Priviliged Information.

Sometimes I get bored during the long hours between washing the dinner dishes and going for a shower at around midnight, and then I have to find something interesting to do. One of tonight’s options was to Google Cities north of the Arctic Circle, and you know what I found out?

The Arctic Circle isn’t fixed. It varies, apparently, on a 40,000 year cycle, and at the moment it’s moving north at the rate of 49ft per year. So imagine if you lived in a house with walls less than 49ft long and whose southern extremity was sitting precisely on the Arctic Circle. Next year you could have postcards printed with a picture of palm trees on the front and a message on the reverse which says:

We don’t live in the Arctic any more, so now you can come visit us.

And you could send them to all your friends who live in more hospitable latitudes, and they would reply:

‘Did you move?’

And you could reply back:

‘No, the Arctic did.’

And then they’d all think you’d been touched by the midnight sun and would be sure to keep their distance. But you’d know different and could scoff at their ignorance, as do I.

Oh, and the biggest city north of the Arctic Circle is Murmansk (which is in Russia, in case you didn’t know.) I suppose it’s a distinction of sorts, but I should think the people who live there must get a bit grouchy in December.