Iceland, Part II

Note: Just returned from Iceland and thus an abbreviated chat as I’m running on fumes.  

Baseball Quiz: Name the six with hitting streaks of 40 or more. [OK, one is tough…like 1890s…but get the other five, including another from the 1890s.] Answer below. 

Iceland had a number of excellent museums, the Icelanders being terrific record keepers over the years, an example of which is the DNA database you’ve heard about. It seems witches and sorcerers were also a big deal in the 17th century as 23 men and one woman were burned at the stake. 

And, “Pagan graves show that both men and women anticipated life after death. Some were buried with a boat or a horse for their journey in the after life.” No word on whether the horse had any real choice in the matter. 

I do have to make a correction from the previous chat. My guide, Steinmir, talked of three major volcanic eruptions in the last 10,000 years. I don’t know what he was referring to because in actuality, Iceland has had about 30 eruptions in the last 200 years. Heck, I went to the island of Heimaey in 1982, just years after it had exploded off Iceland’s shores. 

Anyway, the Icelanders took a detailed census at the beginning of the 18th century and it revealed 50,358 inhabitants.  Yet a century later it was 47,200. What happened? 

Smallpox took out ¼ of the population and there was a famine caused by natural conditions in 1751-58. But there was also the “Haze Famine” of 1783-85, following a “catastrophic volcanic eruption that killed 1/5th of the population.” 

The water is the cleanest in the world…so the beer is extra tasty! Speaking of which, part of the reason why I’m perhaps more tired than normal (aside from the fact I’m just getting old, having reached the point where a career in baseball isn’t possible, even if I do perfect a knuckleball) is because I had a few beers to celebrate Iceland’s emergency election on Saturday. Polling was from 10:00-10:00, and by 10:00 p.m. I was at The Dubliner pub watching the results roll in on television. The existing gay prime minister, Johanna, a former Icelandair flight attendant, won but the coverage was pretty funny. 

Picture that Iceland, with a population of 320,000, treated this, as you’d expect, with the same coverage we’d have here for our big event every four years and six of the seven candidates appeared together right after 10:00 on a panel. I’d love to see a transcript of that one. At least they weren’t at each other’s throats as they watched the results together. Imagine Bush and Gore together on stage back in 2000. 

Then, it being a small place, Reykjavik, that is, within minutes they were all at their party celebrations, which were being held just blocks from where I was sitting, quaffing pints with my two new friends from Britain and Denmark. The national station had their cameras everywhere. 

Anyway, my friends, both monarchists, and I agreed that it might not have been a bad thing for George Washington to have declared himself king. By the time I left, 2:30 a.m., ahem, ahem, I had reworked our constitution as well. [Plus I have a standing invitation to play golf in Denmark any time I want!] 

You see, sports fans, the action in Iceland doesn’t really get going, especially on weekends, until 10:30 p.m. The larger bars and pubs stay open until 4:00, some nightclubs later. 

Just a few other notes. [I’m covering the financial crisis in that other column I do.] I had my first taste of whale meat…the Icelanders having a controversial policy of taking out a few hundred mink and fin whales each year…and it was quite good. Didn’t taste like chicken…more like buffalo. 

And I had to check out a famous hot dog stand in Reykjavik, Besjairins. It’s a shack that was a few blocks from my hotel and back in 2005, Bill Clinton stopped by for a few. The place was popular beforehand and even more so afterwards because it’s in most guidebooks as a result. The line was 30 deep when I got there Saturday and the entire week there was always a good-sized one, all hours, when I passed it. 

So I ordered two Bill Clintons (about $1.75 each)…just mustard. That’s what you do. “I’ll have two Bill Clintons, please.” There’s a very funny cartoon from the local paper of Clinton’s hit and run attack plastered on the shack’s wall. And I loved how this one rather elegant woman was behind me with her child in a stroller and her cocker spaniel. She then proceeded to get her dog one as well which he devoured next to me on the picnic bench there. When the dog was finished he gave me a look like, “Gee, that was pretty good.” Or as Ronald Reagan said, not bad…not bad at all. 

Before I went out on Saturday night, I checked the NFL draft results online and how ironic is it that the one player I singled out, negatively, quarterback Mark Sanchez, became a Jet through a trade with Cleveland! Everyone raves about the kid’s attitude; I just don’t think he has the goods. I hope I’m wrong. So after Matthew Stafford was taken with the first overall pick (my man Aaron Curry went fourth to Seattle), Sanchez thus became the second QB to go. [I did like the Jets’ running back selection, Shonn Greene.] 

USA TODAY Sports Weekly recently had a look back at how few of the top-drafted QBs end up impressing in the league. Following are the two top picks at the position. 

–I see my Mets still suck…8-10. Oliver Perez, having just signed for $36 million over three years, looks like a batting practice pitcher. As Mets manager Jerry Manuel said, if the guy had good stuff and no location, you wouldn’t be as worried, but Perez has shown zero stuff since spring training. $36 million…..$36 MILLION! The New York Post’s Joel Sherman calls the Mets starting rotation, “Johan Santana and the Pips.” 

And I see David Wright is off to a terrific start…23 strikeouts in 18 games and about one clutch hit to date. More on him next time. 

But the Pirates are 11-7, so the clock is ticking on a lot of us Mets fans converting by season’s end, if not the All-Star break. 

–April 25, 1933…just had to mention this day in baseball. Rookie right-hander Russ Van Atta debuts with the Yankees in spectacular fashion, topping Washington 16-0 and collecting four hits on his own behalf. Not too shabby. Van Atta would go only 33-41 for his career, however, but he did hit .228. 

–And we note the passing of the great actress, Bea Arthur, 86. It’s pretty amazing, looking back, how she was basically “discovered” when she was 50 years old to be a liberal foil to Archie Bunker, which then led to her own show, “Maude,” and then the monster hit, “Golden Girls.”  

Top 3 songs for the week 4/26/80: #1 “Call Me” (Blondie…ughh) #2 “Ride Like The Wind” (Christopher Cross…boy he disappeared quickly) #3 “Another Brick In the Wall” (Pink Floyd…in Iceland on Saturday night, the entertainment in the pub attempted to sing this…bad move…but otherwise he was good)…and…#4 “With You I’m Born Again” (Billy Preston & Syreeta) #5 “Special Lady” (Ray, Goodman & Brown) #6 “Lost In Love” (Air Supply) #7 “Fire Lake” (Bob Seger) #8 “I Can’t Tell You Why” (Eagles) #9 “You May Be Right” (Billy Joel) #10 “Sexy Eyes” (Dr. Hook) 

Baseball Quiz Answer: Six with hitting streaks of 40 or more. Joe DiMaggio, 56, 1941; Willie Keeler, 44, 1897; Pete Rose, 44, 1978; Bill Dahlen, 42, 1894; George Sisler, 41, 1922; Ty Cobb, 40, 1911. [Paul Molitor is only one to have a 39-game streak]