Shane MacGowan wrote the song. Apparently he died earlier this year, this probably accounts for all the attention (eg. NY Times article above and the video below).
Most popular Christmas song in the UK? Really??? And I thought it was just me...
Iskandar
Author:
iskandar taib [ 29 Dec 2023, 19:07 ]
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Re: Funny or interesting video for the weekend
As long as we're on the subject of Christmas:
If you're not from the Upper Midwest, or were an avid listener of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio in the 1990s (which is where I first heard this song), you might not have ever heard of lutefisk. Apparently it's preserved cod, and is eaten by Norwegians for Christmas (presumably to remind them how tough things were in the Old Country), and is a long running joke among Norwegian-Americans. They use lye (sodium hydroxide) to preserve it, which turns the oils in the fish into soap. I'm sad that I've never gotten to taste it (nor did I get to try lefse), the closest I came was when I visited Hibbing, Minnesota between Christmas and New Year's one year (those of you who are familiar with the area are probably wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to visit Hibbing at that time of the year) - I visited a grocery store and hunted up and down for the lutefisk, and when I finally found it it was in the frozen food section - it looked like the ghost of a fish fillet, absolutely transparent - and it wasn't something I could just take to my hotel room and eat, so I didn't buy it.
In any case.. search YouTube and you come up with many versions of this song, and more besides. This one's a little more of a documentary on the subject of lutefisk:
And this is a Norwegian version of "The Night Before Christmas":
I suppose it's the Norwegian version of durian. Then again:
I haven't watched an Emmy video in YEARS, and I'd forgotten how good they are to watch. Makes me actually want to try lutefisk! (Good luck trying to find any around here, though.. )
Iskandar
Author:
iskandar taib [ 08 Jan 2024, 20:06 ]
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Re: Funny or interesting video for the weekend
I don't know if anyone remembers the shouting match some years back about Simplified (used in the PRC) and Traditional Chinese (used on Taiwan) characters (IIRC it took place in my Training Rubbers thread). This is a fascinating look at how computer text works, and how Unicode came about. Keep watching till the end (or skip to the last minute, if you're that bored.. ) for a surprise (and probably, to some, triggering) ending...
Iskandar
Author:
iskandar taib [ 31 Jan 2024, 18:32 ]
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Re: Funny or interesting video for the weekend
I've been a little lazy, so I've got a bit of a backlog of videos I've been wanting to post. This, though, I just watched. This is a little gem of a video - I'm not sure how much work it took to make but it must've taken a while. You might not agree with everything he says here but he DOES expose you to a lot of different foods that, after you are done watching the video, will REALLY want to try. There's a restaurant I found that serves shakshouka, I'll definitely try THAT sometime soon.
Check out his channel. Don't know how I missed it all this time.
Iskandar
Author:
iskandar taib [ 01 Feb 2024, 15:21 ]
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Re: Funny or interesting video for the weekend
This is an old classic. Can't place the accent (West African? Carribean?). Amazing performance.
Iskandar
Author:
darucla [ 03 Feb 2024, 22:45 ]
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Re: Funny or interesting video for the weekend
Images here taken with a 200,000 fps camera, which is insane.
