Passengers Gone Wild II

Via the Washington Post, a story about a bunch of Swedish football fans (that's soccer to us 'Mericans), who brawled on board a Malmo Aviation plane. It sounds like the usual hooliganism, with drinking, fighting, refusing to fasten their seat belts, and the like.

Hooligans sounds much less threatening than thugs. With thugs, you'll usually end up in the hospital with a few dozen stitches and one or more limbs in a cast. With hooligans, well, you'll suffer the same fate, but it's because their football team lost, or won, or tied, and not just a random beat-down.

And really - Swedes brawling? It seems to be running against the natural order of things for Swedes to be portrayed as anything but laid-back hipsters from a frosty, remote land, who only want to cover the world with cheap yet stylish furniture and quirky plastic kitchen utensils. It'd be like Raiders fans not beating up the opposing team's fans. And the hot dog vendors. And the kid selling programs. And their mothers.