Today's sappy story.

[theweaselking]

In 1988, an American woman marries a Norwegian, is shipping all her stuff on the plane, and is told at the last minute that she needs to pay an extra $103 in overweight charges.

Her husband is already in the air on a separate flight. She's in Miami, where she knows nobody. She has no cash on her. Oh, and it's 1988, making internet-phone-based solutions difficult.

She's breaking down crying because this is everything she owns, and she's trying to figure out what she can leave behind and what she can possibly keep, when the man behind her steps forward and says he'll pay her charge. He writes his name and his mother's address on a scrap of paper and she promises to mail him a cheque to pay him back.

Some of you might recognise him.

Comments

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

From the translation:

Mary turned up and there was a high and dark man she had never seen before.

:3

[elffin.livejournal.com]

The idiomatic basis of expression in Norwegian is truly interesting. Trees are tall, people are high (but interestingly, so are buildings). Rivers are long or broad (and so may be buildings), people are fast or powerful.

Animals feed, humans eat.

[pvck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally started hearing an old cowboy-esque guitar in my head at that line.

Doon diggadoon diggadoon diggadoon OOOOOBAMA

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Awwwww.

[reyl.livejournal.com]

Further proof that the dude is a decent human being, and therefore not qualified to be president of the US. Still, this was *before* he graduated lawschool.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Not Found
The requested URL /translate_p?hl=EN&sl=no&tl=en&u=http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/presidentvalg-2008/artikkel.php%3Fartid%3D527005&usg=ALkJrhjeZqMIzQU1JiOK3yswM1Qxw7PbiQ was not found on this server.

I totally recognize that.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Works for me, and for everyone else.

But you could read it in Norwegian, if you like, here:
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/presidentvalg-2008/artikkel.php?artid=527005

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Didn't work for me either. Had to backtrack to the original page and run the translator from there.

[fengi.livejournal.com]

Cynical: I've grown so accustomed to the Republican smear machine I can easily imagine their spin on this one: she was a 31 year old Swedish woman and, judging by the photo, she was probably really cute - blow dog whistle really loud. Etc.

Uncynical: "'He was my reddende knight,' said Mary, and smiles." Awwww!

[botia.livejournal.com]

The smear that came to my mind is, "He's unAmerican, because he was helping her to leave America"

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

That was really sweet and made me smile. Thank you for the link!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I guessed it would be Obama.

I like him, but it wasn't that I think he's doing every good deed in the world. It seemed to be more about some subtle cues in your post, and when the article came up, I was looking for cues that it was fake, but I gather it isn't.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

At this time of year, you're right, Obama is an excellent guess, as would be all kinds of politicians from various nations. Celebrities would also be a good guess at most times, but the trick is that you need them to have been an adult nobody 20 years ago and instantly recognisable today, which is not really the standard celebrity recognition curve.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Yeah, regular celebrities usually go the other way from instantly recognizable to adult nobody.

[geekalpha.livejournal.com]

Lykkeønskninger!

[marlo.livejournal.com]

I knew, I knew it was going to be Obama before I clicked.
LUVS!

[cleodhna.livejournal.com]

Me too, me too, me too!

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Awwwwww.

...He's still a centrist sellout!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hey, man, you can't say he's a sellout just because he voted for the FISA bill. And the bailout. His votes were.... umm... taken out of context. Yeah, that's it.

[itlandm.livejournal.com]

I am mildly amused that Google translates "Norge" with "Canada". But yeah, a really cute story. At least back then, there was still some decency in this world. I like to think there still is.

[thette.livejournal.com]

Canada and Ireland! I'm amused and beboggled.

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

do you mean this guy? (http://echoeversky.livejournal.com/329138.html)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

No. He's a little, uh, dead. And he was even still too dead, 20 years ago.

[falconwarrior.livejournal.com]

Epic.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

The google translation is the second-best part of that article.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it took McCain only eight years to change from a somewhat-mavericky politician into a complete schill.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The idea that McCain has "changed" is the biggest of the big lies his campaign is selling.

McCain didn't kowtow to the ayatollahs of Republican Al Qaeda before. But he still *voted* with them, and he still never met a lobbyist he wouldn't take money from or fuck, and his pattern of actual *votes* hasn't changed. Even when he was openly calling Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance" he was still voting the way they wanted him to, and even when he was hard at work claiming in public that torture was immoral and didn't work, he voted in favour of legalising it.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

It's about time somebody started re-educating Americans about the Keating fiasco and how much McCain changed after it.