Word: kurring
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...back alleys, mom-and-pop fishmongers and bite-size pubs tap into the charisma of one of Europe's most storied neighborhoods. Indeed, 101 has been the muse for a generation of artists that love to hate Iceland's six-month winters - among them director Baltasar Kormákur, whose film 101 Reykjavík was based on Hallgrímur Helgason's 1996 novel of the same name...
...both celebrating and condemning the nihilistic flag flown by Reykjavík's listless postyouths, Kormákur managed to capture the city's brand of self-deprecating cool before it joined Björk as a cultural export. Today, you won't find too many Icelanders moaning so publicly about their dark, isolated lot in life. But you will find the spots where Hlynur and his friends live out their days of beer, cigarettes and one-night stands. Chief among them is Kaffibarinn, the pub at the fulcrum of the movie's social world, which still challenges its guests...
This week in THE WORLD comes a natural sequel, a report on how a record 3,500,000 Germans are trudging off to spas to take the Kur. The story is called, forgivably enough, This Year in Marienbad...
...last year, Kurgäste, or cure-guests, cast $375 million on the health-giving waters, a 250% increase since 1955. "The great, the rich and the fat still come," says an official of the West German spa association. "But now that our social structure is more egalitarian, the Kur is for everyone...
Indeed, the Kur means more to Germans than treatment for any specific ailment. It assures them sympathy in antiseptic surroundings, connotes that the cure-guest has patriotically worked himself to exhaustion, and allows patients endless opportunity to discuss a favorite topic: food and its effect on the digestive tract. Nearly all spa patrons go on rigorous diets, which make them feel better about overeating the rest of the year. Most treatments seem worse than the ailments they aim to cure. Rising at dawn, the dedicated Kurgast gulps beakers of water whose mineral content-notably sodium chloride, sulphur and iron-makes...