I love the fact that Burns answers the phone this way. Subtle jokes like this are the reason why The Simpsons is infinitely rewatchable.

Please drink verification can

“Band” in this context means united. “Bandalag” means the same as “förbund” in Swedish, so yes you’re basically correct.

It’s actually “Bandaríska borgarastríðið”. “Bandaríkin” is our word for the United States, “borgari” means citizen and “stríð” means war. So yes our word for civil war literally translates to “citizens’ war” since all the participants are citizens of the same nation. Hälsningar från en Isländing i Norge

I’m Icelandic and I just learned about this now! To be fair I learned fuck all about pre-20th century US history in school and I’ve basically just puzzled it together through movies and references online.

There’s a great metal album about it, Charlie Griffiths - Tiktaalika

I know “state-funded media” is an ominous word to Americans, but most European countries have their own government broadcaster and news organization, entirely funded through taxes.
Those generally offer high-quality non-biased journalism (of course it’s always based on how authoritarian the government is). The British BBC, the Swedish SVT, the German DW etc. are all publicly owned broadcasting companies.