Swedish Meatballs

Wow, talk about blog post explosion today. I must be crazy busy at work! Anyway, 'Pockets and I not-so-recently took up residence in a little section of Oakland that we like for many reasons, but one of the weird blessings/curses of our neighborhood is that we're about a five-minute drive from Ikea. This is a blessing because when we suddenly decide we should keep our pasta in tall air-tight, glass jars instead of the broke-ass boxes pasta comes in we can cruise on down to Ikea, grab a couple of hot dogs from the Ikea restaurant, and pick up said jars--maybe a stop at Trader Joe's, and still, we're back in time to watch Runway.

But proximity to Ikea is a curse because the convenience of it is slowly killing us. I wanted a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge to hang in our bedroom (needless trivia about us: the first time we met we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to go to a party at a loft in DUMBO! ZOMG! Talk about capturing the wayward, early-20-something zeitgeist...)--anyway, like I was saying, I wanted a picture of the Bridge to put in our bedroom, and when I saw a nice one, framed, and affordably priced at Ikea, I bought it. Didn't think twice, and now I look at it, and I realize not only did I commit a crime against real art and sound principles of interior design, I've gotten sucked into the consumerist, domestic semi-consciousness Keanu Reeves warned me about. Do I deserve to blog still? Will the Internet forgive me?

Anyway, this was all a round-about way of saying that Ikea will either kill us all or put together a mercenary army of Viking carpenters, a ragtag bunch who'll be our only hope against the coming Chinese domination that I have warned against in these pages time and again. No, no. That's not the point. The point is this is a really interesting article about the founder of Ikea. Did you know he's cheap? He goes to bad restaurants? Drives a 15-year-old Volvo? Put together his Ikea furniture himself? Is worth $15 billion? Started Ikea when he was 17? Used to be a drunk? Probably is still a drunk? And, um, was a Nazi sympathizer? Anyway, fascinating stuff.

Update -- HOLY SHIT! I WAS JUST MAKING A JOKE ABOUT IKEA FIGHTING CHINA, BUT ACCORDING TO THIS SELF-DECLARED FAKE BLOG, WHICH LINKS TO A DEAD REUTERS PAGE (GENERALLY, NOT CONSIDERED A FAKE SOURCE OF NEWS), THE IKEA GUY REALLY DOES WANT TO FIGHT CHINA (AND HE ALSO MAKES IKEA EMPLOYEES WRITE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PAPER). OMFG!?!