Finland is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union, with only 16 inhabitants per square kilometer.
I would feel uncomfortably crowded there. Canada’s population density is a more manageable 3.6 per square kilometre.
(You don’t want to know what we do with the 0.4 people.)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “The Song of Hiawatha” in trochaic tetrameter, like the folk poem Kalevala, the national epic of Finland and its province Karelia, that he learned while spending a summer in Sweden. Trochee is a rhythm natural to the Finnish language, since Finnish words are normally accented on the first syllable, although it makes English sound stilted.
J.R.R. Tolkien, a philologist and linguist before he was an author of Middle-earth fiction, was a great admirer of the Finnish language. Sindarin and Quenya, his Elvish languages, have elements of Finnish in them.
Finnish athletes have won more Summer Olympic medals per capita than any other nation. Finnish athletes are second only to Norway for the number of Winter Olympic medals per capita.
Finland was the only country on the European mainland not completely pacified/conquered by the Draka in the S.M. Stirling alternate-history novel, Under the Yoke.
I’m not sure whether we’ve gotten off track, as it’s not clear if Northern Piper’s post after mine was a play or just a comment. But anyway:
Legendary screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night) studied martial arts with Bruce Lee during the late 1960s.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus suggested in its Philosophy Department sketch that every male in Australia is named Bruce.
Bruce Willis’ first name is Walter. Bruce is his middle name. Walter Bruce Willis.
Bruce Willis had a singing career(!). In 1987 he released the album, The Return of Bruno.
Bruce is the family name of the Earl of Eglin.
Eglin Air Force Base is in the Florida panhandle, near the west end of it, and about 150 miles west of Tallahassee. The units stationed at Eglin include 20 SCS, the 20th Space Control Squadron, whose mission includes tracking near-earth and deep space objects in earth’s orbit.
The 8th Earl of Elgin (not Eglin) served as Governor General of the Province of Canada in the 1840’s. His decision to grant Royal Assent to the Rebellion Losses Bill marked the inauguration of responsible government in Canada. It also triggered the burning of the Parliament buildings by an angry mob of Anglos.
James Earl Jones – who turns 83 this Friday! – was the first established celebrity to appear on Sesame Street.
Oscar the Grouch was originally orange.
Timmy Turner, the young boy from “The Fairly Oddparents” is allergic to oranges.
Tina Turner at one time had her legs insured for 3.2 million dollars
Betty Grable’s legs were insured by Twentieth Century Fox for $1 million with Lloyd’s of London.
nm - ninja’d
Underwriting members of Lloyd’s of London are called “names” in the parlance of the firm.