February 7
Bun Day and Life in a Gene Puddle

Iceland is an interesting place, but not because little children are celebrating Bun Day today. Bun Day:

"On the Monday before Lent, Icelandic parents wake up to their children smacking them with colorful sticks decorated with paper and ribbons. The number of smacks they succeed in giving is the number of cream buns* their parents are obliged to give as gifts. The children chant "Bolla, bolla" (bun, bun) while enacting this custom thought to have begun in about 1700. This day, celebrated on the Monday before Lent, is also known as Bolludagur."

I swear to God, if these things weren't true, I would have to make them up.

Something that is interesting about Iceland is that a medical research outfit was recently sold, by the Icelandic government, the right to study the Icelanders, ostensibly to help them, and the rest of the world, medically. Actually, it is probably more a case of using them in the same way that medical schools use specially bred beagles: because you get more valid study results in a small gene pool. And Iceland's gene pool is neither deep nor wide.

There are, predictably, those who believe that the Icelandic government's authority doesn't extend as far as selling their genetic code to the highest bidder. Go figure.

Interesting Iceland Facts (really)

*Here's the recipe--it sounds like cream puffs to me.

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Saints celebrating feast days today include Saint Adaucus, Saint Theodore of Heraclea, Saint Moses, Saint Richard (King), and Saint Luke the Younger.

Miguel Ferrer celebrates his birthday today (1954, Santa Monica).

Onward to February 8
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© Marilyn Jones 2000-2008