ABBA museum to be built in Stockholm

by Catherine Bodry on

I can’t claim to be a huge ABBA fan, but I am a HUGE fan of their song “Dancing Queen.” I like to shout out whatever age I happen to be at the time when they sing “You’re only seventeen” (sadly, “twenty-seven” doesn’t sound as good as “twenty-three” did). And I like to think that I can dance, I can jive, especially when I’m having the time of my life.

Well, soon I will be able to live out my disco days fantasies in the new ABBA museum to open in Stockholm in June 2009.

The museum includes a dance floor, a recording studio, and a wardrobe so visitors can get an idea of the ABBA experience. And karaoke will also help visitors understand what it was like to be an ABBA band member.

I have a one-word response to this exciting news: Yessssss!

Citysearch rates best restaurants and bars of 2007

by Grant Martin on

The annual list of best restaurants and bars was posted by Citysearch a few hours ago, highlighting the new food and drink hotspots in the nation’s top cities.

So get your “Oh, I’ve already been there; I’m way over that” snide statements ready and check out the guides to

Or you can check out the bars on the Citysearch blog here. I did a cursory search through the New York and Chicago bars and restaurants and have to admit that I haven’t been to any of the 40 establishments. Nothing like a hipster best-of website to make you feel like a social invalid.

I’ll be playing dungeons and dragons in my parents basement if you need me.

Spice Girls name Virgin Atlantic jet “Spice One”

by Catherine Bodry on

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want: an airline promotion without calendar girls, Playboy pinups or Victoria’s Secret models. Instead, I’d like an airline promo that makes and keeps promises — for example, I’d love it if an airline made a guarantee that I’d be compensated if my flight was delayed, like Indian airlines are now doing. And what would really make me say “zigga zag ah”? A reasonable fare, a comfortable seat and a decent meal.

But, the airlines don’t wanna be my lover, and so they’re resorting to calendar girls, Playboy pinups and Victoria’s Secret models — and the Spice Girls. Yes, Sporty, Scary, Baby, Ginger and Posh have recently unveiled the new name for a Virgin Atlantic jet: the not-really-that-clever Spice One.

The flirty fivesome offered online voters three choices for the Boeing 747’s name; Girl Power and Spice Girl lost out.

Spice Girls + Virgin = ???


Infiltrating North Korea Part 9: Worshiping at the Altar of Kim

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s impossible to visit North Korea as a tourist without being forced to personally pay respects to the Great Leader oneself.

This is always done at the capital’s Mansudae Grand Monument where an enormous bronze statue of the Great Leader towers above the city. According to my copy of Pyongyang Review, the statue was built in 1972 due to the “unanimous desire and aspiration to have the immortal revolutionary exploits of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung remembered for all time and to carry forward and consummate the revolutionary cause of Juche [self-reliance] which he initiated.”

The Grand Monument is one of the holiest places in Pyongyang and our guide appeared a little nervous when we piled out of the minivan. “There are a lot of people here,” he told us. “Please don’t do anything that would embarrass me.” He also asked that we did not take any photographs of the Great Leader which would cut him in half. Only full shots were allowed in order to show the utmost respect.

Before leaving the parking lot, our guide walked us over to a small flower stand where a member of our group was asked to purchase an arrangement. After doing so, we joined a large crowd of North Koreans also bearing flowers, and walked up a slight hill towards the statue and two large monuments which stand on either side of it, one of which commemorates the anti-Japanese struggle while the other chronicles the socialist revolution and includes a large slogan that reads, “Let us drive out U.S. imperialism and reunify the country!”

Because of the mass of people paying their respects, we had to wait a moment before a member of our group was allowed to walk the remaining distance and place the flowers at the base of Kim Il Sung. When he returned, we all stood nervously in a line facing the statue. I wasn’t about to bow, and I assumed that the others in my group wouldn’t as well. Our guide however, had no choice. He bent low to the waist and offered up a very serious bow to the Great Leader. And then, we were free to go.

We hung out for a little while and watched as a never ending flow of North Koreans did the same as we had just done; parading up to the statue, offering flowers, and then bowing deeply to Kim Il Sung. For an atheist nation, I never would have expected such religious devotion.

Yesterday: The Cult of Kim
Tomorrow: The Followers of Kim

Cultural sensitivity and conference travel

by Jamie Rhein on

My dentist told me all about her trip to Dubai for a dental conference when she was replacing a crown. Although my questioning capabilities were hampered by a few dentist gadgets, I wanted to get her impressions. It’s a habit. Whenever anyone tells me of a trip, I want the details.

Heading to a conference in Dubai was not like heading to a conference to many places. Before she arrived in Dubai, there was some cultural sensitivity training about how to dress as a female and how to talk with men. Since she couldn’t quite remember the details, and she wasn’t there for a long enough time to catch on to the nuances of the culture, she didn’t look up at the men at all. She figured that was the easiest tactic. Despite that, she enjoyed the experience and was happy she went.

Her details about discomfort with cultural differences reminded me of when my husband accompanied a delegation of employees of a battery company in Hsinchu, Taiwan to CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany. He sort of went along to help them with their English. They weren’t quite so interested in seeing Germany on their moments off since they wanted to eat instant noodles and pocket their per diem, so my husband went off to see some sights in Hanover his own.

The only time he really had to help the people he was sent to help out navigate the culture had to do with toilet paper use. In Taiwan you don’t put toilet paper in the toilet, you put it in a trash can. The plumbing can’t handle the paper, I was told. The guest house owner where they were staying pulled my husband aside, made a face, and asked him why people weren’t flushing the toilet paper but putting it in the “bin.” “Oh, I’ll take care of it,” my husband said. My husband told the leader to tell everyone else to not put their toilet paper in the trash anymore. Goodwill was redeemed with each flush afterward.