IKEA’s product naming conventions exposed. Next time I need to send an anonymous letter, forget cutting words from newspapers; I’m going straight for the IKEA catalogue. Worthy of Henning Mankell, don’t you think? Kurt Wallander would eventually solve this following puzzle, but only after far too many victims have died:
I first noticed Asne Seierstad, a (yes, blond young) Norwegian who reported from Baghdad during the war, for the unexpectedly vicious bouts of envy she elicited among some Swedish friends. Unperturbed, Asne’s just written a book about a season she spent with an Afghan family, and it’s gotten this rave review.
Interesting thing about the Kalashnikov maths problem cited in the review is that it was developed as part of a textbook and curriculum by a well-meaning bunch of academics from a university in the Southern US (can’t remember which, but I’m thinking Texas). The idea was to create maths problems that little Afghanis could relate to… The Minister of Education was blind furious about it, but by that time the books had been printed and sent out.
How do you explain my ‘Billy’ bookcases then?