I liked the VF piece quite a bit. The analogy of making a country into a hedge fund was dead on.

The VF piece is full of gallows humor and is already getting passed around among my family. It's definitely worth reading.

Nah, I get where TNC is coming from. Back when I was trying to make it as a theatre director, I sat in on some rehearsals of a couple of the best (who shall remain nameless). Watching them, I knew that as a director I would make an excellent software engineer.

That piece was insane. Check out his profile of Christopher Hitchens, also. He won a national magazine award for that one.

But while there were some problems with it as a novel, the basic technical mastery of writing on display there, page after page, was so impressive it was daunting and demoralizing. Probably like playing a pick-up game with a major college or NBA player--brings you face to face with just how good they are at this, and how far beyond you their skills are.

You certainly have a point. The specific situation of the Icelandic people probably invites generalization. And the gender analysis based inter alia on a night out in the pub was a little bit too much. The description about the interaction between the fishing and the investment banking industries (and mentalities), however, was great.

And I don't think it's just the saga he's pointing to --- his more drawn out example is between Iceland's previous main economic driver, fishing, and finance --- that both are endeavors that highly reward a willingness to take great risks. After all, your man the bond trader that he mini-profiles in the piece was a fisherman before turning his hand to the options desk. There were a number of interesting parrallels in that analogy.

Second, I've had this kind of experience in the martial arts, where I've seen someone do stuff that I thought was far beyond what I could ever do.

But I kept with it, kept trying to get better, and now I'm the one doing some of that stuff. And it didn't take as long as you might think. Just keep writing, directing, practicing, whatever.

Most Obvious Push-Off Ever.

Once you've read both I'd love to hear your thoughts on the two pieces and writing styles, etc ...

Speaking of the national cultural center, construction halted and lacking a facade: 'I later spoke to Thorhallur Vilhjállmson, the building's marketing manager--that is to say, salaried optimist--and asked whether work would start any time soon. He replied, "Should I say what I think will happen or what I hope will happen?"'

He meets a geographer who teaches in northern Iceland at the University of Akureyri and who is to speak to a crowd. Parker says, 'I had met Huijbens earlier in the day, when he risked bringing discredit to his discipline by losing his way on a half-mile walk across western Reykjavík, and had talked about his experience in anti-globalization protests in Europe, noting one obvious brake on unruly behavior in a country with a population of three hundred twenty thousand: "If you're in a rampaging mob, running through town, within five minutes you'll probably encounter your uncle."'

It keeps you reading, I promise.

I have never been knocked down in the street, I wasn't there for the exploding Range Rovers, I just enjoyed wandering round. But the best part of the article is that it rang true. Yes, fisherman Vikings swarmed Western banks, pillaged, and brought the riches home to Iceland -- but in the modern version, the rest of the world then crippled them. But Icelanders also all know each other, have a different naming system, and worry about fairies. All things I'd totally accepted as a visitor, but when seen through the prism of this particular financial disaster... Well, yeah. It's laughable.

It's still a nice country though, gorgeous natural beauty and I've never actually found the people vicious, so go visit.

A line for our times.

Quit and go to nursing school. Start a blog.

The company that hired someone to check for fairies gave me the longest and happiest laugh I've had in a very long time.

You're so right. That line caught me too. It really is great.