LINK

Thursday July 5, 04:26 PM Norway best place to live in world, says UN

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway has overtaken long-standing winner Canada to head a United Nations list of the world's best places to live for quality of life and high living standards, a Norwegian newspaper says.

The U.N. report, to be published next week, shows for the first time Norway ranking at number one in a league of life expectancy, education and gross domestic product indicators, the daily Verdens Gang said on Thursday.

"This is a recognition of Norway that will be noticed," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was quoted as saying in the country's biggest daily.

It shows Norway on top with 939 points, followed by Australia, Canada and Sweden, each with 936 points.

Out of 162 countries on the list, the United States ranks number six and Britain at 14. Sierra Leone is at the bottom of the list.

-- Tidbit (of@the.day), July 07, 2001

Answers

At this very moment, millions of Sierra Leonians are rafting north to avail themselves of the quality of life in sunny Norway.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), July 07, 2001.

I am womdering which countrys are # 4 and #5 ?

-- Dan Newsome (BOONSTAR1@webnet.tv), July 07, 2001.

Ah....much soul searching in the Great White North as we plummet from 1st to 3rd (we had been first for 7 straight years). I mean - come on - Norway is probably the only country in the world more boring than Canada. I'll grant you that Australians are more interesting, but that's 'cuz they're corked most of the time.

As for who finished 4th adn 5th....Belgium (which is almost as boring as Canada) was 5th and I think Sweden was 4th.

Bronzed and not loving it.

JC

-- Johnny Canuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), July 07, 2001.

Oh, I don't know, Johnny. The few times I've been to Canada, I found it quite fun; not boring at all. Friendly people, beautiful country, and the Hockey Hall of Fame :-)

And Belgium is home to some of the world's greatest beers; how boring can that be?!?! (Have you ever had a Chimay Grand Rouge? It's corked. It doesn't get much better than that.)

-- (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), July 07, 2001.

Johnny, I'll move to Canada if you can assure me beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are no chiggers there.

-- helen (itchy@nd.scratchy), July 07, 2001.

Doesn't Norway have the world's highest suicide rate?

-- Wonderin (about@it.all), July 07, 2001.

"Wonderin"--

According to this link, Norway does not have the highest suicide rate.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), July 07, 2001.

-- (-@-.-), July 07, 2001.

Pat,

My comments were part tongue-in-cheek and part manifestation of our national inferiority complex (that's the complex that mandates that one of our home-grown stars can't really be a star until they hit it big in the States).

Helen,

I don't know what exactly a chigger is, but I'm 99.99% sure that we don't have any of them in Toronto!

Regards

JC

-- Johnny Canuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), July 07, 2001.

Grammaw talks about them there chiggers. She hates them damn thangs.

-- (iowa@farm.bred), July 07, 2001.

LOL, Johnny!! I understood what you were doing, but wanted to offer Support if I could :-)

I was in Toronto back in May of 1986. We stayed at the Prince Hotel in Don Mills. Had dinner at the CN Tower (big mistake; 45 out of 60 minutes was Darkness because of the lake - LOL). One night, we got in a cab and asked the driver to take us to a locals' bar; one where there was absolutely no tourists. He took us to the Unicorn Pub. I forget where it was, but I met some of the greatest people there. It was during the hockey playoffs (so the Rangers, who had been mathematically eliminated the previous December, were out of it).

I walked up to the bar to get our drinks and I asked the bartender for a really good Canadian beer. He was going to give me something in the Molson family, until he saw the look on my face. He handed me a Labatt's and I was hooked. (It just ain't the same down here in the States.)

I was playing darts and watching the hockey game all night. It was heaven. We were invited to a party after the pub closed and we went. Had a great time!

We went to see the Hockey Hall of Fame. You have to understand that, being a Rangers' fan, the ONLY thing I wanted to see was the Cup. I assumed I'd never see it my lifetime (it wasn't until 1994 that I realized I could finally die in peace). Well, when I was walking in, the Emery Air Freight driver was walking out -- with the Cup!!! OH NO!!!

He let me touch the box. He understood :-)

I'll always remember that as one of my best vacations.

-- (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), July 07, 2001.

Pat,

I liked the story about the Hockey Hall of Fame. Despite living in and around Toronto for 16 of the past 22 years I have to admit, sheepishly, that I have never been to the HHoF! Toronto is like a lot of tourist cities: residents only tend to go to the touristy-type places when they have friends or relatives in town. I've been up the CN Tower a half a dozen times, but only in the company of out-of- towners who have pestered me to take them. Most of my relatives are Irish, so hockey doesn't interest them (the infidels...).

I have made it a resolution to visit the HHoF this year - even if I have to take an afternoon off work and go by myself. With the way the Leafs have failed on the big-name signings front (Mogilny?....eeeek) the HHoF will be the closest a Torontonian will get to seeing Lord Stanley's mug for another year (decade / century.....).

Ref the Unicorn Pub....it's still going. If you want to see real Canadian culture just come north in the spring when the playoffs are on - LOL.

-- Johnny Canuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), July 08, 2001.

Same thing when I lived in NYC. It wasn't until we went back last year for my friends' and then my brother's weddings that I got to do a lot of touristy things there. It was fun (and I knew where I was going!).

I'm still new enough here that practically everything I do is touristy. But I will always stand there looking like a kid at Christmas when I watch the animatrons at Caesar's Palace, or the pirate ship battle at Treasure Island. The Fountains at Bellaggio has to be one of the most beautiful free things in this town. Wow. Kind of like walking to the end of my driveway and seeing mountains in the distance, and palm trees down the block. Wow again.

I wonder what it would look like if they did a Canadian-themed casino :-}

-- (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), July 08, 2001.

Johnny, there must not be any chiggers there if you don't even know what chiggers are.

-- helen begins to pack (pack@pack.pack), July 08, 2001.

There once was a famous old chigger
Who won as the nation's best digger
In awe, Helen wondered,
But th' chigger just thundered
"It's 'cause Okie chiggers are bigger!"

-- Bigger (chiggers@dig.vigorously), July 08, 2001.

Helen:

From experience, there are chiggers in Ontario. You have been talking to city dwellers. Chiggers don't do well when everything is paved and sprayed.

Now I didn't see a chigger in Yellowknife. Though some locals claim that the skeeters carry away small children after the melt in the spring. :)

Noone

-- Noone (Noone@nowhere.xyz), July 08, 2001.

Chiggers are proof that we're really dead and this is hell.

-- helen unpacks in despair (unpack@unpack.unpack), July 08, 2001.

Noone-

We may well have chiggers in Ontario....we may just call them something else. Can you describe what they look like?

JC (who does sometimes venture beyond the city limits)

-- JohnnyCanuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), July 08, 2001.

JC:

Now that has a nice ring. I have never seen one in the dark and dirty of real life Too small. I have seen them under a microscope.

Go here: < A HREF="http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/nathis/arthopo/chig gers/"> Chiggers

Should give you what you need.

Noone

-- noone (Noone@nowhere.xyz), July 08, 2001.

JC:

Then you could try:

Chiggers Or not.

Noone

-- Noone (Noone@nowhere.xyz), July 08, 2001.

link didn't work.......

-- Johnny Canuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), July 08, 2001.

Noone - I got to the document (by taking out the space in chig gers)

I can say that I have never heard of anybody I know in Ontario suffering the symptoms discussed in that article. Even in the parts that border Michigan and NY. Now, most of Ontario is composed of the Canadian Shield, meaning that it would not be ideal habitat for chiggers.

-- Johnny Canuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), July 08, 2001.