Being the Nobel Peace Prize

Date:October 26, 2003 / year-entry #109
Tags:non-computer
Orig Link:https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20031026-00/?p=42033
Comments:    12
Summary:For Hallowe'en this year, I'm going to be the Nobel Peace Prize. (I like being things that people would never even think of as a possible Hallowe'en costume. Last year, I was an inter-office envelope. People addressed me from place to place.) I chose the Nobel Peace Prize in part because I'm studying Swedish so...

For Hallowe'en this year, I'm going to be the Nobel Peace Prize. (I like being things that people would never even think of as a possible Hallowe'en costume. Last year, I was an inter-office envelope. People addressed me from place to place.)

I chose the Nobel Peace Prize in part because I'm studying Swedish so I thought it would be fun to be something Swedish. Except that the Nobel Peace Prize is Norwegian! Oh, the horror!

But what's done is done. I already made the medal and have started making the diploma, but I hit a snag: Whose name should be on the Prize?

I could go historical and reproduce the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Jimmy Carter. (He's my favorite of the recent Peace Prize recipients.)

Or I could go surreal and create an imaginary award to be bestowed upon Jennifer Lopez or maybe David Hasselhoff.

Or I could just leave the space blank and invite people to nominate a winner.

My other problem is making the check for SEK 10,000,000. I asked my friend in Sweden what a check looks like and he says he's never seen one. He doesn't know anybody who actually writes checks. The closest I could find is this novelty check but it doesn't look very convincing. (There's no bank name or check number, for example.) So I'm asking you for help. Can somebody describe what a Swedish check looks like?

Comments (12)
  1. Timwi says:
    October 26, 2003 at 6:05 am

    Why do you need a Swedish cheque if the Nobel Peace Prize is actually Norwegian? :)

    I’m sorry I can’t answer your question though.

  2. Andreas Häber says:
    October 26, 2003 at 7:57 am

    Hi Raymond!
    Found some pictures of Norwegian checks for you (thanks google :)):
    http://www.nuug.no/prisen/galleri-2002/sjekken.jpg
    http://www.naturvern.no/hordaland/bilder/busstur/sjekk.jpg
    http://www.nu.no/bilder/busstur/bergen/sjekk.jpg
    http://nrc.kvalito.no/grafikk/eldrid091002.jpg
    http://www.ssrs.se/2002/Bilder2002/sthlmsmassan02/check.jpg (Swedish)
    http://www.lth.se/for_skolor/teknik8/teknik8_01.html
    http://www.ssrs.se/2002/Bilder2002/simp_oddfellow.jpg

    Also a suggestion for the name on the check is Shirin Ebadi, since she’s the Nobel Peace Price Winner of 2003. But maybe it would be funnier to have Mickey Mouse on the check or someone like that :-)

  3. Deadprogrammer says:
    October 26, 2003 at 11:28 am

    Here’s a theme song for you:
    http://musiclub.web.cern.ch/MusiClub/bands/cernettes/songs/nobel.html

  4. Raymond Chen says:
    October 26, 2003 at 11:47 am

    Although the Nobel Peace Prize is run by a Norwegian committee, the cash prize comes from The Nobel Foundation, which is Swedish, and the payment is in the form of Swedish Kronor.

    Thanks for the links. I had found only one on my own so I wasn’t sure if it was for real, but having pictures of several I feel more confident that I can put together something reasonably authentic. (As authentic as a novelty check ever is.)

    I feel better knowing that I got it right, even if nobody else can tell the difference. (I’m even careful to forge the signatures on the diploma "correctly".)

  5. Bruce says:
    October 27, 2003 at 7:07 am

    You could always go as a nomination for George Bush….

  6. Bruce says:
    October 27, 2003 at 7:07 am

    You could always go as a nomination for George Bush.

  7. MilesArcher says:
    October 27, 2003 at 1:37 pm

    Or if you want it to be scary, Sadam

  8. Marcus Classon says:
    October 28, 2003 at 2:01 am

    The reason no-one (almost) in Sweden can give You a good pic of a check is that this old-style-payment where abandoned several years ago. I’m sure some old folks still keep it somewhere. This can be troblesome, I’ve noticed where travelling abroad and hiring apartments as they alwas wants a checkdeposit…

  9. Michael C. says:
    October 28, 2003 at 4:57 am

    You could go both scary (ala Saddam) and Realistic (ala Shirin Ebadi) at the same time: Yasser Arafat!

    …don’t hurt me…

    :D

  10. Duncan says:
    October 29, 2003 at 9:16 am

    I have some code for validation of Scandinavian bank account numbers if that helps – the check will not look any more realistic but at least you will be able to say that the bank account number and sort code combination are valid…..

    You multiple the first 11 digits of the account number by the weights 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0 then MOD the result by 11. The account number is valid if the last digit of that result is the last digit of the bank account number….simple, eh?

  11. C-J Berg says:
    October 29, 2003 at 3:18 pm

    Here’s a picture of an original check from 1962:

    http://www.nobel.se/nobel/nobel-foundation/history/lemmel/

  12. The Old New Thing says:
    October 23, 2006 at 10:00 am

    A discarded idea.

Comments are closed.


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