots of limes. Lime juice mixed in a glass of water, consumed regularly, helps a lot. Something a simple as increasing regular water intake can also help flush uric acid.

    Seriously, have you considered seeking a second opinion from an osteopath before consenting to surgery?

  39. 39.

    Germy

    @Baud: If she moderates, will certainly make for an interesting debate. And all these years I was told the GOP was the party of Grownups.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: Dang! Sorry about the gout (my husband gets that in a toe occasionally, and it’s very painful), but glad to hear you get to keep the pinky. Really, if I had to choose to lose flexibility in one finger, I believe the left pinky would be the one I’d select. It’s pretty useless for most typing, and with it permanently extended, you’ll look natty drinking your tea!

  43. 43.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:
    No matter how nicely they ask, the orthopaedists say, they won’t get my results back in less than a fortnight. (The histology lab normally takes a month.) I have a follow-up appointment for then, and we’ll see.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    Curious if anyone else might be watching, or has watched, Gran Hotel (listed on Netflix as Grand Hotel), a Spanish series set in the early years of the 20th century at a luxury hotel.

    Intrigue and mystery abound, plus a serial killer on the loose. Wheels within wheels within wheels. Soap opera-y? You betcha.

    But I’m hooked. The sets and costuming are impeccable. The character of the detective police inspector is especially well done.

  51. 51.

    Amir Khalid

    [email protected]Germy:
    The network must not yield to the Donald on this. Candidates have no business trying to dictate debate conditions, and that includes vetoing moderators they don’t like. If he doesn’t turn up, show his empty lectern all night long. Feel free to call him a coward and a petulant little boy, because that’s how he’s behaving. Let him host his own event, if he wants. So what if he does get better ratings? He’ll look even less like a president to the public than he does now.

  52. 52.

    MattF

    FYI, the OED confirms that the word ‘geezer’ comes from ‘guizer’ (which means ‘mummer’ or masquerader).

  53. 53.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Baud: Now that the Najib Razak investigation has closed with, apparently, no wrongdoing, it’s OK to make jokes about Amir and graft.

  55. 55.

    RSA

    Up Helly Aa in Shetland will see over 1,000 torch-baring guizers

    “Show us your torch! Woohoo!”

  61. 61.

    Amir Khalid

    @Gin & Tonic:
    A brief Tom Friedmanish story:
    I was in a cab going to the hospital. Cabbie had the radio on; he was sputtering with rage when he heard the news. Nobody in Malaysia really believes Najib had US$700 million of someone else’s money just sitting innocently in his bank account.

  65. 65.

    Amir Khalid

    @Robert Sneddon:
    If Najib admitted it was his he’d have to explain how he came by it. His family is from the not-fabulously-loaded lower reaches of the aristocracy in Pahang state. He should be well-off from a long career in politics, but not that well-off.

  68. 68.

    Bloix

    “torch-baring guizers”

    Ok, I can see that they’re geezers, but they don’t look bare to me. And what are those things they’re carrying?

    “the Old Norse for weekend or holiday being the word Helly”
    Yes, as everyone knows, the Vikings knocked off work at 5 pm Friday – so if you were barricaded inside your Northumbrian abbey, you’d be safe until 9 am Monday morning.

  72. 72.

    Sad_Dem

    @Bloix:

    Yes, as everyone knows, the Vikings knocked off work at 5 pm Friday – so if you were barricaded inside your Northumbrian abbey, you’d be safe until 9 am Monday morning.

    True, but Viking wristwatches were notoriously unreliable, so that needed to be taken into account.

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