Posted on 01/29/2005 5:05:36 PM PST by franksolich
Swede threatened for not speeding A Swedish motorist was terrified to learn that holding to the speed limit can be risky when driving in front of an irritable Norwegian trucker. The 29-year-old Norwegian truck driver was given an 18-day suspended sentence and fined NOK 10,000 (USD 1580) for finally threatening the Swedish driver with a 30 centimeter (foot) long blade, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports. The Swede told the court that he was aware that the speed limit of 80 kph (50 mph) was often ignored in that stretch of the E6 highway to Halden, but wanted to be safe because of the many speeding cameras in the area. After mounting irritation, the trucker decided to try and pass the Swede on the right when the road finally branched into two lanes. At the same time, the Swedish motorist decided to move into the slower lane in order to allow the truck to pass him on the left. The truck driver interpreted this maneuver as an attempt to block him, and began tailgating and flashing his headlights, which the Swede said both disturbed and frightened him. When traffic ground to a halt near Halden, the Norwegian trucker sped towards the smaller vehicle, swung past and then stopped. The trucker exited, started banging on the window and finally started waving a large knife at the motorist. The Swede called police, who stopped the Norwegian and found the knife in the truck cabin. Halden court ruled that there were no extenuating circumstances and that a professional driver should be expected to uphold high traffic standards.
In other words, that everything else is peachy-keen in the whole rest of the world, as long as we butt out.
Well, now we have this, Sweden versus Norway.
One wonders how many people here, including many Free Republicans, are honestly aware that generally usually most of the time, the United State is fairly mildly on the average, a rather peaceful and serene place to be, as compared with.....Norway and Sweden, which apparently have some "issues" with each other.
ping on the "Norway" list
Isn't that kind of like a two year old threatening to beat up a three year old?
See what speed limits do.
Well, Madam, yes, it's true they're both very small countries (in population), but one hesitates to compare them with tiny toddlers, especially considering all the valuable contributions Swedes and Norwegians made to America, and Norwegians towards the War Against Terror.
What I find hilarious is the common notion that Scandinavians get along with each other, when in fact apparently they are not exactly buddy-buddy with each other.
Hahaha.
Right, sir, the conduct of the Swedes during the second world war was less than honorable, while that of the Norwegians defies criticism.....although of course Sweden was sort of imprisoned by sheer geography, and so deserves some slack.
Another feud which has always amused me is that between Norwegians and Danes; I could never figure that one out.
You Swede, you. Sir.
By the way, sir, I do believe that my ping list is bigger than your ping list.
By the way, sir, how's the weather this Saturday evening, up in your neck of the woods? Nebraska is supposed to get hammered by ice tonight, although we did avoid all that massive snow in the states east of here last week (all we got were zero temperatures and 65 mph winds.....fortunately, no snow).
But sir, there's probably more Swedes around than Norwegians, and so naturally a Swedish ping list would be bigger than a Norwegian one.
Both nations in the Middle Ages had people whose hobby it was to go to other countries to kill and plunder. More recently Sweden produced a couple of warlike kings, Gustavus Adolphus (1611-1632) and Charles XII (1697-1718).
What sort of commentary does your web-site do, sir?
Any need for non-fiction humor from a non-Norwegian, humor with a mildly politically-conservative bent?
Nice description!
lol
Careful about Charles XII, sir; a biography of him was, I believe, the first biography I read as a child, and his character was deeply impressed upon me. Since I was young when I read that book, and did not know how it was to come out, I almost cried near the end, where I finally learned Peter the Great of Russia defeated him.
Charles XII was the epitome of a gentleman, sir.
You never happened to be a regular in the old America On-Line "college football" chat-room, did you, sir?
Not only that, but when Hitler's Wehrmacht occupied Denmark and Sweden, and the Red Army occupied Finland, the Swedes made saunas. What a brave bunch (not).
I knew a guy, sir, who had been a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Force during the second world war--I think the name of his airplane-model was "Liberator"--who after bombing Hamburg, had to land his aircraft, involuntarily, in Sweden.
He dictated his story, and I carefully transcribed it (trust me--it is excruciatingly difficult for a deaf person to transcribe things, but not impossible); his memoirs ran into hundreds and hundreds of single-spaced typed pages, of which 75% dealt with the saunas of Sweden (Sweden interned allied pilots, not letting them go home--but to their credit, neither did they hand allied airmen over to the Germans).
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