Eating Muffins

Halme Polvinen Family Collective. You will all be assillymated

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Category: Memes

  • Joulukuun kuudes 2023

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    Tällä kertaa Tähtivaeltajapodcastin joulukalenterin luukusta pöllähtää esiin Helsingin kirjamessut ja sieltä löytynyt maaginen maailma kirjaostoksineen. Muistelemme hankintojamme ja minä ilahdun uudemman kerran Professori Anni Isotalon seikkailuiden neljännen osan, Vatikaanin vangin löytymisestä. 

    Mukaan mahtuu myös viime hetkellä muistettu Niksi-Praedor, joka jatkaa luukuttelua vielä toisen mokoman verran, kun palaamme muistelemaan Praedoria, josta aikaisemmassa podcast-jaksossa oli pidemmällä kaavalla puhetta. En muista Niksi-Praedorin tekijää, mutta se on tietenkin itsensä Titivillus Gorgonius, joka ei tietenkään ole mikään borvarialainen lisöösi vaan farrignialainen filoosi!

    Itsenäisyyspäivän kunniaksi tein Helsingin sanomien suomalaisuustestin ja sain ensiksi kuulla olevani saksalainen ja hieman uudemman kerran vastauksia tarkentaen, irlantilainen. Molemmilla kerroilla molemmat mainitut sekä belgialaisuus oli myös olennainen osa henkilöitymääni. Kummallakaan kerralla ne "olennaisesti saksalaisuutta tai irlantilaisuutta" kuvaavat lyhyet luonnehdinnat eivät nyt minusta olleet erityisen osuvia. Olenko stereotypian uhri ja sivuosuman uhri? 

  • On books and verifying your sources

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    Posted by Sari

    One of the most important aspects of my favourite social networking sites is that I can find out what my friends are reading. I shamelessly spy people on LibraryThing and Facebook and though I don't often get so far as to publish my results, I always enthusiastically do all the book memes I can find. I did the BBC hundred books meme on Facebook, and like so many others found the list somewhat strange. Thus I tried to track down the lists origin, hundreds of people have done the meme but none had a link where BBC "says" these are the books you ougth to read.

    And as far as I can determine, they never did. BBC has still the list from their Big Read project, where the audiences nominated 100 best loved books from 2003 here but it is a different list and does not represent books you ought to read but books the Brits love. What I did eventually find, and which seems to match with the list used in the meme was this, which obviously did not originate from BBC and does not represent anything else except the favourite novels of about 2000 readers who answered a a poll on the net. This would explain why some things appear on the list twice. Also, if anyone has stronger google-fu than I and can track down this "on average six books" quote I'd be interested.

    This took me about ten minutes, and I am not the only one on teh interents who has tried to track the list down. Now through Scifimarkkinat I learn that Ilta-sanomat thought this is a cool meme – and it is! – and made their own list referencing the meme, parroting the beginning of the meme without a link. And these people actually go to school to learn journalism? Verifying and crediting you sources, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

    As for the meme itself, off the "BBC" list I have read 68, and was pretty certain I would do really badly on IS list, what whit my well documented aversion towards Finnish language literature, but lo and behold results are not abysmal!

    1. Aapeli: Siunattu hulluus
    2. Aho Juhani: Rautatie x
    3. Atwood Margaret: Sokea surmaaja x
    4. Austen Jane: Ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo x
    5. Auster Paul: Yksinäisyyden äärellä
    6. Beauvoir Simone de: Toinen sukupuoli
    7. Beecher-Stowe Harriet: Setä Tuomon tupa
    8. Bellow Saul: Herzog
    9. Bergman Ingmar: Kohtauksia eräästä avioliitosta
    10. Bulgakov Mihail: Saatana saapuu Moskovaan x

    11. Camus Albert: Sivullinen
    12. Canth Minna: Köyhää kansaa
    13. Carpelan Bo: Axel
    14. Dickens Charles: Oliver Twist x
    15. Donner Jörn: Isä ja poika
    16. Dostojevski Fjodor: Rikos ja rangaistus
    17. Douglas Adams: Linnunradan käsikirja liftareille x
    18. Dumas Alexandre: Monte Criston kreivi x
    19. Duras Marguerite: Rakastaja
    20. Flaubert Gustave: Madame Bovary x

    21. Garcia Márquez Gabriel: Sadan vuoden yksinäisyys x
    22. Gogol Nikolai: Kuolleet sielut
    23. Grass Günter: Peltirumpu
    24. Haavikko Paavo: Puut, kaikki heidän vihreytensä
    25. Hassinen Pirjo: Kuninkaanpuisto
    26. Hemingway Ernest: Kenelle kellot soivat x
    27. Hietamies Laila: Valamon yksinäinen
    28. Hotakainen Kari: Juoksuhaudantie
    29. Huovinen Veikko: Havukka-ahon ajattelija
    30. Huxley Aldous: Uljas uusi maailma x

    31. Hyry Antti: Kevättä ja syksyä
    32. Hämäläinen Helvi: Säädyllinen murhenäytelmä
    33. Härkönen Anna-Leena: Häräntappoase x
    34. Itkonen Juha: Kohti
    35. Jalonen Olli: Isäksi ja tyttäreksi
    36. Jansson Tove: Vaarallinen juhannus x
    37. Joenpelto Eeva: Vetää kaikista ovista
    38. Joyce James: Taiteilijan omakuva nuoruuden vuosilta x
    39. Kafka Franz: Oikeusjuttu x
    40. Kalevala

    41. Kauranen Anja: Sonja O. kävi täällä
    42. Kianto Ilmari: Punainen viiva
    43. Kihlman Christer: Kallis prinssi
    44. Kilpi Eeva: Kesä ja keski-ikäinen nainen
    45. Kivi Aleksis: Seitsemän veljestä x
    46. Krohn Leena: Tainaron
    47. Lahiri Jhumpa: Tämä siunattu koti
    48. Lander Leena: Käsky
    49. Lehtonen Joel: Putkinotko

    50. Lindgren Astrid: Peppi pitkätossu x
    51. Linna Väinö: Tuntematon sotilas x
    52. Linna Väinö: Täällä Pohjantähden alla x
    53. Lundán Reko ja Tina: Viikkoja, kuukausia
    54. Majakovski Vladimir: Pilvi housuissa
    55. Mann Thomas: Taikavuori x
    56. McEwan Ian: Sovitus
    57. Meri Veijo: Manillaköysi
    58. Meriluoto Aila: Lasimaalaus
    59. Miller Arthur: Ajan uurteita
    60. Miller Henry: Kravun kääntöpiiri

    61. Milne A.A.: Nalle Puh x
    62. Montgomery L.M.: Annan nuoruusvuodet x
    63. Mukka Timo K.: Maa on syntinen laulu
    64. Murakami Haruki: Kafka rannalla x
    65. Mäkelä Hannu: Mestari
    66. Neruda Pablo: Andien mainingit
    67. Oksanen Sofi: Puhdistus
    68. Paasilinna Arto: Onnellinen mies
    69. Paavolainen Olavi: Synkkä yksinpuhelu x
    70. Peltonen Juhani: Elmo x

    71. Proulx Annie: Lyhyt kantama
    72. Pulkkinen Riikka: Raja
    73. Päätalo Kalle: Nuoruuden savotat
    74. Raittila Hannu: Canal Grande
    75. Remes Ilkka: 6/12
    76. Rowling J.K.: Harry Potter ja viisasten kivi x
    77. Rushdie Salman: Keskiyön lapset
    78. Roth Philip: Amerikkalainen pastoraali
    79. Saarikoski Pentti: Mitä tapahtuu todella?
    80. Saisio Pirkko: Elämänmeno

    81. Shakespeare William: Hamlet x
    82. Shields Carol: Kivipäiväkirjat
    83. Salama Hannu: Minä, Olli ja Orvokki
    84. Sartre Jean-Paul: Inho
    85. Sillanpää F.E.: Nuorena nukkunut
    86. Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr: Vankileirien saaristo x
    87. Steinbeck John: Hiiriä ja ihmisiä
    88. Styron William: Sofien valinta
    89. Swan Anni: Tottisalmen perillinen x
    90. Tervo Jari: Troikka

    91. Tolkien J.R.R.: Taru sormusten herrasta x
    92. Tolstoi Leo: Anna Karenina x
    93. Turkka Jouko: Aiheita
    94. Tuuri Antti: Pohjanmaa
    95. Twain Mark: Huckleberry Finnin seikkailut x
    96. Utrio Kaari: Eevan tyttäret x
    97. Vartio Marja-Liisa: Hänen olivat linnut
    98. Viita Lauri: Betonimylläri
    99. Waltari Mika: Sinuhe egyptiläinen x
    100. Westö Kjell: Missä kuljimme kerran

    Grand total of 34. The difference to the "BBC" -list is that here are more authors I have never heard of (Marja-Liisa Vartio? Riikka Pulkkinen? Olli Jalonen?), more books I have tried and given up as unreadable or plain boring (Pohjanmaa, Nuorena nukkunut, Maa on syntinen laulu, Putkinotko, Punainen viiva), and many, many more books that just don't sound interesting enough for me to make room in my life for them.

  • Why Muffins?

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    Posted by Sari

    Most excellent author and translator J. Pekka Mäkelä threw a  meme at us asking why the blog is called "Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner".

    In the last years of the last millenium Jukka and I played around with an idea of a web journal of sorts, something that would have essays and reviews and whatnot, but never got around doing anything about it. What made us take the leap was Jukka’s cancer. We had lots of friends both in Finland and abroad, so a blog seemed like a good way of keeping everybody updated on his condition. So four years ago August 2003, we started this thing.

    Naming it was surprisingly easy. Wilde’s "The Importance of being Earnest" has always been one of my favourite plays, I have a habit of quoting from it almost as much as from Asterix. We were watching the new movie adaptation (With Rupert Everett and Colin Firth), when Jukka suggested that we might coin a name for the blog from one of my favorite scenes: Jack and Algy have been jilted by their sweethearts for pretending to be Ernest, and take the rejection in very different manner. Here is the scene from the classic 1952 version (beginning at 00.30).

    We liked the symbolism of the name, of muffins representing life and the manner of eating the manner of living. We liked the juxtaposition of frivolous and serious, it resonated both to our own situation and to the fact that Wilde’s most sparkling, shining play was written at a time his life was turning into a nightmare. And we liked the mental image of stuffing your face with muffins in agitation, so very unlike Algy. So that is why we have long unwieldy and silly name for our blog 🙂

  • I got meme’d

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    Pulpetti had this to say: "I was starving when I got home today […] So, I fried two eggs and bacon and heated up a carrot bun in the pan. I spread some French mustard on the bun and put the bacon and some liver pate on the mustard. Then I put the fried eggs on top and placed the other half of the bun on the eggs.
    It was the motherfuckingest sandwich I ever did eat! I’d do it anytime again! Instead of memes about the music you loath or the weirdest habits you have we could have one with the best sandwiches you ate.    "

    Now, as sandwiches go, I’m a Heikki-person (as opposed to a Helmi-person). This is a reference to the Blondie comic strip created by Chic Young, where the hubby Heikki (Dagwood) makes these rather towering sandwiches. I’ll admit, I can’t say for certain that Helmi (Blondie) actually makes and eats sandwiches which are substantially smaller ie. include only one item besides the actual bread and "butter", but I would hazard to guess so. Heikki just piles things on top of each other, thus constructing these massive sandwiches which are just utterly impossible to stuff into one’s mouth. Or are they…?

    But I digress. Best sandwich I’ve eaten. The simple tomato-cheddar-ham-mayonaise-lettuce-bacon one purchased from this little deli near the Central Park (either on the 6th or 7th Ave and btw 57th and 59th St; my guess on 6th and btw 57th &58th), eaten while watching people playing softball at the park. Then again, it might have something to do with the whole enchilada: new in town, nice springtime weather, hunger, Central Park, New York, NY… Certainly not the ingredients, as those are just about the mere basics to start from.

    I quite like this one too: Cut big loafs of Hassania’s (it’s a bakery in Pori, our S-Market gets a load once a week) fresh Moroccan bread. Spread with "butter" and some horseradish cream. Hack some leak and mix with shrimp, mayo and stinky cheese. Dash of lemon on top, cover with another loaf of delicious Hassania bread.

    Or something with eggs: Fry couple of eggs with some onion and mushroom. Spread your choice of bread with "butter" and top it with the said "omelette" and some ham (maybe spread with mustard) and some cheddar. Oh, and some chillisauce, too. Eggsies are also easily made-to-fit for buns when you use lettupannu. (I’m a bit uncertain here. In my book "räiskäle" is the large flapjack/pancake/whatever that covers the whole frying pan and "lettu" are the smaller ones that you have this handy pan with usually five small holes in it. Is this universally true or not?)

    I also like sardines, preferably in tomato sauce, which Sari for some reason just loathes. Apparently it stinks. Fresh or toasted bread, sardines, dash of chillisauce (preferably strong and carlicky) and some cheese (occasionally stinky cheese, but most often emmental). Maybe something oniony as well.

    I tend to stay clear of fresh veggies on my sandwich. Tomatoes tend to spread, cucumber is blaah and paprika (you can call it bell pepper or whatever, it’s paprika) is just not for me. Lettuce is good. I do like pickled cucumber (or what the heck is suolakurkku?).

    The biggest problem is the adding of little things like clams, shrimps, olives etc without some glue-element like mayo or somesuch spread. Things have a tendency to drop from the corner of the mouth

    Hot patootie! Fried eggs, mushroom and bacon, all thrown on top of toasted bread with some tomato and basil. I better make me a sandwich right about now. Too much saliva on the keyboard. 

    Now you. And especially Avaruusajan päiväunelmia, Markoilua joutoaikoina and Takaisin koulunpenkille.

  • Kummallisia tapoja

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    Posted by Sari

    Vapaapäivä vihdoin! Kaikki roikkuneet työt on tehty ja väikkärikin jaksaa vähän paremmin kuin pitkään aikaan joten nyt on aikaa vuoleskella. Koulunpenkki haastoi meemiin viidestä oudosta tavasta, joten tässä tulee:

    1. Suolaa ei ei ei EI saa antaa kädestä käteen, jos niin tekee tulee antajasta ja vastaanottajasta vihamiehiä. Tämä taikauskoni on herättänyt vuosikausia hilpeyttä ystäväpiirissä ja piristänyt lukuisia krapula-aamiaisia urbaanin heimomme mökkimatkoilla kun rva. Polvinen huutaa kurkku suorana jos joku erehtyy sirotinta ojentelemaan asettamatta sitä pöydälle. Isoäidiltäni olen tämän oppinut ja niin syvällä selkäytimessä uskomus on että en usko että pääsen siitä koskaan eroon.

    2. Kaikkialla on kiva lukea. Jopa saunassa. Mutta ehkä ei liimasiteisiä kirjoja kuitenkaan. Joskus kokeilin halvalla pokkarilla ja kostea kuuma irroitti sivut toisistaan vallan pätevästi. Nidotut lehdet ja sidotut kirjat joiden kostuminen ei ole katastrofi sen sijaan…

    3 Minä yritän aina kulkea Helsingissä maan alla niin paljon kuin mahdollista. Ei haittaa vaikka matkaa tulisi vähän enemmänkin kunhan Metron, yhdystunneleiden ja parkkihallien avulla pääsee navigoimaan läpi keskustan pistämättä nenäänsä ulkoilmaan.

    4. Olen kaniinien maailmanvallankumouksen pääarkkitehti. Miettikää sitä.

    5. Tämä on HerraHoon ja minun yhteinen mutta pannaan tähän kuitenkin: Ruokakaupassa on kiva tanssia. Arki kirkastuu kummasti kun valssaa makaroonihyllyn ohitse kohti koiranruokia.

  • OK, so a guy asks me: “Did you take a bath today?” and I said: “Why, is there one missing”? Wocka Wocka Wocka!

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    OK, I occasionally do them memes and may even comment of those on some blogs/LJ’s, but I seldom see the need to post them here at Muffins. Here’s an exception. He was always my favourite Muppet and I’m darned glad to turn up as HIM!

    Here’s to Fozzie and Clyde!

    Fozzie jpeg

    You are Fozzie Bear.
    You are caring and love your friends as if they were family.  For only they will put up with your stupid jokes.

    FAVORITE EXPRESSION:
    "Wocka! Wocka!"

    FAVORITE AUTHOR:
    Gags Beasley, comedy writer

    HOBBIES:
    Telling jokes, dodging tomatoes

    QUOTE:
    "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

    NEVER LEAVES HOME WITHOUT:
    His joybuzzer, his whoopee cushion and Clyde, the rubber chicken.

    What Muppet are you?
    brought to you by Quizilla

  • Well, I like Jon Stewart so…

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    Posted by Sari

    the Wit
    (52% dark, 26% spontaneous, 16% vulgar)
    your humor style:
    CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK

    You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you’re
    probably an intellectual, but don’t take that to mean you’re
    pretentious. You realize ‘dumb’ can be witty–after all isn’t that the
    Simpsons’ philosophy?–but rudeness for its own sake, ‘gross-out’ humor
    and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat.

    I
    guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the
    perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor
    takes the most effort to appreciate, but it’s also the best, in my
    opinion.

    Also, you probably loved the Office. If you don’t know what I’m
    talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/.

    PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart – Woody Allen – Ricky Gervais

    My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

    free online dating free online dating
    		You scored higher than 83% on dark
    free online dating free online dating
    		You scored higher than 0% on spontaneous
    free online dating free online dating
    		You scored higher than 16% on vulgar

    Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid Free Online Dating

  • Music meme with a twist

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    Posted by Sari

    Blogmemes have changed into chain-letters, when did this happen? Why did I not get the memo? How annoying. The whole idea of a meme is to see how it spreads viral-like in a community. Directing it like a chain-letter takes all the fun out of the idea.
    So I just decided to kidnap the latest music meme and change it a bit. Instead of givin you six of my favourite songs (how do you do that anyhow, my “favourites” playlist has at least 200 songs on it at the moment), I give you six of my favourite covers.

    I have always liked cover versions. Maybe because my first real love-affair with music was with classical music where one of the geat joys is to own both Furtwängler’s and Harnoncourt’s Beethoven’s Fifth, and love them both for being very different.

    The range in classical music is of course much narrower than with modern covers which are all over the place compared to the originals. The really bad ones are usually just add a techno-beat to 80s pop-classic, but some are really innovative and different. And even the not so good ones give air-time to old songs and make them familiar to new generations.
    Anyhow, here are my favourites at the moment:

    Sid Vicious: My Way. I suppose it is a bit sad that this is a nostalgic trip down to memory lane, but it is. Even so, listening Sid maligning what for me was Sinatras signature tune is nothing short of brilliant.

    Johnny Cash: Personal Jesus. Cash did a lot of interesting covers in his last recordings, most famous of which is brilliant version of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, but I like this Mode cover even more. That honkytonk piano in the backround just makes the song.

    Love And Rockets: Ball of Confusion. This is originally a funky Temptations song and has also been covered by Duran Duran and Neville Brothers but Love and Rocets extremely tight and energetic version is my favourite.

    Frou Frou: Holding out for a Hero. Bonnie Tyler’s last big hit was from the soundtrack of the movie Kevin Bacon will never live down, this Frou Frou cover is also from soundtrack, this time from Shreck 2. And I love it, even if the female vocalist utilizes what Koulunpenkki’s husband calls ayrshire technique

    Shankaar-Eshan-Loy: Pretty Woman. Now this can’t come as a surprise for anyone who reads this blog. The Bhangra version of Pretty Woman from Kal Ho Naa Ho.

    October Hill: Fake Plastic Trees. This is somehow lazier and sweeter than the Radiohead original, though it does not aim to wildly different. It is interesting how in most of the Radiohead covers I have heard the biggest change has been to substitute Thom’s raw voice with female vocalist. Sometimes it works like here, sometimes the song really needs that edge to work.

  • Jag heter Lukas Högdahl!

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    My Swedish name is Lukas Högdahl.

    Take The Swedish Name Generator today!

    Äikeä hauska nimenmuutoskeneraattori. Kyl maar kaikkie pitää tätki kokeilla!

  • No surprises there

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    Posted by Sari

    Lord of the rings
    J.R.R. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings. You are
    entertaining and imaginative, creating whole
    new worlds around yourself. Well loved, you
    have a whole league of imitators, none of which
    is quite as profound as you are. Stories and
    songs give a spark of joy in the middle of your
    eternal battle with the forces of evil.

    Which literature classic are you?
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