Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Today marked the beginning of the Festival of Visual Culture and there was an art exhibition at the city library. The artist is a friend of one of the co-organizers and there was a small get together afterwards, where we finished the punch that was served at the exhibition. So it was me, 3 Finns and a Polynesian from Denmark - all real nice, friendly and interesting. When I walked in, I interrupted a conversation between 2 of the Finns on the best technique to use when cooking 20lbs of lamb. Apparently one of the Finns, Jussi, was a gold medal winner in a natural cooking competition, a competition where you cook using only natural means and ingredients, and the other Finn, Juoko, wanted some advice. For best results cook using sand.
Then they got me thinking about the basketball documentary again because they all knew the first American basketball player to come to Finland and they befriended him quickly. Then they told a story that, for all intents and purposes is true, but it could just as easily be an urban legend, that after 25 years grows into a different tale altogether. Paint the picture just a little and you'll be able to fill in the blanks. Big, tall, black American basketball player from Harlem, comes to small, white Joensuu Finland. He's a ladies man and man are there a lot of ladies for him. Well he's real keen on one young lady who is also engaged to one of the leading merchants of Joensuu. The merchant and his fiance wed, she gets pregnant, has the baby, takes a look at it, brown. Young lady and baby move to a small town a few hundred kilometers away, basketball player signs with a team in a different town and the legend grows. When I asked the guys if they would swear on it, all of them said that yes, they swear that they heard that story, but that's as close as they get to the truth. But it's the 3rd time I have heard this story and everyone tells it the same way, with the same details. So either it is true, like they say, which is totally feasible, or else it's a legend that these guys will be telling 30 years on.
Then they got me thinking about the basketball documentary again because they all knew the first American basketball player to come to Finland and they befriended him quickly. Then they told a story that, for all intents and purposes is true, but it could just as easily be an urban legend, that after 25 years grows into a different tale altogether. Paint the picture just a little and you'll be able to fill in the blanks. Big, tall, black American basketball player from Harlem, comes to small, white Joensuu Finland. He's a ladies man and man are there a lot of ladies for him. Well he's real keen on one young lady who is also engaged to one of the leading merchants of Joensuu. The merchant and his fiance wed, she gets pregnant, has the baby, takes a look at it, brown. Young lady and baby move to a small town a few hundred kilometers away, basketball player signs with a team in a different town and the legend grows. When I asked the guys if they would swear on it, all of them said that yes, they swear that they heard that story, but that's as close as they get to the truth. But it's the 3rd time I have heard this story and everyone tells it the same way, with the same details. So either it is true, like they say, which is totally feasible, or else it's a legend that these guys will be telling 30 years on.
// posted by Howard @ 12:04 AM 
