okay @chigrima@silvysartfulness I need you guys to help me out: what are the actual Swedish phrases AND WHAT DO THESE MEAN?!
@chigrima is probably replying to this as I type, but that only means you get twice the swedesplaining, @speculativexenolinguist
. u.u
– now youâve shat in the blue cupboard
Actual phrase: Nu har du skitit i det blÄ skÄpet.
As far as a I know, this one dates back to ye olde times, where youâd store the night pot in a cupboard by the bed. In the kitchen area, you had another fancier cabinet (blue, for example, is fancy, maybe some flowers painted on there, pretty stuff) where you kept the âchinaâ to eat on. So to say youâve shat in the blue cupboard means youâve made a huge mistake – like using your dinner china for going poo-poo in.
– the taste is like the butt (divided)
Actual phrase:Smaken Ă€r som baken – delad
Literally means that just the way the butt is split into two ass-cheeks, so peoplesâ tastes and preferences may be divided. The last part of the idiom is often left out since everyone knows what it is.
– thereâs no cow on the ice
Actual phrase:Det Àr ingen ko pÄ isen.
A cow thatâs gotten lost from the pasture and wandered onto the frozen nearby body of water is bad. You may end up with drowned cow. So as long as thereâs no cow on the ice, whatever you need to do isnât really in a hurry. If there WAS a cow on the ice, youâd be in a rush to fix it before it got worse, though.
– i sense owls in the marsh
Actual phrase:Jag anar ugglor i mossen
It means to suspect foul play (fowl play, ha, see it works in English, too), that somethingâs not quite right. Since I didnât know how it originated, Iâll leave you with the wisdom of Wikipedia – itâs originally a Danish idiom where the owls were actually wolves (which makes more sense, something creepyâs about) that got mistranslated into owls because apparently unbaptised children who died out of wedlock turned into owly marsh-spirits-⊠you know, thatâs fucked up creepy, too. That, and I now feel a very strong urge to incorporate cursed owl-featured child-zombies of the marshes into like ALL my original stories. Anyway. Moving on.
– to walk like a cat around hot porridge
Actual phrase:Att gÄ som katten kring het gröt.
Circling but evading an issue, being reluctant to bring something up. Porridge was often served with butter and milk, which were tasties for cats. But the porridge was too hot, so the cat would just slink around, waiting for it to cool down. So evading something until, preferably, someone else brings it up or it goes away. Like the heat of the porridge.
– donât paint the devil on the wall
Actual phrase:MÄla inte fan pÄ vÀggen
This is so visually poetic. It means you shouldnât invite trouble, or borrow misery. Things might just work out fine, so if you start painting up vivid scenarios of everything that COULD go wrong, you may end up screwing things up for yourself. Donât.
– to be out biking
Actual phrase: Nu Àr du helt ute och cyklar
Means to be completely and utterly wrong, way off topic, making no sense. Like being out biking and getting yourself utterly lost. Which happens faster if youâre biking than walking? Or something.
– cake on cake
Actual phrase: tÄrta pÄ tÄrta
Literally means to stack one cake on top of another. Ie doing something to extreme excess, exaggerating, too much of any one thing. Is often used about language taking a turn for the purpler – you neednât describe the polar bear to be furry and white, itâs a polar bear, theyâre ALWAYS furry and white, kinda thing.
Finally, because no post about Swedish is complete without it, I shall add on my very favourite Swedish insult: Skitstövel. It literally means shit-boot, and I think thatâs beautiful.
Bouvet Island is the most isolated uninhabited place on Earth. Imagine a place that is nearly covered in ice and surrounded by the coldest ocean in the world and you would have a good idea of what Bouvet Island is like. An abandoned lifeboat was found there. It had no markings on it that would suggest its origins. It also had no motor and no sails. The oars was found on shore, along with a flattened copper tank and a barrel. There was no evidence that people had stayed on the island or died on the island. As for the origins of the lifeboat on Bouvet Island, no one has come forward to say it was theirs. (Source)
In 1587, Raleigh dispatched a new group of 115 colonists to establish a colony on Chesapeake Bay. They were led by John White, an artist and friend of Raleigh who had accompanied the previous expeditions to Roanoke. Shortly thereafter, colonist George Howe was killed by a native while searching alone for crabs in Albemarle Sound. Fearing for their lives, the colonists persuaded Governor White to return to England to explain the colonyâs desperate situation and ask for help. White sailed for England in late 1587, although crossing the Atlantic at that time of year was a considerable risk. Because of the continuing war with Spain, White was unable to mount another resupply attempt for an additional three years. He finally gained passage on a privateering expedition that agreed to stop off at Roanoke on the way back from the Caribbean. White landed on August 18, 1590, but found the settlement deserted. The only clue was the word âCROATOANâ carved into a post of the fence around the village. All the houses and fortifications had been dismantled, which meant that their departure had not been hurried. Before he had left the colony, White instructed them that, if anything happened to them, they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their absence had been forced. There was no cross, and White took this to mean that they had moved to Croatoan Island (now known as Hatteras Island), but he was unable to conduct a search. The end of the 1587 colony is unrecorded, leading to the colony being referred to as the âLost colonyâ, with multiple hypotheses existing as to the fate of the colonists. X
I first heard about this while watching Destination America’s, ‘Terror in the Woods’. One of the stories was about a woman’s husband who claimed to have encountered a werewolf and she commented how maybe that was what could have happened to the Lost Colony. Interested, I just had to read about this incident.
I just love when my fascination with the paranormal makes me learn about real historical events.
Many of us already know a little bit about the Croatoan mystery, and how it connects to the chilling story of the lost colony of Roanoke Island. Â
It was settled in 1587 and was already set to become famous when Virginia Dare was born on the 18th of August, the first English child to be born on American soil. Â The colony was near what was once called Croatoan Island, now called Cape Hatteras. Â John White, the governor, sailed away to England and when he returned after three years, found the entire settlement deserted. Â There was no sign of the 90 men, 17 women, and 11 children that had lived there, nor any sign of a struggle, a battle, or a kidnapping.Â
All that was left were two graves an, carved into a post on a fort, the word âCroatoanâ.
Thatâs where the story seems to end, at least most versions of it, but only very recently did I read several articles mentioning the word âcroatoanâ in connection with other disappearances and deaths.
A few days before his death, Edgar Allen Poe was brought to his death bed, delirious, whispering the word âcroatoanâ again and again.
The same word was found scribbled in the journal of Amelia Earhart after her disappearance in 1937.
The word was found carved into the post of the bed that horror writer Ambrose Bierce slept in just before he vanished in Mexico in 1913.
The word was scratched on the wall of the cell that notorious stagecoach robber Black Bart inhabited before he was released from prison in 1888, only to disappear right afterward.
Perhaps most disturbing is its appearance on the last page of the logbook of the ship Carroll A. Deering when it ran aground in 1921 with no one aboard, on â wait for it â Cape Hatteras. Â Croatoan Island.
The catacombs in Paris are a vast network of underground tunnels that were filled with the remains of more than 6 million people during the 18th century after cave-ins and overflowing cemeteries became a problem in the area. The ossuaries are only a small portion of a much larger network of galleries built as part of ancient limestone and gypsum quarries.
The catacombs can be visited legally through the Denfert-Rochereau entrance, where visitors can access 1,7km of tunnels and ossuaries. This section is estimated to be only 0,5% of the total surface of underground networks.
The atmosphere down there is quite eerie, but not as oppressive as I thought itâd be. On the plus side, the temperature stays the same all year round at 14°C so itâs pretty relaxing in summer đ
The necropolis is one of the best preserved and extensive of its kind in the world. This city of the dead contains tumuli, sarcophagi and house shaped tombs lying stretched along both sides of the road extending 2km to the north. Most of about the 1200 tombs were constructed with local varieties of limestone. The extent of this necropolis attests again to the importance Hierapolis had in the Antiquity. It is worth taking oneâs time to wander amongst the tombs, that date from antiquity to early Christian times, and marvel at the ostentation that these residents of Heirapolis afforded to their tombs. It has a fairyland quality.
Okay but it started with lines, before this. The first three numbers were a horizontal line, two parallel horizontal lines, and three horizontal lines. Over time the one rotated, and the pair was connected, as shown here, and then the three looked more like the threes you see on digital clocks. And then stylized versions came along, like this number set making use of angles, and sets that had more curves to them and so on.
The history of storm glass is absolutely fascinating,
From 1830s original invententions:
If the liquid in the glass is clear, the weather will be bright and clear. If the liquid is cloudy, the weather will be cloudy as well, perhaps with precipitation. If there are small dots in the liquid, humid or foggy weather can be expected. A cloudy glass with small stars indicates thunderstorms. If the liquid contains small stars on sunny winter days, then snow is coming. If there are large flakes throughout the liquid, it will be overcast in temperate seasons or snowy in the winter. If there are crystals at the bottom, this indicates frost. If there are threads near the top, it will be windy.
Niccolo Machiavelli and Leonardo Da Vinci, most likely at the behest of the Borgias, once conspired to steal a river.
Thatâs right folks. They planned to change the course of the Arno River so that they could steal it from Pisa and make Florence accessible by sea.Â
Please take a moment to imagine that.
Please.Â
âSo we just divert the -â
âDonât worry they wonât notice a thingâ
100% better than National Treasure.
This should be a wacky bromance heist film. We need more wacky historical heist films.
It gets better. I just had to go check on the veracity of this and discovered MORE.
Their plan failed, at which point Machiavelli decided to quietly fade out of politicsâŠand went on to write The Prince, one of the most (in)famous pieces of Western literature.
Da Vinci, meanwhile, never forgot the river that got away. In fact, he made it the background of one of his most famous paintingsâhell, one of the most famous paintings, period.
đ„ There is beauty in destructionđ„ 