Three more weird things about Denmark
Now that I know we're leaving relatively soon'ish (though perhaps coming back again in a year), I feel like I need to fit in all of my observations about Denmark post-haste. So here are three weird things about Denmark:
You can't buy a baseball bat in Denmark without a license establishing you as a member of a legitimate baseball team. This might make little sense until you realize there aren't very many people who play baseball in Denmark, and yet there were evidently a lot of bats being sold until they passed the law. Hmm, I wonder what people were doing with them... in a country where you can't buy guns... However, I know a guy who knows a guy who will sell you one under the counter. I've known about this outlaw baseball bat situation for a while, but I don't believe I've written about until now. I didn't want to draw suspicion.
Most banks will allows you to overdraft your checking account to an astonishing amount with no service charge or penalty. We recently found this out when we had to front some money for conference expenses, etc. We got a very pleasant letter from our bank saying that they'd like us to call and let them know when we expected to pay the balance back. But in the meantime, we were free to overcharge up to the equivalent of about $4000. After that, they'd start charging us interest: .12%. Hah! My US bank charges me $22 per whack, even if I overdraft by a nickel.
You have to pay a TV tax over here. The money goes to support the national TV service, same as the BBC in England. Even though I don't quite like the idea of paying a tax on my television after I've already bought it, I do like the commonsense approach to funding public television. Evidently, however, you can also simply refuse to let the TV guy in when he comes to check. If he can't see the TV, he can't charge you the tax.
Denmark is weird.
You can't buy a baseball bat in Denmark without a license establishing you as a member of a legitimate baseball team. This might make little sense until you realize there aren't very many people who play baseball in Denmark, and yet there were evidently a lot of bats being sold until they passed the law. Hmm, I wonder what people were doing with them... in a country where you can't buy guns... However, I know a guy who knows a guy who will sell you one under the counter. I've known about this outlaw baseball bat situation for a while, but I don't believe I've written about until now. I didn't want to draw suspicion.
Most banks will allows you to overdraft your checking account to an astonishing amount with no service charge or penalty. We recently found this out when we had to front some money for conference expenses, etc. We got a very pleasant letter from our bank saying that they'd like us to call and let them know when we expected to pay the balance back. But in the meantime, we were free to overcharge up to the equivalent of about $4000. After that, they'd start charging us interest: .12%. Hah! My US bank charges me $22 per whack, even if I overdraft by a nickel.
You have to pay a TV tax over here. The money goes to support the national TV service, same as the BBC in England. Even though I don't quite like the idea of paying a tax on my television after I've already bought it, I do like the commonsense approach to funding public television. Evidently, however, you can also simply refuse to let the TV guy in when he comes to check. If he can't see the TV, he can't charge you the tax.
Denmark is weird.
posted by L&D at
1:03 PM
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