tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85656342024-03-19T19:59:56.141+01:00Smells and Sounds from the StableOn horses and politicsBy studying horses you can learn quite a bit about human behavior too, such as flock dependency and emotions like nervousness, joy, desire for control and laziness. Subsequently, this blog is about the satisfactions of horse care and the vanity of politics. The blog is also about Castor, who was a strikingly impressive, black, large and self confident horse. Good qualities for anyone, I think.Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-90252152010361992782008-06-11T21:53:00.001+02:002008-06-11T21:53:59.888+02:00Catching upAgain, it's been a long time. This may be the last post on this blog. I haven't been able to ride now for a couple of years. Castor is dead, and my knee is shot to hell. Watch for a new blog on American-Swedish life, politics and culture. In the meantime, check out this blog: Gabriel's blog Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-68544546036836169072007-08-12T21:09:00.000+02:002007-08-17T23:04:42.309+02:00Castor is dead. What is the essence of senescence?This blog has been dead for over a year. Castor died in September last year. Take a look at his picture. He was fit for Darius. Castor was a magnificent animal, with a will-power to match his 700 kilogrammes.Everything is gone. His saddles, his harnesses, all his trappings. Just pictures left. And a sad feeling almost every day.The word of the day is senescence. The sense and power of aging. ThatKimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1114888040660339502006-01-11T21:01:00.000+01:002006-05-06T07:35:09.406+02:00Swedish provincialism rears its headFor those of you reading this outside of Sweden you may not have entertained many thoughts as to the intellectual health of the body politic, the religious life or the cultural establishments of Sweden: its government, its institutions, its religious organizations, its media and its – more than often – state sponsored, systematic culture for the masses. Sweden is a small country to the north of Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1113157438714166472005-12-26T20:21:00.000+01:002006-01-13T22:25:07.056+01:00Proust, Chapter 2Time for the Sunday reading again, and I am so full of satisfaction that I have to repeat myself. For those of you who are new to this blog, I wrote a few months ago about my Sunday – horse-free – pastime at the cultural center where Marcel Proust is the main attraction on Sunday afternoons. We’re well into the third book of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. The fare is simple: a 10-15 minute Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1110734251886779312005-11-13T18:15:00.000+01:002006-01-13T22:25:39.530+01:00The thrill of it allRiding is a dangerous sport, which is maybe why it’s so satisfying, tantalizing and both physically and emotionally edifying. Maybe motorcycling and skydiving qualify for a somewhat distant second place. Riding incorporates both skill, daredevilishness, communication with a large animal with a mind of its own and a thirst for well, not perfection, but getting better at it all. Now where else can Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1109714694697349082005-07-01T23:04:00.000+02:002006-01-13T22:26:17.223+01:00Responsibility and blame, murder and suicideThe subtle power of language influences our way of seeing the world around us. The words we use say a lot about us and our way of approaching a political and ethical reality.Most of us are more or less in agreement on the meanings and connotations of the words in the title above. The word responsibility is often positively charged and relates to an individual’s various liberties and Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1108235075339637542005-02-12T20:02:00.000+01:002005-02-13T00:28:23.593+01:00Tardiness and icy roadsOne of my blog colleagues, Kat, has coined a number of blog diseases, including blog neglect, blog addiction and blog blockage. To her medical blog-dictionary I would like to add the psychological malady termed blog tardiness, akin to blog neglect. Days go by and nothing gets written. This is not fair to Castor, who is supposed to be the focal point of this web page. Not only has he been Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1107097086146330692005-01-30T15:56:00.000+01:002005-02-02T22:21:04.110+01:00A repressive society?Most of us reflect some time or other on our own small roles in the great machinery of the world around us. We read our newspapers, visit blogs, look at TV, surf the web and perhaps engage in some idle conversation over lunch with people we find have more or less the same outlook on life as we do ourselves. We choose our own battlefields and usually end up winning a social or political battle Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1104442641942052262004-12-30T22:30:00.000+01:002004-12-31T19:44:44.896+01:00Superstitions, New Year's and red underwearIn parts of Spain, there is a custom where people (this is a gender-free tradition in tune with modern precepts) wear red underpants on New Year’s Eve and then burn them on New Year’s Day for good luck in the year to come.
In other parts of Spain, they eat a dozen grapes as soon the clock strikes twelve. A well-placed joke immediately afterwards produces amusing results. A similar custom comesKimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1103274815887048542004-12-17T10:13:00.000+01:002006-05-07T19:02:24.250+02:00Swedish exoticism - stable styleOne of the Swedish festival days that you can't miss, no matter where you are in Sweden is Lucia Day. The festival of Lucia begins early in the morning on the thirteenth of December and marks the first celebration at Christmastide. Everywhere you go, there will be some sort of Lucia celebration - at home, at workplaces, in schools, in churches, in hospitals, in day care centers, on Swedish Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1102884930392176972004-12-12T20:09:00.000+01:002004-12-13T13:14:16.820+01:00White man's burden ?Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight...
As we all grew up, most of us, in some way or other, wanted to make the world better. As young children, all we could do with our limited resources was to sing songs (Jesus Loves the Little Children) or contribute a portion of our allowance to some church fund or school charity or maybe save it for a later moral deposit. Don't Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1101936741884148922004-12-01T21:17:00.000+01:002004-12-09T16:20:56.023+01:00The zombification of downtown MinneapolisI go back to Minneapolis about once a year. When I grew up there it was a town of about two hundred thousand people. Now there are about four. There were no slums, but the poorer people lived to the immediate north and south of downtown, mostly north. Minneapolis was a vibrant city of grain mills and small to medium size industries - with a lot of textile manufacturing. It sported two big train Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1101919659749527162004-12-01T17:47:00.000+01:002004-12-01T23:39:40.333+01:00Straight from the horse's mouth...Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1101676758857316102004-11-28T21:58:00.000+01:002006-01-09T09:44:54.580+01:00ThanksgivingIn trying to keep up with my American traditions, we had 15 guests for Thanskgiving dinner. Now making a proper dinner with all the trimmings isn't all that easy. First of all: turkey. You can't get a decent one here. This is what it sounded like (translated, of course) when I called up a large supplier of meats (also turkey farm) to place an order ahead of time:
"Hi, I'd like to order a large Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1100785607730960052004-11-18T13:01:00.000+01:002004-12-02T22:43:06.403+01:00Worlds apart? One thing I have become even more aware of via the corespondence I've had concerning topics in my own blog and in others, is that there seems to be a problem in the European understanding of America's cultural, historical and value-based conditions and Americans' understanding of those of Europe. I say more aware because this has always been something that, at least in Sweden, one is constantly Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1100450759995267702004-11-14T16:55:00.000+01:002004-11-15T11:17:17.580+01:00Cultural succulenceSunday afternoons are the high point of the week. A few blocks from home is a place you'd never find if you didn't know where it was. Down the steep steps into a large cellar array of rooms is the Forum. And every Sunday is a reading of about 2-3 chapters from Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.
Well down the steps you enter a large room, unfurnished except for a counter where you pay for Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1100376454712314802004-11-13T20:26:00.000+01:002004-11-14T11:31:29.046+01:00Taken for grantedMulled a while today, on the way back from the stable, over the phrase "taken for granted". I don't know why this popped up in my head. It could have been from some song or some allusion to a song or - whatever. The phrase sums up in three short words the problems of Sweden (where I happen to live) and probably most of the western world. If something is granted, then it is given to us - Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1099829041564801842004-11-07T13:07:00.000+01:002004-11-07T17:19:32.253+01:00And God said, Let there be Bush: and there was Bush.If God is a Republican, could Jesus be a closet Democrat?
Europe is aghast at the way Bush won the election. Morals? Religion? In Sweden, probably the most religion-alienated society in Europe, people just don't understand. What about economics, environment, jobs, not to mention education and health care. "What went wrong," they say. "Are Americans stupid?"
Not. And certainly not more than Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1099682966779119802004-11-05T19:58:00.000+01:002004-11-05T22:33:39.786+01:00Horseshit (Lesson # 1)Castor is a castorastrophe when it comes to keeping himself and his surroundings clean. It seems like all the other horses in the stable shit in one corner, creating a prudish-like pile of manure in one spot, making their owners proud and much less onset than I am by manual labor when arriving at the stable. But not Castor. Castor is a hulk beyond compare. When you get there, late in the Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1099516232710772152004-11-03T22:10:00.000+01:002004-11-03T22:25:54.580+01:00Cryonics, that's the rub!Now I finally realize why Kerry lost. It's his hair. The man looks like an (albeit intelligent) dork, frozen in action in 1972 and then thawed out in 2004 to run for President. No wonder Bush won. What we need is an Arnold in Sweden, too. But with brains. People say that looks don't count. Hogwash. Of course they do. Just ask Stefan Persson at Hennes and Mauritz.
So we're stuck with Bush. Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1099391414193309562004-11-02T11:24:00.000+01:002004-11-02T13:05:50.983+01:00Election DayToday's the big, scary day. When 50 percent of Americans turn out to vote for one of two men who say more or less the same thing and are just as rich. Not much of a choice. But 50 percent? And 50 percent of those 50 percent are going to make the decision for you and me.
Let me put my two cents worth in: Kerrrrry, Kerrrrry, Kerrrrry!Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1099391013324245552004-10-26T11:14:00.000+02:002004-11-02T21:01:52.436+01:00DentistToday Castor had a dentist appointment. Let me tell you how this works. First, you stand in the box to hold the horse calm for the treatment. Then, the dentist fixes a brace over the muzzle of the horse, picks up a gigantic rasp (handyman style XXL) out of a bucket of disinfected water, sticks his hand and lower arm in the horse's mouth and starts filing away. After this rasping session, he then Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1099390219546115142004-10-25T09:39:00.000+02:002004-11-02T14:00:15.873+01:00Hard work and Caetano VelosoAs advertised, we took the trip back. It's always a bore. You sit scrunched between 176 other people and there is a law that says that you always end up either right next to the smelly john at the back of the plane or right in front of a corpulent lady who is making the last leg of trip from Australia, who of course hasn't washed her feet in the meantime, and who feels an incontrollable urge to Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1097697707869721742004-10-13T21:41:00.000+02:002004-10-13T23:17:07.506+02:00Big tripGoing back for a well-needed vacation. It's always a big trip. Even though nowadays it only takes 5-6 hours in the air, the time spent in airports, changing planes etc makes it twice as long. Not to mention the sometimes arrogant welcome you get from US immigration. They should take a charm course.
If people in the States only knew the bad reputation the US is getting abroad by making the so Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565634.post-1097524254919645082004-10-11T21:34:00.000+02:002004-10-11T21:56:39.470+02:00It's cold up hereThis country (Sweden) is wierd. Last week it was +15 degrees Celsius and today when I left the stable it was -2. Oh, how I long for decent climate like in Nashville or in Minneapolis or in the Hague. But the chill has an envigorating effect - like eating ice cream too quickly. First it hurts, then it hurts more. Then it feels so good that it stopped hurting and you get used to it. That's what Kimberlyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05854108749225262712noreply@blogger.com2