Jacob Christensen

The things you see in the corridors of SDU.

I wonder if this was what Chairman Mao had in mind when he wrote his poem “Militia Women“:

How bright and brave they look, shouldering five-foot rifles
On the parade ground lit up by the first gleams of day.
China’s daughters have high-aspiring minds,
They love their battle array, not silks and satins.

“Milita Women” is a classic in Danish rock music, by the way:

HT: Michael Friis.

Here is my proposal: Make Frank Hvam operational head of the Danish armed forces.

Seriously: He is less accident-prone than the clowns running the show at present.

This is just to note that Politiken, the only major Danish daily newspaper which still appears in a broadsheet format, celebrates its 125th birthday today.

The best way to explain the position of the paper would probably be to compare it with The Guardian in the UK, especially with regard to the composition of the readership. One of the funnier aspects of the paper’s history is that it for some 20 years had an editor who technically didn’t live in Denmark. The 1970s and the 1980s were in many ways the last high point of the paper’s history.

The next question – one best not asked at the parties – is: Will there be a 150th jubilee, or is the paper too much a child of the 19th century to make it into the 21st?

Oh, and yes: I subscribe to the thing.