The sky outside is an ominous yellowish gray. I am avoiding meeting the eye of the looming stack of final papers that I must grade. In half an hour I will go attend a colloquium at which the speaker promises to argue vigorously, in detail, and at length in support of a conclusion that everyone in the field already accepts as a matter of course. My primary accomplishment of the day has been to describe the protracted and disappointing American health-care reform drama as a process of "being panda-fucked in the ear".
More happily, later this evening, a colleague and I will send off an abstract for a conference being held in Finland this summer. I have a crush on Finland. I have never been there, but it is the home of Moomin and the Helsinki Complaints Choir and the Finnish language and Finns. What more do you need?
I could listen to this all day, and indeed have done so, when I was finishing my dissertation. It is cheering, and makes me like the Finns. They have good complaints.
Reading Hel Looks is also a good way to appreciate Finns. One thing I especially like about it is how often the people being profiled mention their grandmothers as style inspirations. Grandmothers, and also Hanoi Rocks. Finland!