SICKO TOO — by Steve Nadis
“That sounds like it might be fun,” I said. “I’m planning to bring my five-year-old to it.”
He looked at me like I was depraved and only later did I figure out why.
“That sounds like it might be fun,” I said. “I’m planning to bring my five-year-old to it.”
He looked at me like I was depraved and only later did I figure out why.
There is somewhat of a silver lining, albeit a slim one. My foot has been bothering since I did something to it during a handball game in July more than four-and-a-half months ago. But ever since I blew out my shoulder, I haven’t noticed my foot at all. Which is why I’m calling it the best cure ever for aching feet.
Is this mistake–if you are wont to call it that–a blemish on Call Me Snake’s otherwise perfect record? I think not. If anything, the fact that Harvard and Yale changed their game plans strictly to humiliate this blog shows the growing importance of Call Me Snake.
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Why are Danes so smug?
The high levels of contentment enjoyed by Danes has long been a source of mystery. Denmark has ranked first for more than 30 years in European surveys of satisfaction. The country also ranked first in the latest World Map of Happiness. But what are they so happy about? That question was explored in the recent British Medical Journal study, “Why Danes are smug.”
The study, led by University of Southern Denmark scholar Kaare Christensen, considered a host of hypotheses, starting with hair color. But the researchers quickly dismissed the “blondes have more fun” theory by noting that Sweden has a higher prevalence of blondes than Denmark.
Nor does the answer lie in Danish cuisine, which they charitably describe as “unmemorable.”
The climate is no picnic either, with Danes enjoying fewer hours of sunshine a year than dreary London.
Denmark has the highest marriage rate in Europe, which might account for the general wellbeing were it not for the almost equally high divorce rate.
Danes rate their health as good, yet by objective standards it’s “mediocre.”
Ultimately, the authors were left with two explanations: Denmark’s victory over Germany in the 1992 European soccer championships, they suggest, “provided the biggest boost to the Danish psyche” in more than 900 years. Second, Danes maintain “consistently low expectations” and are “pleasantly surprised” to find that everything is not “getting more rotten in the state of Denmark.”
I hope you enjoyed the latest installment of Freaky Friday. See you next Saturday (or Sunday or Monday) for the uncut, remixed, director’s club version of the same. Until then, “stay freaky.”
Fortunately, I found my wallet at home, which was a great relief as I had lost my wallet just two weeks ago and had finally replaced all the cards and various forms of ID. If I’d actually lost two wallets in two weeks, I wouldn’t have waited for them to commit me. I’d have voluntarily checked myself in.
“You may be right,” I replied. “In which case, you can forget about ever getting paid by me.”