Lennard Ramone

Unless you have been living under a large rock in the Line Islands for the past 9 months, you are probably aware that there is a hit tv show called Squid Game.  To give a quick plot summary for the 4 people in the world who haven’t seen it yet- the show tells the tale of a 40-something guy whose life is a mess. He’s divorced, his wife took their daughter with her and, oh, he’s addicted to gambling, which has put him millions of Korean Won in debt with loan sharks and other shady figures who are by now chasing him for their money. One night he is approached by a mysterious man on a subway platform who offers him money if he plays a kids game with him. After losing a number of times (and getting slapped in the face for each time as he has no money) he finally wins a game and the mystery man gives him 100.000 Won (that’s about 70 Euro, give or take). He is then given a business card with a phone number on it and the instruction to call the number if he wants to make more money...

  Fun with flags with Dr. Lennard Ramone, part II. After the positive comments I received when I published my first story about flags, I thought it would be a good idea to follow up with a few things I didn’t have space for in the first story.  The first question I got was why I didn’t make a mention in the “Flags with similarities” section of the flags of Scandinavia.  Well, the story was already quite long and now we have a good reason to tell you more about flags. So the flags of Scandinavia all follow the Nordic Cross pattern. The OG of Nordic Cross flags is Denmark’s flag, the Dannebrog. There are several conflicting origin stories, but the generally accepted legend has it that, some time in the 13th century, king Valdemar the second was leading his army into the battle of Lindanise, near present day Tallinn, Estonia. Morale was low but, with his troops in dire straits, the skies opened and a red banner with a white Nordic Cross on it fell from the clouds. This impro...