Free Republic

Latest Poll: Labour remains in the leadThe Labour Party is still Norway's largest political party, despite a 1.5 point drop in voters' support in TNS Gallup's poll for January, made for VG and TV2.The poll shows a gain for the Prime Minister's Christian People's Party by 1.5 point to 7 per cent. Coalition partner, the Conservative Party, is up 1 point to 19 per cent, and the right wing Progress Party is also one up to 20 per cent.TNS Gallup's results for January:Labour Party 30.5 (-1.5)Progress Party 20.0 (+1.0)Conservatives 19,0 (+1.0)Socialist Left 14.5 (-1.0)Christian People 7.0 (+1.5)Agrarians 5.0 ( --...

Compulsive gambler suesA Norwegian man has taken state-owned Norsk Tipping (Norwegian Betting) to court after losing NOK 11.4 million (USD 1.78 million) on various games of chance.The case against the state-lottery and betting body goes to trial next week in Hedemark municipal court. According to magazine Kapital, the man has been diagnosed as a pathological gambler.The betting took place from December 2001 until October 2002, using funds from a corporation that the man owned. Seven of the 11.4 million came from winnings.The man's attorney told newspaper Hamar Arbeiderbladet that there will be several points crucial to the trial, including the...

Spanking stepfather acquittedA 36-year-old Stavanger man has been acquitted of assault and battery after spanking his two stepsons. The court ruled that the action fell within the bounds of a parent's right to punish.The boys were aged seven and nine in the winter of 2002/2003 when they received spankings on four separate occasions. The boys were hit hard three times across the buttocks with a flat hand while they lay on their stomachs across their stepfather's knee, newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reports.The 36-year-old handed out the punishment because the boys had been unruly for some time and had hit schoolmates. The...

DAY, MINN. - There's something fishy in Day. Hundreds of people make an annual pilgrimage to this tiny Minnesota town in search of an ethnic treat that many of them have waited all year to feast on at Christmas dinner. You either love it or you loathe it: It's lutefisk. In an old creamery facility -- miles off the beaten path in rural Isanti County -- Roy Bolling, along with his brother, Walter, and nephew, Dave, are in the business of making sure hungry Scandinavians get their lutefisk fix. The Bollings have been processing lutefisk since 1968 and, in recent...

Man tried to fry eggs in carton A young Norwegian, hungry after a night on the town in Bergen, decided to fry himself a few eggs when he got home. The next thing he knew, his apartment was full of smoke and angry firefighters. The young man, apparently in an alcohol-induced stupor, forgot a few elementary things while attempting to satisfy his hunger. Like taking the eggs out of the carton, for starters. Fire alarms went off in his building on Tartargaten in Bergen after the egg carton started burning up in the frying pan. Firefighters rushed to the scene...

On the "new posts to you" it takes all day to load the page because of all of the graphics. Can't you just list the topics???

When you marry a Norwegian, you gain more than just a bride or groom. When John Hinsch, a German, married Jan Hilan, who is both Norwegian and Swedish, he acquired a set of Christmas food traditions that encompasses what many consider the best and the worst of culinary options. The best: Who could turn down rosettes and krumkake, lefse, meatballs and rommegrøt? The worst: By reputation - lutefisk. Songs, jokes and entire humor books have been written poking fun at the shimmering white fish which is a staple in Scandinavian-American households at Christmastime. "I ate about a half-teaspoon of lutefisk...