Молодцы финны

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Wife

And I don't want her to get off my back!


BY WILLIAM R. MATTOX JR.


Wednesday, June 28, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

My kids want me to stay home tonight so that they can play Hop on Pop. But I'm hoping that my wife and I will somehow manage to hop on a plane to Finland instead.

Finland, you see, will play host this weekend to the 11th annual World Championship of Wife-Carrying, a bizarre sports festival held in a country that loves peculiar competitions. (The Finns also hold annual contests in mosquito-killing, sand-skiing, beer-barrel rolling, and "air guitar" playing.)

In the wife-carrying competition, men physically transport their spouses over a grueling 831-foot obstacle course that includes log hurdles, hairpin curves, changing terrain, and a four-foot-deep pool of cold water. Husbands can haul their brides any way they wish--piggyback, fireman's carry, over-the-transom style--but they are severely penalized if they drop their wives at any point.
( Read more... )