(hope you don’t mind a slight hijack, but it’s not often you see such a large collection of Finns, and…well, I have a question, and we’ve pretty much agreed this guy is a nutjob)
Given its population, has anyone got any theory about how/why Finland punches seriously above its weight in things like motor racing (F1 and rallying spring to mind) and things like ‘strongest man’ etc? Are there any other areas?
Enquiring minds need to know.
With that many assaut charges, how come he isn’t in jail? Even That one drugged-out celebrity boytoy we have had to do some time.
Aw… come on, everyone knows that fighting and fornicating are the real national sports of Finland.
What am I missing. I thought skiers were supposed to go downhill.
This guy needs to marry Whitney Houston.
Can you imagine the warm family life they’d have together?
Can you imagine the child???
If Finland has only one athlete like this, count your blessings.
The sports section of every U.S. paper ought to have a Police Blotter on the latest jocks arrested, on trial or convicted.
Finland is a smaller country than the U.S, though. Much smaller. Too small for Matti to fit in.
Perussuomalaiset, it seems. (Figures. He’s not exactly the kind of candidate any major party would want in their ranks…)
Shock! Horror! It seems Matti Nykänen does have children! According to this site, he is the father of a girl born in 1986 out of wedlock, a boy born in 1987, and another girl born in 1990.
Poor kids. I mean, the youngest girl, Eveliina, turns 13 this year. I can imagine any trauma of adolescence will pale in comparison to the trauma of knowing your father is Matti Nykänen. 
At least he’s not as lame as Axle Rose.
This would not be surprising. Ski jumpers are light. Height helps, within limits, because the length of skis you’re allowed to use is tied to your height, and longer skis give more lift. But bulk, whether muscle or fat, is a liability. So the best ski jumpers tend to be lanky - and that often means quite young men, still teens or barely into adulthood. For those who are really good, it’s a pretty heady thing, like for the very best female gymnasts - being a world champion while you’re still struggling with trigonometry can’t be easy, and the let down when your career is over at a time when most people are barely starting has gotta hurt.
But some former athletes manage this with, ahem, less skill than others…
Hey, you never know.
But Perussuomalaiset. Yes. That sounds about right. After all, they are running Tony Halme this year.
Tony has a webpage too, BTW. Nothing says “trustable parliamentarian” like a picture of Tony Halme flexing his muscles with a devil shadow.
Have you ever driven your car on pure snow? And driven it faster than 10 km/h (which Southern Europeans like you and I tend to do when the white stuff’s out ;))? It works miracles on your car control, you really learn how a car behaves during weight shifts, curves, et cetera. Well, occasionally your rear wheel kisses a curb as well. Not naming any names there.
But I’m guessing it’s a mixture of lots of driving (Finland is quite large, and villages can be far apart) and the vast amounts of snow and ice that make them produce loads and loads of great rally drivers and F1 pilots.
BTW, I know who Nykanen is. I remember his rise and fall quite well. Didn’t Toni Nieminen go down a similar path of alcoholism for a while, after hitting the big time at 16? He’s back jumping and doing OK, I believe.
And there’s Matti Pellonpää, late of Leningrad Cowboys Go America, and other Finnish films. Also Night on Earth by Jim Jarmusch, in what was easily the most subtle and complex episode of the five*.
LCGA is one of my favorite films of all time. I was doing a search on it when I noticed that a date of death was listed for Mr. Pellonpää. I actually jumped up and yelled, “What?!” at the computer. 
So I’m glad to hear that it is a common name, and the memory of one doesn’t have to be sullied by the degeneracy of the other.
*His character in Night on Earth was named “Mika”, which was a source of amusement to the other characters. “I once had a hamster named Mika! Mika, Mika…” Is that a “funny” name in Finland?
Yep, though it’s been a while since I did it regularly (read: we don’t have much snow in the UK compared to years ago). Good point.
Nah, Rilchiam, Mika is another very common male name in Finland. Finnish Mikas include F1 drivers Mika Häkkinen(well, ok, he’s a former F1 driver) and Mika Salo, movie director Mika Kaurismäki(brother of Aki), author Mika Waltari (who wrote, among other works, Sinuhe the Egyptian), former (before that whole Hemohes thing at the Lahti World Championships a few years ago) great cross-country skier Mika Myllylä… umm… and a whole lotta other Mikas. I, for one, know at least 7 Mikas. I had three in my class at one point.
D’oh! I forgot the name of the other Kaurismaki brother! Thanks, auRa!
I remember this guy - he did the big and small hill double at the Winter Olympics when only 16. What games was that - Sarajevo or Calgary? I didn’t know about his subsequent travails though. I would offer to swap you Alex Higgins but I’m kind of fond of the 'oul Hurricane.
Because all the other Finns are here, I’ll just push my two cents, or kopekc.
We Finns are a stubborn bunch.
We are living in a small country, but we are not very homogenous in culture.
Our highest culture is normally developed by abnormal guys.
We do everything opposite to what is told, we are always checking out “where’s the limit”.
Our natural resources, the only ones, are pure water and forest.
Finnish conclusion:
Let’s be biggest in the world in cellular telephones! And we are. (NOKIA).
When I emigrated to Russia 6 years ago, they wouldn’t let me in.
I learned the Norwegian language at the foot of Ural.
I like it here, because here are so many nuts, speaking so twisted Russian, that even I can understand them.
Almost all the men here are alcs and keeping the wife between the oven and the fist. That is why half of the woman are single.
As I said I like it here.
And Russia do not have any tabloids - yet.
The porn Star Henry saari is well hung, I’m not, but I have a long and powerful tongue. They say.
(This is maybe the reason I have so easy to learn laguages?)
Because it has sometimes been uncertain if I am a Finn, even in Finland because I swer in English and Russian, or am I something else, I put here a pure Finnish phrase i usually use:
“Periksi ei perkele anneta, ei nyt, eikä koskaan!!”
Someone else can translate it.
Anyhow, Finns has emigrated to many countries, and are always wanting back to the lakes and woods and hope they could forget everything else.
When they get drunk, they either speak in their cellular telephones or has just thrown it into the lake.
When they are sober they do the same.
Try to understand.
I can’t.
Not even myself, but I am not worried about that.
Just happy!
With my nowadays family, where the woman in the house speaks Russian in a 100 km/hour-mode and keeps me as people keeps a pet.
Kind of like ‘shit happens’?
This was in our daily paper today;
Finns are unfazed
Intrusive government is clearly no cause for alarm in North European nation
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Civil libertarians worried about legislation giving the U.S. government expanded snooping powers to combat terrorism would have a heart attack in Finland.
When a Finn uses public transportation, he must identify himself to an electronic database. The phone company can record cellular phone calls and police can use cellphones to track citizens. Employers can ask job applicants about their marital status and medical history. When a motorist is pulled over, police can tap into a computer, find his salary and fine him accordingly.
"There’s no tradition here of worrying about Big Brother,’’ said one Finn of his government’s pervasive surveillance.
That, too, is a surprise in the Baltic democracy that lived for half a century in the shadow of the Soviet Union, the biggest big brother of them all.