Insinuations...

A drabble in the Scandinavia and the World continuum. Inspired by a posting in the SatW forum (by me) which when I came back and looked at it... I realised, well, there's a story there. Hopefully one particularly British euphemism/idiom is known overseas. If not I'll explain it at the end.

"Hi, guys!" Sister America shrilled, walking up to the Nordic crew with her usual expression of good-natured puppy crossed with California blonde.

"Hi, honey!" said Sister Sweden. Her brother echoed this. Even the Finlands softened slightly and Brother Finland's lips twitched in a very brief smile. Everyone liked Sister America. Her brother was hard work at times – dealing with him had been likened to house-training a not very bright Doberman puppy. But his sister was universally liked.

"Who's your friend?" inquired Denmark. America was not on her own. The person with her was dressed in a blue gingham dress with white collar and puff sleeves. Her hair was done in long ringlets, and a little black terrier trotted at her feet.

"This is one of my best girlfriends from home!" America said, cheerfully. "This is Kansas."(1)

"Hiya, guys!" Kansas said, with a cheerful smile. Introductions were made. After a while, Kansas found herself talking to Brother Sweden. Both were pleasantly surprised to find things in common and were soon totally engrossed.

"Well, yes. Not many people realise Kansas was extensively settled by people from Sweden." she said. "It can get really cold and gloomy in winter, it's a farming state, and people suffer from hemlängtan."

" I suppose that explains the blue dress! But surely the fact it's so flat must be a drawback?" Brother Sweden inquired. "The endless prairie, the open skies..."

"That's part of the reason for the hemlängtan." Kansas said. When the first immigrants looked round, and realised they weren't in Sweden any more."(2)

Brother Denmark looked over and grinned.

"You two are getting on like a house on fire!" he said. "You're pretty much a friend of Dorothy's, right?"

Brother Sweden fumed.

"I really wish people would stop insinuating and jumping to conclusions!" he complained. "You do it all the time and I'm getting really, really, sick of it!"

There was an embarrassed pause. Kansas said, softly:

"Didn't I tell you? My name is Dorothy!"

"Oh..." said Sweden, deflated.

Hoping the humour carries... Judy Garland, who played Dorothy Gale in the film "The Wizard of Oz", is a very big gay icon. It is possibly because of this that a common euphemism in Britain, a coded phrase to say "He is very very gay indeed", is "Oh, he's a friend of Dorothy".

1 It works like this. Brother America gets twenty-five male statse (enough for two football teams and a referee). Sister America gets the other twenty-five. (more than enough to hit the mall with). They haven't decided yet who gets Puerto Rico, although Guam and Guantanamero (the USA's toe-hold in Cuba) are his.

2 hemlängtan : the state of mind any Swede can get into when exiled from Sweden. It makes normal homesickness feel like a minor niggle.