Wow! That's like just about every date I've ever been on.

I was in a restaurant on Wednesday and there was a bored couple there. Before going to the table, they sat on a sofa in the bar area. He read a paper, she looked bored and tried, unsuccessfully, to start a couple of conversations with him. The meal wasn't any more successful - what conversation there was was stilted and monotone, ending in murmur.

Some of those couples appeared to be Finnish. I've never seen pictures of Finns having fun. Even a 60 Minutes story on the Finnish obsession with the Tango showed them with the same expression no matter what they were doing, be it riding the train or dancing cheek to cheek.

cool photos... but gaaaah that slate site is both an eyesore and suffers bandwidth bloat.

Do you know, tommasz, my late ex-mother-in-law was Finnish, and I hardly ever saw her smile, either.

Unique idea for a series of photos, though.

I always feel a little bit sad seeing couples like that. No interaction, no conversation, no nuthin'.

God, that first photo looks how I imagine I will in about 40 years.