Plenty of Nothing

Skellefteå kontra Växjö

SAIK, 1959.

Say, what's that yellow leaf behind the SAIK crest? Well, according to the club's Swedish Wikipedia article, it's a maple leaf. What? Perhaps of a species with which we are unfamiliar in Canada. But then, what do we know?

Arboreal digression. What Swedish hockey clubs are named after tree leaves?

Asplöven HC Aspen leaves. Asplöven currently play in the HockeyAllsvenskan. Their hometown is Haparanda on the very border between Sweden and Finland, at the top end of the Gulf of Bothnia. Haparanda is derived from the Finnish for aspen river bank.

IF Björklöven Birch leaves. Björklöven were hockey champions of Sweden in 1987, but they fell out of the Elitserien in 1999 and are now playing in the third tier, called Division 1. They come from Umeå, up north in Västerbotten, and are natural rivals of Skellefteå. Umeå is known as the city of birches.

Lindlövens IF Linden leaves. Lindlöven also play in Division 1. The club's hometown is Lindesberg, a little north of Örebro in Central Sweden. The town's coat of arms features a linden tree.

Lönnlöven is the Swedish for maple leaves, Lönnlöfen for Maple Leafs.

On Tuesday SAIK visited Färjestads BK and won 0 - 1.

Skellefteå host Växjö Lakers today. [And win 2 - 0. Assist for Holloway. HV71 lose, so SAIK are seven points clear.]

Japanese Word of the Day: Daikon

Moyashimon, vol. 1, page 15.

The Japanese have a longstanding love affair with radishes, especially large ones, especially radishes with supernatural powers. The 14th-century miscellany Essays in Idleness records:

There was in Tsukushi a certain man, a constable of the peace it would seem, who for many years had eaten two broiled radishes each morning under the impression that radishes were a sovereign remedy for all ailments. Once some enemy forces attacked and surrounded his constabulary, choosing a moment when the place was deserted. Just then, two soldiers rushed out of the building, and engaged the enemy, fighting with no thought for their lives until they drove away all the enemy troops. The constable, greatly astonished, asked the two soldiers, "You have fought most gallantly, gentlemen, considering I have never seen you here before. Might I ask who you are?" "We are the radishes you have faithfully eaten every morning for so many years," they answered, and with these words they disappeared. So deep was his faith in radishes that even such a miracle could occur.

Essays in Idleness, episode 68, translated by Donald Keene.

Cumbre Vieja Tsunami

If the Cumbre Vieja Volcano on the island of La Palma in the Canaries were to slough its western slope into the ocean in an enormous avalanche, as volcanic islands have been known to do, it would set off a tsunami that would devastate the northeastern coast of South America, the Caribbean, and the eastern coast of North America, including Halifax NS. (Read all about it in The Coast.)

Though in the heart of Europe, Geneva Switzerland was swept by a tsunami in the year 563. (Read about it in The Economist.)

Japanese Word of the Day: Kyūdō

Ever since that Norton Antivirus commercial, it's all about the way of the bow here at Plenty of Nothing. The Japanese bow is not symetrical! It's bigger at the top! Read Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery or check out this photo essay at Danny Choo's website.

Morris House Moves Upstairs

Morris House, a wooden building salvaged from the Victoria Arms demolition of 2009, and subsequently dated to 1764 by dendrochronology, was hauled through downtown Halifax this weekend to a new site at Charles and Creighton in the North End. Route map:

The part that makes this a feat is the Sackville Street leg, which if you know Halifax you know is about as steep as a staircase. [Two front-end loaders assisted the transport truck up Sackville Street. Video.]

Scapa Flow

Derfflinger versenkt.

If you follow the chat on greenockmorton.org long enough you'll encounter the placename Scapa Flow being used as a nickname for the Cappielow. Scapa Flow is a large harbour in the midst of the Orkney Islands, and is most famous as the anchorage where the Germans scuttled their fleet at the end of World War One. Like Cappielow it's windswept and cold, and great enterprises have run aground there. Like the Clyde shipbuilding industry. See here for a map of the German Empire's sunken High Seas Fleet.

Raith Rovers visit Cappielow today.

Morton have been freakishly lucky with the weather this season. To date they have not had a weather-related postponement at Cappielow. Today snow has knocked out four Third Division matches, two in the Second Division and one in the SPL, not to mention the SPL games delayed for conflicting with the League Cup.

Striker Archie Campbell has been out of the line-up for several weeks with an injury, so Morton have borrowed Colin McMenamin from Ross County.

[Morton win 1 - 0! Goal by Tidser. Morton remain five points clear. Dumbarton win and move into 8th place.]

This weekend it's the semifinals of the Scottish League Cup. Today Inverness Caledonian Thistle play Hearts at Easter Road. [Hearts win on kicks.] Tomorrow St. Mirren and Celtic meet at Hampden. [St Mirren win 3 - 2!]

Skellefteå versus Luleå

Stieg Larsson, author of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was born in around Skellefteå. Does it follow that Lisbeth Salander is a supporter of Skellefteå AIK?

No. Lisbeth Salander doesn't give a shit about hockey.

SAIK traveled to Örnsköldsvik Wednesday and beat MODO 1 - 2 in regulation time. Whether you win in regulation time or overtime or the shootout makes a difference in the Elitserien. If you win in regulation time you get three points. If you win in overtime or the shootout you get two. If you lose in overtime or the shootout you get one, and if you lose in regulation time you get zero. After the MODO game SAIK have 87 points, 81 from regulation time wins, 4 from overtime wins, 1 from an overtime loss and 1 from a shootout loss. SAIK are six points up on HV71.

Not that Lisbeth Salander cares.

Luleå visit Skellefteå today. [Luleå win in the shootout.] [Lisbeth: "There was a shootout?"]

Acadian Insurance Building

John Barleycorn

"John Barleycorn Must Die", by Traffic.

From a Photograph by Kimbei Kusakabe