In case you were curious about whether the crazed reaction to Obama's Nobel Peace Prize began immediately upon Thorbjørn Jagland's announcement, now comes this account from a reporter present at the event in Oslo itself. "[A] collective gasp had gone up in the room, the kind I'd thought reserved for dramatic reenactments in made-for-TV documentaries. A sound like a room of owls hooting followed, and then everyone was talking at once. Jagland raised his voice as he continued to read from the citation, struggling to be heard above the clamor. Behind the chairman, Lundestad, the committee's ever-serious secretary, tried to suppress a smirk before giving up and letting it burst into a toothy, dimpled smile.... After Jagland finished reading the citation, the over-caffeinated journalists could hardly contain themselves. They fired off questions like grenade lobs. Most were less questions than slightly rephrased criticisms."
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
15
Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?
But in Norwegian.
Yes that struck me as a line from someone who's never heard an owl hoot, much less a roomful of them. Then it struck me that I'm a real ass sometimes.
He looks more like Peter Graves than Anderson Cooper, no? http://img.listal.com/image/163057/180full-peter-graves.jpg
I think was thinking Michael Palin, aged.
Oh?
Richard Gere?
Hoot away.
The old hooty owl hooty hoots up above, Tammy, Tammy, Tammy's in love.
Forget Anderson Cooper. It's Ted Baxter.
What the correspondent doesn't seem to know (weirdly) is, first, Jagland is the Ted Baxter of Norwegian politics, with a track record consisting almost entirely of gaffes and verbal pratfalls -- and not so much a "love of prestige" as a naive confidence in his own prestige; and second, he holds a serious and understandable grudge against the present prime minister, the guy who took over the Labor Party leadership from Jagland years ago after a series of really dumb gaffes. Really.
The Obama Nobel Prize fits into that template pretty well. Jagland upstaged Stoltenberg (ever heard of Jens Stoltenberg?) with the only trick he had at his disposal, and it probably never occurred to him what an ass he was making of himself and his whole country.
I was waiting for you to show up here!
I can't quit you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffECkOcPvH0
Between Kissinger and Obama, we are getting closer to answering the question, "What is the minimum body count required to earn a Nobel Peace Prize?"
It's well established the lower bound is two dead, three cripped, by Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Norwegians are leaving! The Norwegians are leaving!