The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: Denmark

  • An Immigration Story

    For reasons that will be more readily apparent in my next “Exploring Seattle” blog entry, my maternal grandmother has been on my mind a great deal today. I’m staring at her copper pot that has been passed down to me and is one of my most prized possessions. It must have been one of hers,…

  • Danish Hygge

    Perhaps it’s some long lost cultural memory implanted in my psyche, or maybe it’s just a normal part of being human, but I love to get all cozy. I like warm fuzzy slippers and evenings by the fire with friends. I like snuggling with my dogs in a warm bed when it’s raw and wet…

  • Sealed Without Your Consent–Mormon Ordinances by Proxy

    The LDS Church performs a wide variety of ordinances, some of which are called saving ordinances, which they believe are required for salvation. One such ordinance is called sealing, and it seals you to spouses and other family members for all eternity. Fine and dandy and more power to them, I say. Everyone is entitled…

  • Our Expanding Family Tree: Cousins Coming out of the Woodwork

    One of the largest and oldest organisms on earth is Pando, a Quaking Aspen clone in Utah that covers over 106 acres. Looking at it, you’d assume that it was just a bunch of individual trees, but it’s actually one organism, and it’s thousands of years old. We didn’t know that until recently. I think…

  • My Dream House

    As I look at one scummy rental house after another in my effort to relocate, I long to be a homeowner again. I don’t need much. Square footage is not a big issue for me. Perhaps due to my Danish roots, I’m much more into warm and cozy. I want the kind of house you…

  • Calling on Greenland

    Okay, indulge me. I’m one of those people who firmly believes in the whole concept of six degrees of separation, so I have an assignment for you: someone out there must know someone who knows someone from Greenland, and I want them to check out my blog. You see, whenever someone from another country visits,…

  • Just Keep Swimming

    My grandfather was old school. Part of his ability to thrive in America after coming over from Denmark stemmed from his philosophy of wasting neither money nor time. So when the day came to teach his kids to swim there were no lessons at the YMCA for his children. Oh no. He just picked them…