Grist profiled in Finnish paper—read all about it 5

These editors have begun to slightly hack.Photo: Tom Clements/Vihrea Lanka Grist recently found itself the focus of a feature story in a Finnish newspaper under the headline “Tässä ei ole mitään hauskaa.” We were briefly flattered, as all those umlauts struck us as quite sophisticated, and we’re pretty much suckers for any outside attention. Until we ran the story through Google Translate, which interpreted the headline thusly: “This is not funny.”

Ouch. Let’s hope something was lost in translation. It continues: “Will climate change laughs? Humor is a can, and sugar, with online magazine Grist may be the Americans to swallow the bitter environment.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Let me back up: Earlier this year, Grist played host to Taina Ahtela, a sharp editor from Vihreä Lanka, a Helsinki-based environmental publication. She spent two months learning about our operations and helping us prepare for the launch of our new site. We tried to answer her questions about the American political landscape; she told us about environmental issues in the land of Nokia and saunas. She blogged about American environmental politics, and then published this story after she went home.

The auto-translated article really is a thing to behold. It references “plasterer 50 cents” and contains this troubling line: “Gristin machine has begun to slightly hack.” It also poses enduring questions such as “So who Gilleran and what Grist?” (We’ve been trying to answer that ourselves.)

So who Gilleran?Photo: Tom Clements/Vihrea Lanka

A few more choice selections:

Facetious pose, boyish Gilleran has been put under the pictures follow: Vanity Fairin ekonumeroa adorn his addition to Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Al Gore. Contribute newspaper group in Figure “21 under 40-years-makers from the” posing Gilleran, including plasterer 50 cents …

… Applause September? Humor.

Gristiä is tituleerattu environmental news in the Daily Show’ksi, which refers to the popular American television satire. Gristin trademarks are the titles of facetious and flippant style, which brings to mind the news about burlesque Onionin network services, and a Finnish newspaper…

… Green consumption is not Gilleran believes in itself no evil. On the contrary, he sees both ekobuumin that humor gateway to a deeper awareness of the environment.

“I’m not particularly excited about the green hair products, kengännauhoista and knows what, but if käskemme moralistic people to be consumed, karkotamme ‘em.”

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