# To My Hypocritical Finnish Friend **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 30, 2015, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167 "2015-10-30T12:39:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/61 "2015-12-29T23:51:05Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Finnish pancakes are excellent. Pretty much all other Finnish food not only looks like shit, but also tastes like shit. I say this as someone who lives in the city with the largest Finnish population outside of Finland and neighbouring Scandinavia. What city is that? šŸ˜• ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/62 "2015-12-30T00:18:36Z")
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. If you want to find a lot of Finns in the USA, visit the other side of the lake from TBay: the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michiganā€™s Upper Peninsula. BTW, the gawd-awful food is more than made up for by the sauna culture ā€“ one of the things that makes winter wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/63 "2015-12-30T00:20:30Z")
Pulla. Cardamom braid. Iā€™m half Finn on both sides and grew up being able to get pulla easily. I canā€™t find it in Vancouver. So I made it, and made my Dad very happy. Also Lanttulaatikko aka baked turnip casserole. > **[Finnish Pulla](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7010/finnish-pulla/)** > > This Finnish pulla is flavored with cardamom and braided before baking for an eye-catching holiday sweet bread great for breakfast or afternoon tea. > **[Lanttulaatikko (Finnish Mashed Turnip Casserole) Recipe - Food.com](https://www.food.com/recipe/lanttulaatikko-finnish-mashed-turnip-casserole-504768)** > > This hearty Finnish side dish is similar to mashed potatoes, but with the special, earthy flavor of yellow turnips (lanttu). Lanttulaatikko is a favor Finns are big on carbs. Sweets, bread, root vegetables, and coffee. Lots of saunas. Itā€™s how one survives that far north. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/64 "2015-12-30T00:27:47Z")
I was born and raised in Thunder Bay, and as Muffin said, we have the largest Finnish popluation outside of Finland. Both my grandmothers were born to Finnish immigrants, and neither of them spoke English until they started school. Dad was raised in his grandmotherā€™s house. He ate a lot of rye bread growing up. My ex husbandā€™s family is Danish. Many of the traditions are similar and I am learning some Danish recipes that are very similar to Finn ones. But pulla is Finn. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/65 "2015-12-30T00:29:27Z")
OK, Iā€™ll admit it. A lot of Finnish baked goods are really good. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/66 "2015-12-30T00:30:39Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > What city is that? šŸ˜• Google indicates probably Toronto (14,750 Finns out of 2.16 million total). However, Thunder Bay, with only 108k people has 14,510 Finns. That is probably why they canā€™t get any more people to move to Thunder Bay, not even other Finns. No wonder. I mean, if this thread is any indication, Finns are real dicks. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/67 "2015-12-30T00:31:46Z")
Never mind. Repeat of something I already said. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/68 "2015-12-30T03:30:24Z")
> [@Nelson\_Pike](#): > > I mean, if this thread is any indication, Finns are real dicks. Oops- I take this back in the case of Muffin (whose posts I overlooked) and her grandmothers. It helps that she has Danish blood-- my father was Danish. He said that Finnish women were great beauties even compared to other Scandinavians. Also, a girlfriend of mine who had traveled to Finland said that in general the people there were the best looking she had ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![lalaith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@lalaith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalaith)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/69 "2015-12-30T03:36:27Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The point isnā€™t to make them reconsider. Itā€™s to indirectly tell them that their comments are not welcome. Personally, I think itā€™s passive aggressive, but a lot of Miss Manners stuff is. Yes, but itā€™s _ **politely** _ passive-aggressive. Thatā€™s the great thing about Miss Manners. She tells you how to put rude people in their place without being rude yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/70 "2015-12-30T04:50:42Z")
> [@Nelson\_Pike](#): > > Oops- I take this back in the case of Muffin (whose posts I overlooked) and her grandmothers. No worries. Although I live surrounded by a lot of Finns, am truly addicted to saunas, and have even come across reindeer a couple of times, I am not Finnish. My great greats etc. were from Bo-Peep. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/71 "2015-12-30T13:43:29Z")
Iā€™ve always kind of scratched my head about how everyone hates America and yet so many people seem keen to live here. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/72 "2015-12-30T14:13:38Z")
Itā€™s possible to like something yet want it to be better. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/73 "2015-12-30T15:00:12Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Itā€™s possible to like something yet want it to be better. True, but **Tripolar** has a point; there does seem to be a certain ā€œfashionā€ among a lot of Euro expats to bash the shit out of US stuff like foods, etcā€¦ and yet take advantage of the rest that the country offers with absurd gusto. Itā€™s almost like thereā€™s a little bit of guilt/regret for leaving their homeland and moving to the US, so they feel like they have to play up the homeland and bitch about their adopted home to atone for it. And, at least in my experience, most of the bitching is more along the ā€œI grew up with Country X-style \, and the US version is in a different style, so it sucks.ā€ line, or along the lines of ā€œI come from a country thatā€™s geographically the size of Maryland, and roughly the population of Illinois, but Iā€™m going to bitch that the groceries in semi-rural Kansas isnā€™t quite as fresh or awesome as I had in the Netherlands.ā€ But these guys sure seem to love living in the US otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/74 "2015-12-31T14:33:48Z")
> [@lalaith](#): > > Yes, but itā€™s _ **politely** _ passive-aggressive. Thatā€™s the great thing about Miss Manners. She tells you how to put rude people in their place without being rude yourself. The problem with that is that there are increasingly more people who find passive aggressiveness itself to be rude. And Iā€™ve seen time after time where it inspires passive aggressiveness back, to the point that all they do is trade barbs. And then Iā€™ve seen the opposite, where they wind up completely oblivious, and then everyone is mad at them. I for one prefer polite assertiveness. Iā€™m okay with hints, as long as you remember to get more direct if hints donā€™t work. But that doesnā€™t mean you have to be passive aggressive. No need for hidden barbs. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/75 "2016-01-01T20:50:11Z")
Have you tried singing the Monty Python song whenever she starts up? ā€œFinland, Finland, Finland, the country where I quite want to beeeeeā€¦ā€? Extra points if you learn to sing it in Arabic. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/76 "2016-01-01T23:43:11Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > Have you tried singing the Monty Python song whenever she starts up? ā€œFinland, Finland, Finland, the country where I quite want to beeeeeā€¦ā€? Extra points if you learn to sing it in Arabic. Or sing her your version of ā€œMoon Riverā€: _Weā€™re after that same rainbowā€™s end, waitinā€™ 'round the bend My hypocritical Finnish friend, moon river, and me_ ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/77 "2016-01-02T01:13:55Z")
I have always found it far more effective to resist telling someone they are being hypocritical and instead point out that what they are saying **sounds** incredibly hypocritical. It somehow makes them more willing to refect and sometimes even admit, ā€œYeah, I can kinda see what you mean.ā€ Not always, of course. But often. Just a suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![nicky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f0a364/32.png) [@nicky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicky)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/78 "2016-01-02T11:14:03Z")
> [@bump](#): > > True, but **Tripolar** has a point; there does seem to be a certain ā€œfashionā€ among a lot of Euro expats to bash the shit out of US stuff like foods, etcā€¦ and yet take advantage of the rest that the country offers with absurd gusto. > > . No, its because bad food in the us is worse than bad food in europe. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/79 "2016-01-02T15:49:42Z")
For what itā€™s worth, I agree entirely with your Finnish friend. ---
**Author:** ![nicky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f0a364/32.png) [@nicky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicky)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167/80 "2016-01-02T20:47:58Z")
> [@nicky](#): > > No, its because bad food in the us is worse than bad food in europe. On second thoughts its partly the discombobulation of the expat. In your own country you easily pigeonhole bad or weird products: ā€œgarbage only winos drinkā€ ; ā€œfor weird old people with no taste buds leftā€; ā€œtourist trap clip jointā€ etc while abroad you just goggle and wonder ā€œNormal People buy this shit?!ā€ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-hypocritical-finnish-friend/736167.md?page=5)