Observe The Banana » Iceland

Clever folding spoon

ted — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:28:21 +0000

I was struck by the nice design of this clever little folding spoon found in the lid of single serving Skyr (a wonderful Icelandic dairy product similar to yogurt). It clicks into a locked open position to make a very functional spoon, and can be re-folded.

Meats of the World

ted — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:55:15 +0000

Living in Reykjavik, Iceland I was not surprised to find whale meat at the meat market. I raised an eyebrow at the salted horse meat and reindeer meat, but I was aware that people ate those too. I was however slightly surprised to see kangaroo meat at the local grocery store, I guess I am just an over sheltered American.

Moby Dick On A Stick

ted — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:40:30 +0000

In October of 2006 Iceland began commercial whaling again. They had been doing only scientific whaling since 1986. They harvesting of whales is done in a controlled sustainable way with strict quotas, but many organizations including environmental groups and the whale watching industry are still opposed to it. Only 1.1% of Icelandic adults actually eat whale once a week or more. As seen in the whale Kebab ad above, some people are able to approach the subject with a sense of humor. Below is a clip from the local paper, “The Grapevine”.

Fun is where you make it

ted — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 10:03:46 +0000

Living in a foreign land, in a small apartment without all my usual distractions and entertainments of home, it can take some creativity to fill those long cold, dark nights when the one computer is being used by the one employed person to do work (I already figured out the combination to the bike lock I found by using trial and error) so I was happy when I found a intact Trivial Pursuit game thrown out by a neighbor (woot!) – but when I got it home and opened it I discovered it was in danish (doh!), not even the language of the country I am living in (Iceland). So how do you entertain yourself with a Trivial Pursuit game in a foreign language? Well, I started by making card houses from the cards.

B used the little wedges and circles to invent a cool new game with various rules and moves (like switch, send and forfeit) in which you rearrange the wedges between the holders and a pool to try to get each holder filled with the correct color wedges.

What else….how about a little stop motion animation with the card deck?

I hate to destroy an intact game, even though I did find it in the trash, but maybe in time I will move on to folding or cutting the cards for some interesting craft creation. Maybe one of those chains people made from gum wrappers would be fun….

Any suggestions?

Yes Virginia, there are dogs in Reykjavik

ted — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 00:14:06 +0000

Last week I moved to Reykjavik, Iceland (where I will be spending the next 4 months). It is a beautiful and friendly city. One of the things I was curious to find out was the accuracy of various reports on the web (like here, here and even here) that it is illegal to own a dog in Reykjavik. My second day here my question was answered when I passed someone walking a dog down the street. I have since seen many other pet dogs about. I asked a local about it and they got a good laugh to hear that the internet has sites saying it is illegal to own a dog in Reykjavik. There are strict leash, licensing and vaccination laws (like a lot of places), and apparently there used to be some even stricter laws, but let me state, it is not illegal to own a dog in Reykjavik, Iceland. Imagine that, incorrect information on the internet, this has got to be first

Next thing, someone will be claiming that spaghetti doesn’t really grow on trees!