The Pies of August

What caused the great war? After years of research, I am ready to present a compelling new hypothesis in regards to the proximate cause of the first world war. When Bismarck unified Germany, he did so with an acute awareness of the fact that successful nation building requires a cultural canon on which to hinge […]

On Vexillology

There’s a thought I need to voice: Mediterranean regional flags are disturbing. In particular Sardinia and Corsica, but also Catalonia and Valencia. Hear me out. I never cared much about flags. Sure, I felt a bit disappointed when Hannes and Daniel kept beating me at geography board games, which should have been my forte, but […]

Open letter to the Oxford English Dictionary

The Swedish language has admitted a deluge of English words in recent decades. But a trickle has flowed the other way: presently, ”fika” seems to be gaining a foot hold, and the concept of ”lagom” has an entry in the English Wikipedia. Then there are the old canonical examples ”ombudsman” and ”smorgasbord”. Less known in […]