FAROE FRIDAY: THE GRAB BAG EDITION

Due to many factors, I skipped last week's Faroe Friday feature. And to my utter amazement, someone actually noticed its absence and even seemed to miss it. For almost a year now, I have been under the impression that I was the only person who cared much about this admittedly esoteric feature. But apparently here are two people who care: me, and News Ten's Curtis Bartlett. We're winning converts one reader at a time.

This week's Faroe Islands news comes from UEFA.COM. It seems the Faroe Islands is preparing to build a new, larger national soccer stadium. The country's current facility has been deemed unacceptable for international play. The new stadium will seat about 8,000 people, one day I hope I can be one of them.

I had seen a picture of the what the new stadium will look like on what's probably the island's best online news source. However, I didn't know what it was because, well, I don't read Faroese. By the time the story was written in English, the picture was long gone.

Normally in circumstances like this I would turn to Faroe Man for advice. For several months, he's maintained a blog where he posts Faroese news stories in English. Apart from being a news buff, he's quite proud of his country. News of a new stadium wouldn't have passed him by.

Alas, Faroe Man appears to have vanished into the ether of the Internet. After posting at a furious rate since July, he wrote up a small crime story on December 15th, and hasn't been heard from since.

Faroe Man has offered no explanation for his extended absence. Perhaps the long Faroese winters have stricken him with Seasonal Affective Disorder and he can't bring himself to post anymore. Maybe he's developed relationships with actual human beings and doesn't need cyber friends anymore.

Whatever the reasons, Mr. Man's absence has left a pretty big gap in the Internet's supply of English language news of the Faroes. So please pay a visit to the dormant "Everything About the Faroe Islands" site and leave a comment urging Faroe Man to come out of retirement. You'd be doing me (and apparently Curtis Bartlett) a big favor.