Saintly Silvio

This just in: Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi has made a public vow to remain celibate until after the national elections on April 9. “I will try my best not to let you down. I promise to abstain completely from sex for the next 2 ½ months, or until 9 April,” he graciously informed his supporters at a rally in Sardinia. Just how this will make him a better candidate or potential Prime Minister remains unclear. Perhaps he’s just getting senile. Or, ahem, something.

IN THE MEANTIME
... While Silvio was declaring his good intentions yesterday afternoon, there was a robbery at the main offices of the Happdrætti Háskóla Íslands, or University Lottery. A masked man burst into the office and pointed a gun at a clerk, demanding cash. Some people have pointed out the extreme irony of the fact that the Lottery has of late been running a hard-hitting ad campaign featuring masked people of every description. Perhaps they need to be more careful of what they wish for.

OH, AND THIS JUST IN:
We Nicelanders have a contender for the Oscars, as the short film Síðasti bærinn í dalnum [The Last Farm in the Valley] has been nominated in the Short Films category. Once again the Icelandic nation swells up with nationalistic pride and finds true solidarity in Outside Recognition. Watch this space.

AND THE WEATHER ROUND-UP...
It’s still spring here in Superniceland! The weather has been gorgeous, sunshine this morning, hardly a breeze, and seeming much warmer than the 4°C that the mbl.is website tells us it is. Guess it’s the absence of wind, which makes all weather here in Iceland seem truly fabulous. Wind’s picking up this evening, though, and we’re in for rain. Sunrise was at 10.11 on this last day of January, and sunset is at 17.12.