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The big news on the Faroe Islands this week involves the arrival of a British Premier League team. Manchester City was in town to play EB/Streymur in the opening round of the UEFA '08 tournament. Not surprisingly, the Faroese team lost, 0-2.

But the most interesting story is about a bunch of rabid Man City fans that chartered a fishing trawler to see the game. They couldn't afford the flight, so they drove all day to Scotland, took a ferry to the Shetland Islands, then were to board a fishing boat for a 26 hour journey to the Faroes. A soccer magazine even supplied the lads with free beer for the journey.

The plan hit a snag when high seas prevented the boat from leaving on time. (link contains an amusing BBC story on the subject.)

Then a group of concerns including The Sun newspaper and the Faroese national airline sent a plane over to get the fans to the game.

Faroe Man has a more detailed telling of the story, complete with links.

This week's Faroe photo is the view from the nation's highest mountain. If Wikipedia is to be believed, that mountain is called Slættaratindur. The photo, and many more, can be found at this woman's photo gallery on Facebook.

Rumor has it King Abdullah II of Jordan rode his Harley through Medford Wednesday morning.

I'm not making this up.

Apparently he's on a motorcycle tour through the northwest and his path took His Majesty through our humble town. It doesn't look like he made any stops here and it's unclear if she brought his wife, Queen Rania with him.

But it doesn't matter, I'm posting her photo anyway simply because she's clearly the hottest royal ever.

It’s summertime and, with the exception of a few staff shakeups, a threatened castration, and a cartoon brouhaha, the presidential campaigns are in the doldrums.

To fill the time during the long summer months, the chattering classes and nerds alike spend their time wondering who the candidates will choose at their running mates. Everyone knows it’s extremely important to pick a good running mate. For example, in 1988, George H.W. Bush picked this complete dolt named Dan Quayle to be his vice president and… well… he got elected president anyway.

Ok, perhaps the choice of running mate isn’t that important after all. And for the most part, the job of vice president hasn’t been that important. It has tended to be a job handed over to drunkards, murderers, and… a possible lover to a future president? Indeed, one man to hold the second highest office in the land said the office wasn’t worth a warm bucket of piss.

But the office has changed over the last decade or so. Al Gore and Dick Cheney have both taken on policy making roles and have given the once lowly office unprecedented power.

I, for one, think this is wrong. So I’d like to announce my intention to run for Vice President of the Untied States. I’m no respecter of person or party. I would be pleased to serve as either Barack Obama or John McCain’s vice president as long as they agree with my vision of the vice presidency.

First and foremost, I do believe that the vice presidency is worth a warm bucket of piss. Perhaps two buckets when adjusted for inflation. Second, I believe that the framers of the Constitution designed the #2 spot in the government to be a dull and unimportant post and that the most current occupants of have betrayed that original vision.

I believe the vice president should attend funerals of foreign leaders, cast tiebreaking votes in the Senate, and make $175,000 per year. I have attended many funerals in my life, so I’m perfectly qualified to do that (I even have my own black suit). I have cast tiebreaking votes on several occasions. One such vote resulted in my wife and I eating at Red Robin. I currently have no experience in making $175,000 per year, but I am prepared to submit a detailed plan on how I would spend it.

The more I think of it, I really do think that the job of vice president is worth several buckets of warm piss. You get a very cool house on Massachusetts Avenue to live in, access to your own plane, and a good seat for the State of the Union address. Furthermore, some of those dead foreign leaders live in nice places. Why not make a 3-day weekend of it?

In terms of political assets, I will probably be able to deliver Oregon who whoever selects me, or at least several people in Oregon. Obama may want to select me because there’s slim chance I could deliver Utah. He’s polling better there than many had expected, and I’m Mormon. Everyone in Utah dreams of one day electing a Mormon vice president. But I know a lot of people in Utah, so that may work against me.

So I now await the call from either the Obama or McCain campaigns. If cost is a concern, I would agree to work for only $150,000. But I’ll require at least two extra buckets of warm piss in exchange.

Internet service is once again out at our home. This happens several times per week and has been going on for more than a month.

We get our DSL through Qwest, but we'll be cancelling our service this week. We encourage all to do the same.

Normal posting will resume once we find a service provider that doesn't suck.

When searching for Faroe Islands news online, all you'll usually find is soccer news. Well, this week, the biggest news coming out of the Faroes really is soccer. The Manchester City Football Club (not to be confused with the more famous Manchester United) will be coming to the Faroes next week to play EB/Streymur. They'll be playing the first qualifiying round of the UEFA Cup tournament (it's a really big deal in Europe, I'm told).

Who/what is EB/Streymur? That's a fair question. There's not much information online except a short Wikipedia blurb that explains the team is the product of a 1993 merger between two other teams, one of which was formed in 1913. They play in a town of about 200 people. Man. City's home stadium could seat the entire population of the Faroe Islands.

As always, when a foreign team comes to the Faroes, the home team isn't expected to win. But who knows? Upsets have happened before. For more and better updates, Faroe Man is probably your best source. The game is on the 17th of this month.

For this week's Faroe photo, I was looking for a good picture of the city where EB/Streymur plays. I couldn't find any. Perhaps next week. Instead, I pulled a trio of pictures from a Facebook group on the Faroes. The top two photos are of the village of Gjógv. We've featured pictures of the village before, but there are a lot of good Gjógv photos out there. It's popular with the tourists and the shutterbugs, and it's not hard to see why.

The bottom photo was taken in the village of Bøur. It's a village of about 71 people. An online reference site contains an amusing legend surrounding the village, it involves one brother beheading another, absolution from a bishop, and eventual ruin for the non beheaded brother. It's quite a read.
All photos this week come from this woman's Facebook album. There are lots of great photos there.