Thought For The Day No. 36 - With The Rabbi Anders Weiss

..spiritual guru, psychologist and arbiter of good taste..

Death is better for every man than life with shame.

Beowulf

History of Estonia 101

Since the PMC has been going for some 60 years here in Estonia, during which time we've seen such comings and goings as the regaining of independence, the imminent introduction of the Euro, and the Beatles concerts at the Lauluväljak, we feel fully qualified to present this, a multi part set of posts on the history of Estonia which will appear, now and again as we're given time.
There's unlikely to be anything new for Estonians, who therefore don't need to read on unless they want to check we're not peddling complete mistruths. The sources are likely to be the usual internet sites such as wikipedia and any links that arise therefrom, but this should save the reader some time in finding all this stuff themselves, the one or two books we have on the subject, and maybe the occasional word of mouth stuff.
You might also want to check out our posts about a year ago now, on the Estonian language.
At the very least we hope to dispel any misconceptions of Estonia being a slavic speaking country, being located in the Balkans or being a place with a lot of stones (although this last is in fact true)...

Part One: Beginnings

There are various estimates of how long present-day Estonia has been settled, at least by Estonians or their Finnic forbears. I've heard figures ranging from 5,000 years to 8,000 years and more. However, archaelogical evidence points towards a period at least 9,000 years BC (i.e. 11,000 years ago)  when the 'Kunda' culture flourished here. Kunda is actually a town in Estonia after which this group of people, who extended across modern day Latvia and Estonia into Northwestern Russia and southern Finland. The period falls into the Mesolithic time-frame, and involved a forest hunting and fishing culture, with the usual quarry including Elk, and Seals in coastal areas. Happily both animals are still to be found in abundance in the country. Tools were made from bone and antler, decorated with simple designs, and presmably wood. One of the most important archaelogical discoveries was made in 1967 at Pulli, near Pärnu in the southwest of the country.

The next layer in development began in the 5th millenium BC, with the appearance of stone pottery (the 'Narva' culture, named after a city in the east of the country, who traded heavily in amber from Lithuania) refined with the arrival of the 'comb ceramic culture', so called because clay pottery was often decorated with patterns that looked like they were imprinted using a comb-like implement. It also marks the first hypothesized linguistic status of settlements in Estonia - which also happens to be a proto-Estonian, Uralic language. So it might be said that these were the first Estonians. In all likelihood there were other peoples in the area including Indo-Europeans (Lativan, Russian and Lithuanian are all I.E. languages) and place names even hint at other, pre I.E. or F.U. linguistic groups.

The comb culture was in turn superseded by the more advanced 'corded culture' in the early 3rd Millenium BC (so a bit less than 4000 years ago). Corded ware covered a territory much more extensive than the preceding comb ceramic material, incorporating much of northern Europe, from the modern day Netherlands in the west, extending further east than Moscow (though excluding much of modern day Germany which, of course, had their own more advanced hardware culture, the Globular Amphorae, or 'beaker folk'). Again Southern Finland hosted the same cultural milieu. Some archaeological finds have indicated that arable cereal farming had been adopted by this time, since some pottery incorporated charred oat grain in its decoration. Funereal rituals involved burying the dead in a kind of foetal position, often together with domestic animals (!).

Not long after this period, in the overall scheme of things, the Bronze Age finally reached northeastern Europe, around 1,800 BC (by the way don't let anyone dismiss biblical tales, even from the Old Testament, as being nothing more than 'Bronze Age goatherder myths' - going purely on historicity, the B.A. ended in the Near East around the time in reached Estonia, which means much of the historcial events including the enslavement by the Babylonians, and everything in the New Testament, occur well after this - anyway, religious rant out of the way..). Now people had metal, bronze being an alloy of iron and copper (a 'copper age' preceded this period but seems to have passed this region by) and everything was happening. Fortified settlements were emerging, and the first distinction between 'Estonian' people and the scum to the south (joke) started to appear, with centres appearing in north Estonia (my favorite part of the country) and Saaremaa (by far the largest offshore island). Some other developments included people being buried in boat-shaped graves, and more commonly in 'stone cist graves' (see pic below)..

so be continued...

NFL v 'Soccer'...

The NFL kicks off today so here's my chance to set out my views on American football as against association football, and why, contrary to the current of opinion, the latter has nothing on the former, and I'm firmly in the small band of limeys (David Bowie, Ted Heath, er, and all the others...) who love the game. Here's why..

Length of Season/no. of Games and Competitions
The NFL season is just 17 weeks long (used to be 16 but with all these expansion teams since the '90s it's increased by the one week) from early September till the new year, with the playoffs lasting about another month, culminating in the Superbowl in early Feb. Add to that around 4 pre-season games and you're looking at about six months in all.
This meansthat during  half the year, you don't need to think about the game at all and can get on having a life. Compare that with the English leagues (admittedly the longest and most arduous of them all) which start when summer can still be at its height, progress through autumn, winter, spring and end in early summer with the FA cup final in May...then if there is an interational competition (which there is every other year), there's about a month's respite until that starts...then about another month's respite until the next season. Each team is likely to play a minimum of 38 games (more in the lower league) since they have to play everyone twice, then there are two European competitions with about a squillion more games, the FA cup, maybe still the league cup, I don't know if they have that any more, and, for the lower divisions the promotion playoffs.
Add to that international matches and it makes up for just far, far too many hours of watching what most of the time is a rather drab affair anyway.

Climactic Differences
This can happen in the European football competitions when Barcelona have to go and play FC Godthab or something, but generally if it's wet and cold in London it's the same in Manchester or Newcastle (or more so). It's rarely cold enough to stop play, but there is none of the extra dimension added when, say, the Miami Dolphins have to go and play one of the Great Lakes teams in minus 20 blizzards, usually dying a million deaths in the process.

Variety
The Superbowl has been won by roughly 20 different teams (of currently a total of 34) since its inception in the late '60s. Compare that with the premiership or, before that, Division one, over the same period and the figure is about half that. Even more disturbing is the fact that since the premiership was founded in 1992 there have only been four winners, and one of those (Blackburn) only once (c.f. a whopping 14 different S'bowl winners over the same period). Admittedly the dominance of the 'big four' (or the big two in Scotland!) is criticism of some standing, but nothing much seems to have been done about it.
The NFL draft system, whereby the poorest performing teams get first choice from the cream of the college players in the off season, no doubt is a factor, but in any event it's quite normal for a team to have been consistently shite for many years to win the Superbowl (as in the New Orleans Saints last year) or vice versa, a once great team to be continual pariahs (e.g. the Chicago Bears). Only the Kansas City 'Griefs' seem to buck that trend by never winning anything, ever..

Rules of The Game
Up to a point, gridiron is the yankee's revenge on cricket, but nevertheless it doesn't require an above average IQ to grasp fairly quickly. At the same time, the constant stop-start nature of the game, precision of field positioning, clock time (no accusations of the watch being stuck somewhere in the match official's anatomy here), wholesale changing of players depending on who's in offense and defense, make for a highly nuanced and subtle game of tactics, again, as in cricket.
Compare this with the round ball game, where not much seems to happen for incredibly long periods of time (a phenomenon lampooned in the 'soccer' episode of the Simpsons) and matches with no score whatsoever are regarded as perfectly acceptable.
What I like most is that referee/umpires are answerable to the crowd, routinely giving an explanation of themselves. Compare this with shocking and inconsistent refereeing, in particular at international level as was seen at the last world cup. Despite being about 80 years old and wearing clothing from the 1950s, and the collossal size of most of the players, the American football officials  don't take shit off their charges in the same way that seems to be the case with soccer (yes, I call it that) either.


To be continued...

No Pope Please, We're Irish

Here's a thing...ahead of the current Pope's imminent visit to the UK, some 2,500 tickets were allocated to potential Irish visitors, from both sides of the border, who might want to make the short trip over the water. However, they've only apparently managed to shift about 1,000 of them.

Now, I remember as a kid John Paul II's visit to the UK being a massive event, even in my distinctly anti-Catholic family environment, and the Papal visit to Ireland that happened at about the same time brought a huge number of people out (around a million apparently, in an island with a population of less than 5 million at that time).

But thirty years or so, a myriad of abuse scandals and Father Ted later, and the Catholic Church is definitely a big no no in Ireland now, and yet in England, with various high profile conversions, not least that of Tony Blair, seems to be stronger than it has been since the reformation. How things have changed.

Fort LGBT

The latest from the language police is that 'Gay' is now an offensive word in any context, following an X Box Live Gamer/loser's crime of living in the amusingly-named Fort Gay, West Virginia.

Near where I grew up in Warwickshire, UK, stands the village of Gaydon, always used to raise a chuckle when I was a kid but I now realise the error of my ways in being offensive to an oppressed minority in this way, and for having to stifle it once again when local wags had defaced the village sign of the neighbouring Wellesbourne by painting over the first three, and last four, letters in white paint.

Fortunately the fact that Fort Gay is a real place was confirmed and we can all sleep much more easily now, knowing that no gaybender shirtlifters have anything to be insulted about.

Still, I guess Faggotville, KY will have to have an image change too.

Does Language Shape How We Think? - Yes It Does It Would Appear

Re-posting via Alan's Grain of Druska blog, a NY Times article on how language can afffect the way we think and view the world. I know my world view is changing rapidly from having been learning Estonian, a lot more things are now "Ilus" (beautiful) than they used to be!!!

A Personal Message From Walt Gleeson

Canfield, Proctor, Nightingale, Zagler, Hill, Robbins, Tracy, Winfrey... step aside please..there's a new success guru in town! Walt Gleeson is a highly successful, internationally renowned author of motivational books and CDs and other products. Starting as a rust repairer on a sewage trawler in international waters, on one cent fifty per month, Walt soon rose to control the entire US fleet, and he never even graduated from High School. His career has spanned over half a decade, during which he has acted as advisor to such alumni as Richard Nixon, Oliver North and Mike Tyson, and he has enthralled readers all over the world, from Alaska to Florida and from Hawaii to Rhode Island, with such titles as You Can Do It!, You Can Do It! Too, Literally Make Your House Work For You, My Lai Was Just a Blip and Become a Billionaire Whilst On The Toilet, Walt is the Puumaja Crew's personal realization and fulfilment coach, whatever that is.

Dear [INSERT FIRST NAME HERE]

I have to confess I'm kinda confused. Last month I sent you an exclusive offer for my Deep Trance ™ product, at just USD 99.99* and for some reason known only to yourself you didn't take us up on it. 


I have to say I'm disappointed in you. Take a hold of yourself, you're either unpatriotic, lazy, a liberal, hispanic or all of the above. 


Now I'm gonna offer you this one more time, at the greatly reduced price of USD 48.99*...

...AND that's not all - I'm also giving you a free copy of a book that's just hot off the press and itching to be burnt already, which I co-wrote with my good friend Glenn Beck. It's called 'Get Up Offa The Floor, You Faggot' and it's really set to kick some butts.


The whole thing debunks the idea that it's not ok for guys to cry on cue when they're sandwiched between a stars and stripes and a camera (not when there's not - that's just faggotry) or that setting the middle east on fire is not the best thing for long term stability - why don't these people fuck off to Canada?


Since Glenn and I met at the exclusive Hazelden recovery clinic, after we'd decided to take action about the disease of addiction that both of us definitely have and need to join a heretical cult religion in order to surrender to a higher power (mine is the God of the scriptures, Glenn's is a little green man) rather than just simply quitting like anyone else, I realised that this was a man who really knew which way was up and how to get there, and more than that we were imbued with a divine right to harrass everyone else into conforming with us.


So, hurry now and claim your free gift of GUOTFYF as we already call it, together with the Deep Trance ™ CDs which we just know are gonna turn your life around just by the click of your fingers.'Cos that really is the way the Lord made us. If you're an American..

* per month plus postage in the US, to the world outside of the US, lick my sweaty ole scrotal sac.

Walt

Remembering The Kursk

We forgot to mark the tenth anniversary of the 'Kursk' disaster a couple of weeks back, but anyways, RIP.

Here is an intriguing documentary with a faintly plausbile alternative to the official explosion in the torpedo tube line (e.g. why did the sub go deeper after the initial explosion instead of surfacing, why were fighter planes scrambled etc).

Probably all of the evidence can be explained away, but if it was as the doc suggests (that it was the Americans all along!) then we averted World War Three once again about ten years ago!