AFP: Estonian opera-goer spends night locked in toilet

"It's not the first time that an opera-goer has been locked in the toilet in Tallinn"

Estonia. Your dream vacation.

This must be the first Estonia item in ten years. Those of you who followed this blog's predecessor, Uncle Scoopy's Fun House, back in the mid 90s know that I used to make fun of Estonia almost daily. My jokes no longer apply, but I used to find great humor in a real U.N. country with only a million people and only four movie theaters, one of which only played Disney movies, and another of which got 100% of its content from the co-operative international stewardesses who would sneak out in-flight movies. And this was in Europe! I suppose all that charmingly quaint quality is gone. It's a member of the EU and NATO now and has one of the healthiest economies in Europe, thanks to an onslaught of Scandinavians looking for affordable labor, cheap booze, and low corporate taxes, not to mention plenty of Russian businessmen looking for access to Baltic ports. Those activities generate a lot of wealth relative to Estonia's tiny population, and the Estonians have used the windfall to develop a country universally praised for progressive attitudes toward technological, political and economic reform as well as a high regard for the individual freedom and prosperity of its citizens. It has become a micro-Norway without the welfare state. But it surely was a little slice of comically retro paradise there for a couple of years after it attained independence from the USSR.