Colour My World

A couple of “colourful” stories from our neighbors east of the Atlantic . . .

Photo by Manuel Flores

Got the Blues

When Sony Pictures filmed The Smurfs in Juzcar, Spain (population 221) earlier this year, it painted every house, shop, and headstone in the village blue. Sony promised to come back and return the village to its original whitewash as soon as filming and publicity were done, but residents are saying, not so fast. They like their blue homes, and so do the tourists. Before the village got the blues, about 300 tourists a year came to visit. This year, that number skyrocketed to 80,000. The additional visitors have been an economic boom and villagers don’t want it to end. They put it to a vote last week, and an overwhelming majority gave a thumbs up to keeping the color. They like the blue hue that’s giving them green back.

Photo by B. Dunnette

Going Green

Residents of Anderslov, Sweden (population 1,700) are going green, but not in a good way. It’s not that they’ve turned to an environmentally friendly way of life; it’s that their hair has turned green. In this nation of blondes, the green-headed residents are not pleased. Officials investigated and found that the water has copper in it—not when it first comes out of the tap but when it sits in a tank, like a water heater, and is used for showers. The problem is worse in new homes where pipes lack coating. Officials are taking a pedantic approach to the problem. They’re advising residents to wash their hair in cold water, or live in older homes.

Read more:

■  Alasdair Fortheringham, Spanish village happy to be left feeling blue by Smurfs, boingboing.com, December 19, 2011.

■  Gareth Finighan, Dodgy copper piping in water supply turns Swedes' hair GREEN, Daily Mail, December 18, 2011.