Miscellaneous observations

January 18, 2010

‘Glābējsilīte’ is word of the year

In what clearly is a sign of the times, the Latvian word of the year is glābējsilīte, a place where unwanted babies can be abandoned, the Rīga Latvian Society (Rīgas Latviešu biedrība) has announced.

October 03, 2009

German students produce film about Latvians in Münster

History students at the Hittorf-Wilhelm-Gymnasium Münster in Germany have produced a short documentary film about the history of the once-thriving Latvian exile community in their city. Titled Ghetto ohne Zaun (The Ghetto With No Fence), the film includes interviews with members of the community, as well as historical images, according to a press release from the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe), which supported the documentary.

August 23, 2009

Pirmais tautas deju ‘flash mob’ notiek Rīgā

Skaidrs, ka tā bija sava veida reklāma mobilo sakaru operatoram Bite Latvija, taču negaidītais tautas deju flash mob Rīgas centrā 20. augustā bija arī vienkārši foršs pasākums.

April 16, 2008

Some of my best friends are Latvian

Latvia is no longer the second largest Baltic country. That honor now belongs to the online social network draugiem.lv, whose number of users now surpasses the population of the country in which it is based. The portal began operating in 2004.

April 01, 2008

Democrats to decide presidential candidate at Gaŗezers

April! April! Hats off to cikaga.com, the Web site for Chicago-area Latvians, for breaking the story that the Democratic Party’s super delegates have chosen Gaŗezers as the site for a critical showdown in the upcoming U.S. elections. At stake: who will be the party’s presidential candidate, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

February 24, 2008

As far as we know, Rīga is still in the running

Aw, no fair! The organizers of the online contest to choose city names that should appear in a special edition of the Monopoly board game have removed the leaderboard!

November 11, 2007

Russia and the Baltics

One of America’s leading newspapers, The New York Times, is paying attention to the growing concerns a resurgent Russia poses to some observers in the Baltic countries. In a two-part video report, journalist Adam B. Ellick covers the influence Russia under Vladimir Putin has in the Baltics, and then looks at the “StalinWorld” statue park in Lithuania.

October 31, 2007

No way to raise a child

Here’s a new angle on the story about challenges faced by Western-born Latvians returning to their ancestral homeland: the locals don’t think much of the new immigrants’ child-rearing practices.

July 03, 2007

Order an iPhone, support a Latvian hacker

Looking for an iPhone, the hot new technological gadget from Apple? Then don’t click on the pop-up ad that appears while visiting Google or Yahoo!, reports SunbeltBLOG. All you will accomplish is to financially support some ne’er-do-well in Latvia.

December 20, 2004

Stick out your mother tongue

What was the category on the Dec. 20 edition of the American television game show Jeopardy that included a reference to Latvia?

December 19, 2004

You lose, as does your luggage

Getting your luggage sent to Latvia is a penalty, according to a satirical look at holiday air travel by Amanda Kingsbury of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas. Kingsbury, the newspaper’s travel editor, proposes a game similar to “Chutes and Ladders” as a means to while away the hours when you are stuck in the airport. Called “Takeoffs and Landings,” the game has rewards and penalties for good and bad behavior.

December 08, 2004

zah-NAY tee-LAH-nay

Latvian athletes have done well in college sports in the United States, especially in men’s and women’s basketball and in track and field. Case in point: Zane Teilāne, the 6-foot, 7-inch (2-meter) starting center for the women’s basketball squad at Western Illinois University in Macomb.

December 04, 2004

Beer logos

December 01, 2004

Traveling women

Newspaper readers in Ohio sure are learning a lot about Latvia these days. A Dec. 1 article in the Cincinnati Enquirer reports on how travel agent Nancy Donovan is serving as a mentor for a businesswoman from Rīga.

November 18, 2004

Latvians in Lanka

Latvia’s Independence Day on Nov. 18 is a perfect time to introduce non-Latvians to the country’s traditions. To showcase Latvia in the island nation of Sri Lanka, Honorary Consul Thomas F. Daetwyler invited the folklore ensemble Skandinieki and Krists Ulass, a chef for Rīga’s Hotel Gutenbergs, to the Mount Lavinia Hotel near the capital city of Colombo.