The countdown to Dagen H (shorthand for Högertrafikomläggningen) had begun some four years earlier when the Swedish parliament passed the enabling legislation that would impact every Swede down in Swedenville. A commission (Statens Högertrafikkommission) would implement a major re-education program under the guidance of a team of psychologists.
On H Day, Sunday, September 3, 1967, at 1 a.m, all nonessential traffic was banned from roads throughout the country and at exactly 4:50, all remaining vehicles would come to a complete stop then carefully move from the traditional left side of the road to the right and stop again, taking care to avoid vehicles on this side moving to their right. At 5, traffic movement would resume with all drivers now (and forevermore) driving on the right side of the road.
The people of Sweden didn’t really want to switch to the right side of the road. They were perfectly happy of the left (being the liberals they are, perhaps) even though many of them drove vehicles with steering wheels on the left, a contributor to many accidents. And their nearest neighbors, Norway and Finland drove on the right. Five million vehicles crossed those borders every year and had to switch sides in the process.
Perhaps that explains the psychologists and all the commemorative items and the Dagen H logos on everything from milk cartons to underwear. There was even a popular song to celebrate the switch –“Håll dig till höger, Svensson” (‘Keep to the right, Svensson’).
And Svensson and all his or her fellow Swedes kept to the right and still do.
Heading South (Driving on the Right, Of Course)
It’s fortunate that the people of San Marino drive on the right, what with it being the only country with more automobiles than people. Not that there are all that many of either. Nestled high in the Apennine Mountains, the Most Serene Republic of San Marino is the world’s fifth smallest country and one of only three surrounded entirely by another country (Italy).
San Marino was founded as a monastic community by Saint Marinus, a Roman stonemason, on September 3, 301, making it the oldest sovereign state still in existence. It is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with a stable economy, low unemployment, no national debt and a budget surplus. And all those cars.
Infinite Monkeys
Back to Sweden: In Stockholm, the newspaper Expressen gave five stock analysts and a chimpanzee the equivalent of $1,250 each to make as much money as they could on the stock market in one month.
Mats Jonnerhag, publisher of the newsletter Bourse Insight, turned in a nice performance. His stock portfolio gained $130. Not good enough. The stock-picking chimp (who went by the name Ola) saw the value of his portfolio climb by $190 for an easy victory.
While the stock experts carefully assembled their portfolios using a variety of analytical tools, Ola put aside such things as price/earnings ratios, volatility measures and technical factors in favor of darts, which he tossed at the Stockholm Stock Exchange listings.
Naysayers will no doubt bring up the infinite monkey theorem: that an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time could eventually write the works of Shakespeare. Or the lesser quoted corollary that seven monkeys with seven typewriters in seven weeks could write the Republican Party Platform.
In a reported real-life attempt to prove either of these theories, two chimpanzees and an orangutan were put in a room with three typewriters. By the end of just 24 hours, they had written “jid;lwer fivcjfdoske flfjwlsjfpos p3mzds[sk,43l;cv kdid,ewodkdjss;djelldsd kdjhdps ddodlsps psvvspap39djk3^jh& jfioermcjd,ud3$m kidelqqwerty” Even more amazing: They had used exactly 140 characters which they tweeted (using the orangutan’s twitter account). It went viral.
You wouldn’t believe how many monkeys on how many beaches it took to create the stories in Calypso: Stories of the Caribbean. Why not procure a copy and figure it out.
Wretched Richard's Almanac 