Flea market trip - again!

We went today for - surprise, surprise! - a flea market trip. We went to Salo that's about half an hour away from Turku by train. There are two flea markets in Salo and they are not especially good, but we knew that on Thursdays the town marketplace would be full of flea market sellers. They were in abundance, but we didn't find much. I bought some silly old children's books - I'll have to write about my fascination towards these later on (and scan some tasty examples) - and a compilation of The Sonics, my favourite band from 1987 or so.

The "official" flea markets were not much, but of course we found something. Elina bought some old baby clothes, some to sell on, from a charity store and I got Kauto some old toy cars, including one Matchbox from early eighties. I was interested in a pair of groovy seventies shoes, but when we left the shop, I forgot them. I also picked up an early nineties edition of "Blind Man with a Pistol" by Chester Himes - it hasn't been translated (if I remember correctly). On the other flea market I found a Lewis Patten paperback that I think I don't already have.

What bugged me was the shirt that the charity store's clerk was wearing said: "America, don't worry, Israel is behind you!" I almost walked out when I saw it. I knew that the charity store is run by a religious association, but this was almost too much. The shirt also had a picture of a fighter plane and the flags of the countries mentioned. If you really want to show you love war and fighting, then pick up a gun and go to Middle East! I was quite pissed off after this - especially when the clerk didn't want to bargain the prices with me (she ended up not selling some cartoons on VHS, because she wouldn't give up for 50 cents). I don't know what's with some of the so called true Christians - they support war, they are largely unfriendly and don't really want to listen to conflicting views, let alone accept them.

I also met a reader of Isku and Pulp with whom I'd had correspondence for quite a while. We'd never met (he recognized me from a photo in Ruudinsavu and came to shake hands) and it was nice to meet someone so enthusiastic about my efforts. It turned out, though, that he hadn't liked Isku's latest issue, because it had contained so much cursing and foul language. I didn't even notice anything when I read the stories. The guy admitted that of course it's a matter of personal opinion, but I know it's a big issue to some people.

I wonder why. Foul language never hurt anybody. It's weird you can kill tons of people in a story, but if there's one "shit" or "fuck", they shout "it's not right!" Same goes for sex. People have sex, goddamit! This was a big issue in an e-mail group I'm in when there was a discussion about Deadwood, the new HBO Western show that's targeted mainly for the urban audience of my age. No wonder there's cursing in it - they are used to it. The people on the list were pissed off - to put it mildly. I haven't yet seen an episode of Deadwood (it's been bought to be shown here, but I don't know when it will air), but I know one thing: I won't be pissed. Chances are I won't even notice anything.