Whisky Before Noon

a short story by Stennie O’Bryan

(Thorsteinn Eggertsson)

Alex woke me up early. He was the only man I knew in this English village by the sea, somewhere south-west of London. His brother Gus, whom I worked with in Reykjavik, had lent me his cottage for a couple of weeks. I took it as I needed the vacation. I had never been to England before.

“Hey,” I said, looking at my watch, yawning. “It’s not ...

The American Halibut Fishers at

the Hotel Niagara

The Tobacco-chewing Examiner

Mr. Sigurdur Fr. Einarsson, teacher at Thingeyri,

held for a long time the office of examiner in the

local schools, including the one at Keldudalur in

Dyrafjordur.

Gudmundur Sören Magnusson once told this

tale:

Stiffness in the Neck

Once when Mr. Brynjolfur Thor Brynjolfsson was

director of the branch of the National Bank of

Iceland in Isafjordur, one of the female employees

was complaining about a stiff neck during a coffee

break and kept rubbing her neck. She then ...

Life Experience

Candidates from the West Fjords once shared a

car to travel around the constituency and hold

election rallies. One evening when they got to

Isafjordur Mr. Sighvatur Bjorgvinsson sighed and

said:

"I must confess I’m all...

Priestly Work

Reverend Baldur Vilhelmsson, former parish

priest and vicar at Vatnsfjordur in Isafjardardjup,

once phoned one of his parishioners, Mr. Ari

Sigurjonsson, farmer at Thufur, and began by ...

The Skipper and the Grunts

One time when Lasi kokkur had just arrived on

board a trawler where he had signed on as ship’s

cook, he went straight to the bridge to see the

captain. When Lasi got to the door of the bridge

he asked:

"Which one of you...

Work?

A kinswoman of Mr. Oli Þ. Gudbjartsson from

Bildudalur, former Minister of Justice and longtime

teacher and headmaster at...

In the West Fjords like everywhere

else

The Reverend Baldur from Vatnsfjordur once

chaired a meeting at Reykjanes by Djup. A lady

from some ministry in Reykjavik was present and

treated the locals to a long speech during which

she droned on and on with no end in sight and

the people had no clear idea what ...

Sleepy Fox Cubs

Mr. Sighvatur Grimsson, scholar at Hofdi in

Dyrafjordur, was skilled in the field of medicine

and was often called to people’s sickbeds. One

late autumn he was asked to come to Ingjaldssandur

to attend to a man who had been taken ill ...

Store Credit

Some time ago there lived a crofter named

Gudmundur Jonsson at Ingunnarstaðir in

Geirdalshreppur in the county of Bardastrandarsysla.

He claimed to come from Selbekk in Tungusveit,

and was called Gvendur Selbekk or Mundi the

Carpenter. Gvendur Selbekk lived in ...

Working the Net

This happened some time during the fifties on

board the side trawler Solborg IS 260 from

Isafjordur. Mr. Pall Palsson was the captain and

the catch was abundant that day. The deck was

covered in fish flopping around and the crew was

busy emptying the net and gutting...

Silent Church Choir

Reverend Gunnar Bjornsson, who formerly

tended to the parish at Holt, is very fond of Psalm

no. 333,

Send us now, Father, your Spirit. The

Reverend wanted to have that psalm sung in

nearly every church service, not least

Resurrection in Dyrafjordur

Dr. Olafur Olafsson, former Medical Director of

Health for all of Iceland, would sometimes

substitute for district medical officers in the

country when this became necessary.

One time Dr. Olafur filled in ...

Human Habitation.

He said that he knew of an

old lady who lived in a single room in a small

basement in town. This he said was what was

provided by the moderates who at the same time

pretended to be leaders in the fight for the

working classes and protectors of ...

Housing Issues

The writer Mr. Gudmundur Gislason Hagalin was

a tireless campaigner for the Democratic Party in

Isafjordur and was quite adept at obtaining votes

for his party in the days when the Democrats had

a great deal of support there, during ...

Lighter Footwear

Once the Reverend Baldur Vilhelmsson at

Vatnsfjörður was complaining about the distances

and bad transportation involved with his parish.

When he had said many bad things about the

roads in the West Fjords and cursed the ...

Straight to Hell

Reverend Jon Olafsson at Holt in Onundarfjordur

was a fine man though sometimes given to

colourful language, as witnessed by many tales on

that subject. One day sheep were being herded

into a cot and Reverend Jon’s aged father was one

of the sheepherders. Two rams ...

Making Conversation

Once the famous cook Lasi kokkur signed on as

ship’s cook on a fishing boat from Hafnarfjörður.

Lasi was known to have a way with words like

many other people from the West Fjords. On his

first day aboard ship he began...

Good Comeback

Mr. Haflidi Magnusson, folk artist from Bildudalur

in Arnarfjordur has been a regular visitor to the

swimming pool at Selfoss since he moved to that

town. Other regulars in one of the hot tubs at the

pool somehow had gotten the idea that Haflidi

was a great ladies’ man and they tended to make

jokes on that ...

Short and succinct

The legendary Reverend Baldur Vilhelmsson of

Vatnsfjordur at Djup is known for preaching

sermons that are to the point and sharply

delivered. Church services and funerals conducted

by the old Reverend were ...

Buying a Hotel

When Mr. Einar Sigurdsson of the Westman

Islands, called Rich Einar, retired from managing

the fish freezing plant at Flateyri in 1960, Mr. Rafn

A. Petursson from Skagafjordur bought the plant’s

operations, fixtures and real estate. Rafn was

educated as a shipbuilder and ...

Worldly Belongings

Mr. Bodvar Sveinbjornsson, now deceased, and

Mr. Saemundur Areliusson were shrimp fishing

magnates that wielded considerable influence in

their field in the heyday of fishing and processing

of shrimp in Isafjordur.

This branch of fishing was usually ...

The Next Level of Existence

The Reverend Jonmundur Halldorsson(1874-1954)

was vicar of the parish at Stadur in Grunnavik at

Jokulfirdir from the year 1918 until the day he died. The

Reverend was a very big, strong, and hard-working man.

He was president of the municipal council and member

of the county administrative board of Grunnavik for

decades and often visited neighbouring parishes to

conduct ...

3-07-07

I have been pondering on the questions and concerns that most client's ask, it came to me to share about Foundations. At one point I had a diagram that showed the different levels in relationships. By using the analogy of the foundation of a building or a house as a comparison to the spiritual aspect of relationships, we know that without a foundation the house has nothing to stand on. Without a Spiritual foundation a relationship has nothing to stand on.

@ 6-7-06

In the Peace of Stillness of my heart and Soul God give me all that I need to proceed through this day in Joy, Love & Harmony. God Is. IAM.

Can you imagine what that does to our human minds? They kick and scream and want to hold on to their beliefs, pain, fears and sorrows.

I know that many of us are perplexed when we do everything we are taught to do, everything we know to do, and nothing in our lives changes. So many of the calls received deal with that kind of disappointment. For years I had that experience and could not figure it out. 

I was blessed to live in an area where there was a huge choice of teachings, teachers, healers and talented Psychics. I did take advantage of that and got totally involved in growing, healing and learning.

 11-21-09

Having Free Will gives us the appearance or concept of being able to do what we think is right for us in each moment. The operative word and challenge is the word "think," along with the opposite of thinking being feeling. Neither one is going to allow us to listen to that "still small voice within."

@3-38-07

I had an unexpected client come to my home yesterday. She shared her story about her relationship with the man in her life. It was almost an exact parallel to another story I heard about 15 years ago from another client. I will share that story with you.

9-17-08

Once upon a time there was a little girl who thought she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She saw life through rose colored glasses and never for one moment doubted that she wasn't a magical being.

                      by KIMBALL ROUNDY

So, it’s November 8th 2009. 3 years ago, according to all the laws of Science, I should have died. My Brother did, his wife did, but for a number of reasons that I’m not going to get into in this post, God decided to keep me alive…

It was November 8th 2006, my brother, his wife, our friend Mike and myself decided to take one last trip up to Strawberry Reservoir, a high mountain lake that has some of the best fishing in Utah. It was early November and for those of you who don’t live hear generally means that it was COLD! And it was. This was our last opportunity to take a trip up to Strawberry because there was a huge snow storm that was supposed to be rolling in that night, and the lake would likely be beginning to freeze over within a week or two.

"My son Kent," says one, "has made quite a name for himself in the home-building industry. He began as a carpenter, but now owns his own design and construction firm. He's so successful in fact, in the last year he was able to give a good friend a brand new home as a gift."

      -Hospital-Medicare, good morning. How can I assist you? 

      For a while there is total silence. Because of his impediment; a very drawling voice his choice of words is very limited and spoken in a very slow manner. 

 http://www.netsaga.is/media/files/Leaving--sso%281%29.mp3

  The ball was amusing, eventful and fateful, where some met their mates for life, incl. Loki who met the prettiest creature he´d ever seen.

 http://www.netsaga.is/media/files/Leaving08.mp3

    "I had been an A-student all my compulsery years in school and I was third from the top of my class on the final tests, Greta Pals and Matti Kjartans were ahead of me. I along with my best friend, Guy decided to attend a senior-high school (Menntaskoli) at Laugarvatn, which is a tiny village up in the country, along with a few of our schoolmates; Svenni, Boi, Biddi, Mummi, Kristin and Hildur. 

 http://www.netsaga.is/media/files/DestinyDesperation.mp3

    Just as every wise human is aware of we're headed for a very long journey via six Heavens, when we'll die, before reaching the seventh Heaven, where we'll get the long desired diffusion with the pantheon, the nature viz.    

 

http://www.netsaga.is/media/files/Ssomagicjust%20suddenly.mp3

Loki Fownis happens to be the perfect kisser of women!

    The Savings Bank in Keflavik, which was founded in 1907 used to be the town´s only financial establishment for a long time and had only been in two places until it started business on the Sudurgata nr. 6.   Into the new building, which happens to be very elegant the bank had moved on June 17 1955, which happens to be the day of Jon´s birth. When this story´s hero is compelled to go get his first job a few more banks have been founded in the territory; Útvegsbanki (fisheries-) , Verslunarbanki (commerce-), Samvinnubanki (co-op-) and Landsbanki (national-), but still The Savings Bank is by far the biggest in town.

     Whilst he collects enough courage for the task he´s going to undertake, he strolls into the town´s Flower-Garden, in which the vegetation has already started to get a few of the summer´s colours now in March, which gives high hopes for a great summer ahead.

Hard Feelings

 Short Story Valentine Mystery by Barbara D'Amato

Free online romance short stories - Crime Meets Love

The moaning grew louder, emitting eerily from the forest walls.  Ti wasn't so certain anymore that the noise was the sound of lovers, as the area was a cove for kindling romance.  Had he not known better, he would have sworn the sound was the sound of a ghost!

The graveyard lay in the misted distance where one walks, visible only to Kayla who watches through The Lace Curtain....

The graveyard lay in the misted distance.  Kayla fingered the dingy lace curtain with high anticipation of catching a glimpse of the apparition that had appeared nightly for the last thirty days.

It had began on the first of the month.  This month.  This unusually hot and blustery October month.

Unrequited love gets even...

Anna smoothed her hands over the lace of the beautiful wedding gown. She had purchased it for a song.  Imagine, a $6,000 gown for one-tenth the price!   And the shoppe owner had been most urgent in completing the sale, as if Anna might have changed her mind.

The city lay shrouded in the distance, looming like a fragile virgin clothed in white. The year was 2785.

Vincent’s keen eyesight cut through the fog, singeing over the towering steel buildings like a guided laser. He was searching for something lost, something that he would probably never reclaim.

"Master, are we going to be out in this nasty stuff much longer?"

Two men say DNA will prove that the frozen creature is legendary beast

by Kevin Hammonds

One February evening in North Chicago, seven well-dressed men were found riddled with bullets inside the S.M.C Cartage Co. garage. They had been lined up against a wall, with their backs to their executioners and shot to death.

Any one interested in having a unique dining experience.

You can have breakfast, lunch, dinner or cocktail or invite your boss for a meeting while enjoying your meal.

50 meters above ground dining event arranged by a professional event arranger of Benji Fun company.

It provides 22 seating complete with Chef, server, musician and you can select your own location without limitation.

Guarantee safety with the hoisting crane which can accommodate the whole band of musician, or making an automobile presentation to your customers.
This restaurant is in Belgium .

by Thomas Hardy [1840-1928]

Many years ago, when oak trees now past their prime were about as large as elderly gentlemen's walking sticks, there lived in Wessex a yeoman's son, whose name was Hubert. He was about fourteen years of age, and was as remarkable for his candor and lightness of heart as for his physical courage, of which, indeed, he was a little vain.

One cold Christmas Eve his father, having no other help at hand, sent him on an important errand to a small town several miles from home. He travelled on horseback, and was detained by the business till a late hour in the evening. At last, however, it was completed; he returned to the inn, the horse was saddled, and he started on his way. His journey homeward lay through the Vale of Blackmore, a fertile but somewhat lonely district, with heavy clay roads and crooked lanes. In those days, too, a great part of it was thickly wooded.

by E.W. Count

E.W. Count is the author of COP TALK: TRUE DETECTIVE STORIES FROM THE NYPD (Pocket Books), and is the moderator of Prodigy's online interest group, Cops & Crime. She is working on her third book about NYPD detectives.

When I met retired Mafia Detective Roland Cadieux, I couldn't tell a Gambino from a Genovese. Along with a few other NYPD mob mavens I interviewed, Cadieux made the names, the families, spring to life, in all their rich, scheming brutality.

by Damon Runyon [1884-1946]

Now one time it comes on Christmas, and in fact it is the evening before Christmas, and I am in Good Time Charley Bernstein's little speakeasy in West Forty-seventh Street, wishing Charley a Merry Christmas and having a few hot Tom and Jerrys with him.

This hot Tom and Jerry is an old time drink that is once used by one and all in this country to celebrate Christmas with, and in fact it is once so popular that many people think Christmas is invented only to furnish an excuse for hot Tom and Jerry, although of course this is by no means true.

 by Dorothy Francis

The hit man was just following orders. Wasn't he?

I reached into my coat pocket for my inhaler and took a deep whiff. When I'm tense, my asthma kicks up. Tonight Roxie's apartment (my apartment since I'm paying the tab) seemed hot and airless. It's in a seedy part of town and it doesn't match her blonde slenderness, but it's the best I can afford on a broker's income without arousing Martha's suspicion.

by Jonathan Kellerman

Mashed spaghetti. Some things you could never prepare for.

It wasn't as if she and Doug were mega-yuppies but they both liked their pasta al dente and they both liked to sleep late.

Then along came Zoe, God bless her.

The sculptress.

Karen smiled as Zoe plunged her tiny hands into the sticky, cheesy mound. Three peas sat on top like tiny bits of topiary. The peas promptly rolled off the high chair and landed on the restaurant floor. Zoe looked down and cracked up. Then she pointed and began to fuss.

"Eh-eh! Eh-eh!"

by Rose Deshaw

Remember when we were kids with a bagful of those awful- tasting little hearts? The ones with the words on them like 'True Love,' or 'You're Cute,' stuff like that? And your girlfriends would all dare you to give one to Danny or Johnny or whoever it was you were all weak-kneed over that year?

And you knew when you grew up that love would find you and it would be wonderful and change your life.

And then it doesn't happen. Even when you wait and wait and everything seems right.

Take Jerry Martin. This year's flavor? I don't know. Six months ago when those deep blue eyes looked over at me across a crowded seminar, music started playing.

by Bill Pronzini

Kerry sprang her little surprise on me the week before Christmas. And the worst thing about it was, I was no longer fat. The forty-pound bowlful of jelly that had once hung over my belt was long gone.

"That doesn't matter," she said. "You can wear a pillow."

"Why me?" I said.

"They made me entertainment chairperson, for one thing. And for another, you're the biggest and jolliest man I know."

"Ho, ho, ho," I said sourly.