FAROE FRIDAY: FISHING FRACAS

This week's bit of Faroese news comes via fishupdate.com, my only source of online fish news. The Faroe Islands have been asked to stop cod fishing by the International Council on the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) until the fish population can rebound.

This presents a conundrum for the Faroese government, because fishing is just about the only industry on the islands. It's also kind of a boring topic to discuss here, so I'll move on.

Bryan Adams pissed on the Faroes! Really! I've got it on good authority that the Canadian crooner played a concert in Torshavn about a week ago and stayed a few extra days to take some pictures. Then, right before he stepped onto a private plane, Mr. Adams dropped trou and had a pee on the grass by the runway. Someone snapped a picture, and linking to it will apparently cause some Faroese photographer to threaten you.

I know about this because of a third piece of Faroese news: the return of Faroe Man! As some of you may know, Mr. Man is my inside source on the islands, but he's been AWOL since December. But after much pestering and a citation in an ABC News story, he's back, and better than ever. Nice to see you again, Faroe Man.

This week's Faroe photos are of the village of Sumba. The top photo was uploaded to a Faroe Islands Facebook group by this guy. I don't know anything about him. But he may live on the Faroes. The lower picture comes from faroeislands.dk. They're a great online resource.

But about Sumba. It's the southernmost village on the Faroes and about 250 people live there. It was one of the more isolated villages on the islands until a tunnel blasted through a mountain connected it to the larger road system. There may have been a village on the site since the 7th century AD. That, my friends, is old.