[Culturechat] Oh Boy! What a weekend!

[Hal Taussig]

Vance's account of the snuff contest in Dallenwil reminds me of a festival 
I attended in nearby Wolfenschiessen in 1976--our first full year in 
operation. I went with a small covey of Untourists when part of our 
orientation was an escorted trip to a festival. (This practice still 
continues in a modified form.) The festival featured a log-sawing 
contest---a sawdust covered "arena" in which about four sawhorses were 
placed, a log about ten foot long and one foot in diameter on each 
sawhorse. A contestant on one end of the log competed only with the guy on 
the other end.  They sawed the log twice, exchanging ends after the first 
cutting was complete.The one who finished the second cutting first was kept 
in the competition, the one who finished last was eliminated. Now, as you 
might imagine, log-sawing isn't exactly a spectator sport. But for me one 
particular contest was spell-binding. One of our clients was a recent 
graduate of Westpoint, a big, athletic guy--who asked us if he could 
participate in the contest. We approached the organizers who consented 
readily to his being a contestant. When his turn came up he was paired with 
a grey-haired man who smoked a pipe. (I think I remember this pipe 
remaining in his mouth for the entire contest.) The Westpoint guy counted 
on his strength, the Swiss man seemed to rely on his equanimity. Half way 
through the first log, our American was far ahead. During the sawing of the 
last half of the first  log, the American's pace began to slow. What had 
seemed like a slow pace seemed less slow, though actually the pace remained 
absolutely unchanged. Our guy finished ahead of the Swiss guy--but not by 
much--on the first cut.. And you've guessed it. During the sawing of the 
second half, the young athlete  tried to keep up by simply adding muscle, 
pushing the saw harder and harder, at first just to keep up with 
his  opponent> His very strength made his it begin to buckle and then to 
jam on him. The Swiss  man won handily. And the Westpoint guy told me 
afterward, "I was so tired, I wanted--so badly-- to quit, but seeing that 
my competition was an old man, I was ashamed to do so." There are probably 
several morals in the story, but the point I'm making is the same one Vance 
made. The Swiss have a myriad of  fascinating aspects to their culture, 
including a lot of weird contests contests. In a recent consultation I had 
with the editor of "Welcome to Switzerland, " the calendar of events which 
Swiss Untourists receive the day they arrive we mutually agreed that a 
special emphasis on uniquely Swiss events--only somewhat less odd than 
snuff-contests.

At 04:53 PM 8/18/03 +0200, VCR wrote:
>Things are jumping in The Heartland, if this weekend's activities are any 
>indication.
>
>1. In Dallenwill near Stans, there was a snuff sniffing contest. Fifty 
>four men and women took part in seeing who could get the most snuff up one 
>or both nostrils. Some used tricks such as Vaseline up the nose to hold 
>the snuff while others just went au natural. It seems that there are snuff 
>clubs all over. The winners were a husband wife team. Don't you know that 
>there must be a lot of sneezing in that household?
>
>2. In Luzern, 291 people of ages between 11 and 70 swam from the Richard 
>Wagner Museum across the lake to the public beach.
>
>3. Last, and perhaps most unusual, two artists adorned 124 "models" (many 
>recruited from the local beaches in Luzern) with coats of abstract body 
>paint designs. The models were then arranged to form a Picasso like 
>painting. These women were all topless but did wear underwear below. From 
>the picture in the paper, body paint will never replace bras.
>
>
>--
>Vance Roy gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
>http://homepage.mac.com/fredch
>Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.
>      ---General George Patton
>
>
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