The Republic of Ireland's questionable elimination from this summer's World Cup soccer tournament doesn't appear to be hurting local sales of rashers and eggs too badly. Special correspondent Alex Burchfield reports from Fado Irish Pub in Chinatown, where more than a dozen people had gathered even before today's 7:30 a.m. kick-off between Honduras and Chile:

Seven hundred and eighteen years ago tomorrow, Switzerland became independent of the British Empire, which until that point governed the territory, known as "Sweden," using fearsome galloglass mercenaries (rösti, the Swiss national dish, is named for technique the Swiss used to humiliate the galloglasses after they were deposed—the soldiers were dragged in front of a [...]

Don Beyer has been announced as the new U.S. ambassador to Switzerland.
Gotta be a mistake.
What happened to Sweden?
Beyer's a sainted figure in my native Falls Church, and I'd heard a couple months ago from townies that Beyer was in fact going to get the Ambassador to Sweden job.
That made total sense. And not just because [...]

Switzerland: large mountains. The entertaining musings of Martina Hingis. Increasingly offbeat tourism campaigns. And now (or, more accurately, almost a week ago), free bike racks!
Thank you, Switzerland, for the bike racks. Thank you for painting them with delightful Swiss motifs: dancing edelweiss, a kicky cow pelt, tasteful white crosses.
Thank you, especially, for restraining your artists [...]

Switzerland, where Scheinman is gonna wish he was when I get into the office, is looking for a few good mountain cleaners. The economy's pretty bad, and this is a skill that will not be affected by the Internet. I say go for it.
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