Atlantica - 01.03.2002, Qupperneq 12

Funny Old Word: Mayonnaise
If Iceland had a national condiment, it would have to be mayonnaise.
Icelanders apply lavish amounts of this thick creamy dressing to any-
thing that even slightly resembles a sandwich or salad. Never mind its
countless mutations which line the supermarket shelves in various
shades of pink, yellow and beige. The word mayonnaise conjures up the
image of a French delicacy and indeed it was once just that. According
to the Best Foods web site, the chef of the Duke de Richelieu created this
concoction to celebrate the Duke’s victory over the British at Port
Mahon, Minorca, in 1756 (hence the feminine noun meaning ‘of or from
Port Mahon’). This inventive chef had run out of the cream which was
added to eggs to make a sauce, so he substituted olive oil and mayon-
naise was born. German immigrant Richard Hellmann brought the
dressing to the United States when he opened a delicatessen in New
York City in 1905. This mayo later appeared with the famous ‘blue rib-
bon’ on its label. So you see, to relish mayonnaise is certainly an inter-
national pursuit. However, I hope Icelanders don’t take this too far. Let’s
just say that I wouldn’t be surprised to find ‘mayonnaise soup’ on offer
for lunch at the office tomorrow. RM
This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the biggest matches in
chess history, when the mercurial American Bobby Fischer defeated the
Russian Boris Spassky for the World Championship.
This was more than a chess match. Held at an exhibition hall in
Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1972, it was a clash between superpowers at the
height of the cold war. Fischer and Spassky were the pawns in this
geopolitical battle for supremacy.
Thirty years later, the now freakish Fischer, who has since retreated
behind a mask of madness and random paranoid anti-Semitic state-
ments, was brought back to life in the press after it was revealed that an
Internet match between the British grandmaster Nigel Short and a per-
son whom Short thought to be Fischer was a hoax. Short reportedly had
played Fischer over the Internet last year, asking him questions through-
out the match and receiving answers that made Short conclude that his
cyber-opponent was indeed Bobby Fischer.
In a 30-minute phone interview conducted by Icelandic TV personality
Egill Helgason and aired on Skjár Einn, Fischer told Helgason that these
reports of an Internet match were “a lot of bull****”.
“He said he might be willing to come to Iceland and he joked that for a
certain amount of money he would,” Helgason says, “but he doesn’t
play normal chess anymore. He says it’s all pre-arranged.”
Fischer has not played chess publicly since his victorious rematch
against Spassky in Belgrade back in 1992; a match that caused the US
government to issue a warrant for Fischer’s arrest, as Yugoslavia was
then under a UN embargo.
So how did Helgason, whose interview caused quite a stir in the world
of chess, find the mad legend?
“He was testing my limits. You can’t deny that he is extremely paranoid.
I don’t subscribe to his views. But behind it all you can sense his genius.
And you also feel that he has a sense of humour. He is a fascinating per-
son and a fascinating phenomenon.” EW
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Is Bobby Fischer Coming to Iceland?
CHESS
 The former
world champion
interviewed on Icelandic TV.
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