How to learn Swedish in 1000 difficult lessons

Who would have imagined, but I read today in Dagens Nyheter that Marianne Faithfull is actually the daughter of Austro-Hungarian Baroness Eva von Sacher-Masoch. This means Marianne is a descendent of the famous Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, author of Venus in Furs and the man whose name is the root of the word "masochism."

All of which makes me think someone surely must have thought up a good joke about the difference between a sacher torte and a sacher-masoch torte, which begs you to eat it, brutally.

The Swedish word for the day is blått öga. It means black eye, although the Swedes consider it blue, not black; they also say gul och blå - yellow and blue - where English speakers would say black and blue.

- by Francis S.