Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

The Boston Globe didn’t miss last night’s show but I did–this year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony over at Harvard. I helped write the slide show, even from here in Sweden, but I didn’t get to stand in the thrilling darkness of Sanders Theatre, as I did last year, clicking my handiwork on and trying not to get too distracted.

The Tech went to the Igs, but I could not. I missed the bottomless bowl of soup, the sword-swallowing doctors, the crowd chanting “Eat it!” at hesitant laureates whose Toscanini ice cream had been flavored with vanillin synthesized from cow dung.

I missed the celebration of the “Gay Bomb.”

The list of 2007 winners is already online at the Ig Nobel website, whose servers are already under heavy demand. So it’s probably a good thing the webcast will be online just a bit later.

If you’re in the Cambridge area, one big and free Ig event is still to come. On Saturday (1 p.m.) at MIT in 10-250 (that’s inside the Infinite Corridor, but still quite easy to find) will be the Ig Informal Lectures. Don’t be late, even that great big room fills up pretty fast.

And Toscanini’s is giving free samples of its new “Yum-A-Moto Vanilla Twist” ice cream today (Friday) at 899 Main St.

I missed the show this year, but next year I surely will not!

That’s what the US Postal Service claims, on its tracking website.

October in Sweden can get (I’m told) pretty darn chilly–is it unpatriotic to hope that no “Foreign Customs” will hold up my cozy longjohns very much longer?

Norway stone bridge

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

After two days in the fjord country of Norway, I’m saturated by visions of beautiful landscape.

Tunnels under mountains, stone bridges over salty sea-filled fjords, waterfalls pouring down steep and stony cliffs. Tiny towns with their upside-down reflections. Full moons as big as the snow-splashed mountains beneath them.

If people smash champagne glasses after a wedding, so that no glass will never be used for a less-noble toast–shouldn’t I on that principle smash my digital camera?

Noooooo, I don’t think so. Maybe I’m not that idealistic. But I surely am awed by Norway’s lovely fjord country.

I could say more, and maybe I will tomorrow, but right now it’s already late at (Norwegian) night.

September sunlight. Big and dignified architectural ideas. Broad public spaces. Water. Interesting old Hanseatic wooden buildings around a historic harbor.

Delicious codfish with berries for dessert.

Good night, and thank you for listening.

Frank Wilczek with young Strindberg

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

Now here is a truly multi-purpose photo, where you can see within a single frame:

• How beautifully September sunlight shines in Sweden..
• …but nevertheless, chilly air makes us wear our raincoats…
• …and (another favorite thought of mine) Swedish landscapes, especially big glacier-scrubbed rocks like this one, remind me of NH, and last but not least…
• …how very sweet-natured Frank Wilczek is to be willing to pose for me in so many different odd places over the years.

autumn leaves

Originally uploaded by martinaph

Plenty of work and writing I should be doing, but — look at that blue sky! Imagine the sunshine. Imagine this morning’s crisp but also welcoming air.

So (here comes my excuse) I still don’t really know my way around Stockholm–and the best way to learn strange cities is to set out with a map in your hand and get lost. Hmmm, number 43 bus heads south from Nordita–wonder where that goes?

So I jumped on the bus and found out, with a map in my hand. It went almost all the way down to the Grand Hotel, where the Nobel Committee kindly put us up back in 2004.

Anyway, when stuff around the bus started looking like maybe good place to get off and eat lunch, that’s what I did. I then wandered back more or less toward where I came from, but up different streets.

Eventually, my feet started getting tired. Then I mapped my way to the busline and 43-ed back to my office.

Back to work, back to work–that’s enough blogging, Betsy Devine!

p.s. But first…thanks to Martinaph for taking this photo and letting me blog it. And thanks to Flickr for hosting so many great images!

Black and white Brompton

Originally uploaded by yhase

Frank and I were just leaving Nordita when I saw it–the most gorgeous bicycle ever! When I say a physical object is gorgeous, I mean that it clearly has much information cleverly packed in its essence.

I was not disappointed. Ulf kindly set down his backpack and demonstrated just how he could fold up his Brompton bicycle into a tiny, portable package to carry on trains or store in a small closet. Flickr has a photo pool for Brompton bike enthusiasts where you can see these amazing bikes folded and unfolded in places like London, Paris, and NYC. I guess I just never noticed them before.

Judging from the expression on Frank’s face, he now wants his own Brompton bike to fold and unfold.

Swedish Kraeftor (crayfish)

Originally uploaded by M_Eriksson

Frank and I went to a great Swedish bring-your-own-crayfish crayfish party tonight. Grad students and postdocs of the Uppsala theoretical physics department organized the whole evening, bringing paper crayfish banners, napkins, caraway-flavored cheese, and many other necessities.

Antti, who (though Finnish) is our guru for all things Swedish, took me yesterday to the huge department store known as Coop (pronounced Cope) where we bought frozen jumbo crayfish cooked Swedish style (lots of salt) but from Spain. I didn’t think I could eat a whole kilogram box of crayfish, but I almost did tonight–that’s because most of the stuff in the frozen box isn’t meat–it’s shell or juice or something not very edible.

Now, it’s not a real Swedish party without Swedish drinking songs. Paradoxically, Swedish laws about drinking drivers are much stricter than the US laws–drinking one tablespoon of wine in Sweden could land you in trouble if a Swedish policeman stops you.

Frank was kind enough to be our non-drinking driver tonight. He’s not much of a drinker although he does like parties–and also he doesn’t like shellfish, so I made him two giant smoked-salmon sandwiches for tonight.

Swedish schnapps glasses are (fortunately) really tiny–maybe one tablespoon capacity? That’s a good thing because the first drinking song always seems to be Helan går. “Helan går” means (roughly) “The whole thing goes.” The idea is that if you don’t drink up your entire (tablespoon) drink in the pause at the end of this song, you won’t get even a half a drink for the next song. That small glass is also a good thing because the number of drinking songs at a dinner is typically 8 or 9.

We brought a bottle of Gallo Turning Leaf white wine, but I also got offered some vodka (wow!) and some Swedish aquavit (whew!) (if this blogppost seems incoherent, that’s your explanation!)

After three or four Swedish drinking songs, Frank and I stood up for our national honor with an American drinking song, of which we two remembered slightly different versions:

Leprosy
Is creeping all over me
There goes my eyeball,
Into my highball.

Leprosy
Is creeping all over me
There goes my ear, dear,
Into my beer, dear.

Leprosy
Is creeping all over me
There goes my chin, dear,
Into my gin, dear…

Thus I hope my American readers will be happy to know that Frank and I gave a good account of our own native culture. And, in sum, a good time was had by all.

Late afternoon sun glows behind green awning

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

Veggie pizza for dinner tonight on an outdoor terrace just east of the river, at the corner of Sysslomansgatan and Skolgatan in Uppsala.

Today’s predicted rainfall never showed up–maybe because today’s predicted cloudy skies glowed blue all day. Still evening is chilly and we were thinking about eating inside the restaurant until Antti said…”But this might be the last time this autumn that we can enjoy a beautiful evening outdoors.”

So we sat outdoors on wooden benches and didn’t repent it.

Even after we finished, the light was so beautiful I tried to capture it for you, shining through the awning that shades the piazza.

Tiny pond, early autumn
Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

Swedish September is colder than New England’s but has (until September 21) longer days–and its gardens still glow.

Late English roses, sweet-smelling Nicotiana.

Old-fashioned apple trees dropping small ruddy-streaked fruit.

Local Swedish berries with new shapes and colors and tastes.

I will be in Sweden now until December, so I look forward to living in depth a whole new kind of autumn.