Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.11.2017, Qupperneq 4

The Top Stories
Oct 26TH —––––—— Nov 9TH
Words: Paul Fontaine
NEWS IN BRIEF
A voter, voting
Our top story today is undoubtedly
the results of the parliamentary
elections and the ongoing coali-
tion talks. Two new parties, the
People’s Party and the Centre Par-
ty, got in, while Bright Future was
wiped out. No one won enough
seats to form a two-party coali-
tion, and none of the three-party
coalition possibilities look very
promising. The Left-Greens tried
to form a four-party left-to-centre
coalition, but the Progressives in-
evitably brought an end to that. So
now we have no idea where things
will go from here. Maybe the In-
dependence Party will lead the
country again. Maybe we should
just hold a lottery or something...
Introducing the sexy Klingon look for '18
In more celebratory news, Björk
has a new album coming out
at the end of November, entitled
‘Utopia.’ She has already put sam-
ples up on her website, and has
allowed for pre-orders through a
number of sources. If you’re the
kind of person who eschews using
mainstream money, Björk will let
you buy her album using crypto-
currency, too. Always on the cut-
ting edge, that one.
We'll always have Smáralind
Two American enterprises that
planted their flags in Iceland have
disappointed us in different ways.
First, Dunkin’ Donuts on Lau-
gavegur has closed only about two
years into operations, because ap-
parently even a fried pastry giant
has a hard time paying the rent
on real estate of such value. We
presume the tourist shop likely
to replace them will not have this
problem. Second, prices on aver-
age went up at Costco, effectively
pulling the rug out from under
the notion that they would pro-
vide real competition for Icelandic
retailers. Was it a deliberate bait-
and-switch? We sure hope not. We
like buying 64-roll packs of toilet
paper for pocket change.
Iceland was rocked by a car accident
Tragedy struck the tiny north Ice-
land island of Hrísey, when a car
with a Polish couple on board
plunged into the fjord, resulting
in their deaths. They both lived in
Iceland. Exacerbating the grief is
the fact that no one exactly knows
why the car missed the ferry they
were clearly heading for and fell
into the water. Whatever the rea-
sons, we cannot imagine the pain
their surviving family members
are going through, and they have
our deepest sympathies.
No more sleeping in bus stops for us
Do you live in the suburbs, like
partying in downtown Reykjavík,
but hate waiting in long lines for a
taxi at the end of the night? Then
2018 is going to be a banner year
for you, as municipal bus com-
pany Strætó announced that next
year buses out of the city will run
late into the night on weekends,
and will run later in general on
workdays. We sincerely hope this
reduces the taxi lines for those of
us who live in the city, and are too
drunk or too tired to walk all the
way home.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 20 — 2017
The house of parliament, in happier times
First
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