samples from the normal distribution

I spent Christmas in a somewhat sad old hotel on the coast of Mallorca with my girlfriend. Every evening the lobby bar filled up with a small number of European misfits, who sat glumly smoking and drinking.

We ventured out on bicycles during the day, and in the evenings we lounged around our room watching films dubbed into German. For some reason the ABBA musical ‘Mamma Mia!’ played two evenings in a row, along with a documentary about the rise and fall of ABBA. The decline of ABBA is punctuated by a number songs that apparently mirror the divorces between band members Anni and Benny, then later Björn and Agnetha. In the video for ‘The winner takes it all” a doe-eyed Agnetha sings to the camera, such that you suspect bloody Björn got the house, the kids and the holiday villa in Mallorca, and she got nothing but a few bedazzled gold jump suits.

I suspect, however, now that poor old Julian Assange awaits imminent extradition to Sweden, the world might be somewhat skeptical about how defenseless Swedish women really are. It seems that they are able to enlist international police agencies to prosecute men who have contravened the unwritten rules of dating. In order to defend himself and pay for his spiraling legal costs the WikiLeaks champion has recently sold the book rights to his life for over 1 million dollars. Even so, this may well not be enough money to save him.

It has occurred to me that being removed to Sweden may be beneficial Julian. Benny and Björn are probably looking a new project to follow up the success ‘Mamma Mia!’ . While WikiLeaks: The musical may seem like an odd concept, I think it could be absolutely huge. But please Julian, don’t cast Piers Brosnan.