Sour Grapes & Stuff

Most Awesome Letter of the Issue
Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson criticized ex British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in an interview with Sky News whilst at Davos for placing Iceland on Britain’s Terrorism list. Personally I was grateful for Gordon Brown and his chancellor Alistair Darling. I love visiting Iceland and try to visit every other year. Last year I visited twice owing to the Northern Lights. Because I loved Iceland and everything Icelandic so much I foolishly invested  over £65,000 in an ICESAVE account. Thanks to the actions of Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling I received all of my money bank promptly. An example of how much I love Iceland is that in the november of the year that Landsbanki et al collapsed my partner and I visited Iceland purely to provide some tourist Krona to the then ailing  Icelandic economy, this despite the fact that at the time I still might have lost much of my savings. Walking down Skolavordustigur I slightly regretted my actions when I saw the the posters in shop windows decrying Brown and Darling. President Grimsson, and all Icelanders, stop blaming others for the failures of Icelandic institutions, such as the Icelandic banks, the Icelandic entrepreneurs and in particular the Icelandic financial regulators and  Icelandic politicians who should have prevented the collapse by properly regulating  the Icelandic banks in the first place. Stop blaming others and look at yourselves.
Neil Sinclair
(PS In the highly unlikely chance of my winning “Most Awesome Letter” , my partner and I are visiting Iceland in May/ June  2013 to celebrate my birthday)
Dear Neil,
Not as unlikely as you’d think!
Sorry to hear you were embroiled in the Icesave mess! Amidst all the economic ballyhoo and brouhaha, it’s easy to forget that honest, well-meaning individuals invested in Icesave and that, like most of the Icelandic citizenry, they did not deserve to get thrown under the bus by a bunch of banksters. As far as looking inwards for the cause of the collapse, you are definitely preaching to the converted.
The truth is, being on Britain’s Terrorist List just really hurt our feelings! We were pissed off at those Landsbanki/Icesave jerks too! Obviously that ‘Brown is the Colour of Poo’ shirt wasn’t blaming him for the collapse; it was our own way of coping with the pain. At this point we realise Brown and Darling did what they did to take care of their citizens and not wait for some kind of agreement (they would have been waiting a looooooong time…)
Thanks for still thinking this is a cool place and continuing to visit! We call that forgiveness. Come say hi next time you’re in town to get your prize/birthday present!
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Although I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly 41 years, I appreciated the informative article by Anna Andersen, entitled “Iceland’s Post-Crash Sale – 30% OFF!” (dated 9.3.2010) at http://www.grapevine.is/Home/ReadArticle/Iceland-Post-Crash-Sale
I wonder if you’d consider writing a similar article that would update the content of that article to 2011 (if not 2012), including the side-by-side price comparisons with percentage change in price?  Thanks! Mike Ullmann
Dear Mike,
Well what do you know! It just so happens Anna Andersen went ahead and did EXACTLY THAT VERY THING for this issue! Check it all out on page 6. Thanks for keeping watch!
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@Gunnalitla: @rvkgrapevine Dear Grapevine, I love you and I would love you alot more if your webpage was centered and not left-aligned.
@Gunnalitla Thnx 4 the tip. We r thinking about it. We luv u 2!
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Hello,
I am working on a vermicomposting project (something with worms eating our foodscraps) and that also includes the use of newspaper as a ‘bedding’ for our worms.
But as the compost needs to be organic, the ink in the used newspaper also has to be of organic nature.
I was thinking of using the Reykjavik Grapevine for our project (after thoroughly reading it first of course!) and it would really help me if you could tell us what kind of ink is used in the printing proces?
I would especially like to know if it’s a soy-based ink or petrolium-based ink, and if there are any heavy metals used as color pigments.
So it might be easiest to just give me the ink’s brand names or get me in contact with your printing office?
Takk!
Kind regards,
Goedele Vermeeren
Sólheimar
Dear Goedele,
That sounds like a really cool project, and we wish we could be worm food for you (because they are adorable omfg), but unfortunately our ink is very much petroleum-based and chock full of pigment. We didn’t even know there was such a thing as non-organic newsprint before! Silly us. Maybe one day our front cover will say “The Grapevine’s Gone Organic!” Keep your fingers crossed. Good luck with the adorable worms!