Seems like there’s skulduggery afoot in the Baltic:

I have largely avoided reading (let alone writing) much about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, mostly because it’s really not my domain of expertise, and because I further assume that important stuff will filter through to me far more effectively if I completely avoid the 24-hour news cycle. But infrastructure is very much my beat, and the Baltic is now my backyard… which meant I clicked through to this FT piece, and was rewarded with the name of my next new band, per the title of this post:

I’m probably showing my age when I note that the first thing that leapt into my mind on reading that paragraph was this scene from The Living Daylights:

I dare say if you said “malevolent pigs” to a Swede, they’d assume you were referring to the very real threat of vildsvin if you’re out walking in the forests; accidentally coming between a mummy boar and her piglets (boarlets?) is a high risk situation, and an angry boar can really fuck a body up, I’m reliably informed.

Then again, maybe they’re exaggerating… though exaggeration is not something that I associate with Swedes, who tend to downplay even the things that they’re most scared of. Among that list of things is, of course, Russian invasion (though you need to talk to a Finn to get the full ångest on that front); this is a cultural thing that has roots far deeper than the Cold War, I’m given to understand, and characteristic of the whole Baltic region, which has been scrapped over for centuries.

It’s a real fear, and perhaps more justified now than it has been for a long time, though I tend to assume a ground invasion is extremely unlikely given how badly ol’ Vlad has landed himself in a strategic mess in Ukraine… but what do I know? Meanwhile, I’ve been a little amazed by L____’s disaster-prepping activities; she’s now got sufficient long-life foodstuffs and water stashed away in her apartment to last out a month or more, plus the kit to cook it without gas, running water or electricity. Any assumption that she was being uniquely (if quite calmly) pragmatic/paranoid has been banished by finding out that many of her friends are currently doing the same, if they hadn’t already had such a stash for some time.

Culture shock: the gift that keeps on giving.