Inside this week | If only they listened to John

Do Danes celebrate Valentine’s Day? Or at least, do the children (see our list of the multitudes of events you can entertain them with this winter half-term) send each other secret cards? Being Denmark, you could imagine some annoying new-ager ensuring they all get the same number. Because love’s fair isn’t it?

On any other day, an unsigned amorous card would be handed over to the police. While I can’t remember getting any cards myself (see page G9 of the InOut section for things to do on Valentine’s Day), it’s not like I haven’t had my fair share of pests. Many of them started with a charity dance (guilt-tripped into obliging by other women I was hoping to impress), but then again, as a young man, all I needed was a charity glance to presume somebody wanted to have my babies. 

Not sure I’ve ever taken somebody out for a date on Valentine’s either (read the female take on this dilemma). But if I did, and wanted to pretend I was somebody completely different just to get her drunk and into bed – not too drunk though – I might consider taking her to Cirque de Soleil’s Alegria at Forum (see page G3 of the InOut section for details). 

It’s quite an impressive venue – all you have to do is keep on stoking the fire that lit up inside her the moment she walked in.

Should everything go to plan and you return together to your flat, remember to ensure you’ve got plenty of books (see page G8 of the InOut section for our new column, Books Corner, which every month, thanks to Books & Company in Hellerup, will fill you in on the latest English-language releases), just in case they took film director John Waters’ advice to heart – I seem to remember it on Facebook.  

“If you go home with somebody, and they don’t have books, don’t f**k ‘em!” Waters said to briefly lift us all out of the doldrums of the celeb-obsessed, superficial hell we frequent to imagine a world where women get turned on by Byron and Keats. Funnily enough, I’ve always applied the same rationale to women who own a copy of Pink Flamingos. (Or I would if I wasn’t a man.) 

So here’s hoping Valentine’s works out for you. Just remembering it is half the battle. Do just enough to get by, but don’t overdo it if you forsee the possibility of a sulky comparison in the future. 




  • Chinese wind turbine companies sign pact to end race-to-the-bottom price war

    Chinese wind turbine companies sign pact to end race-to-the-bottom price war

    China’s 12 leading wind turbine makers have signed a pact to end a domestic price war that has seen turbines sold at below cost price in a race to corner the market and which has compromised quality and earnings in the sector.

  • Watch Novo Nordisk’s billion-kroner musical TV ad for Wegovy

    Watch Novo Nordisk’s billion-kroner musical TV ad for Wegovy

    Novo Nordisk’s TV commercial for the slimming drug Wegovy has been shown roughly 32,000 times and reached 8.8 billion US viewers since June.

  • Retention is the new attraction

    Retention is the new attraction

    Many people every year choose to move to Denmark and Denmark in turn spends a lot of money to attract and retain this international talent. Are they staying though? If they leave, do they go home or elsewhere? Looking at raw figures, we can see that Denmark is gradually becoming more international but not everyone is staying. 

  • Defence Minister: Great international interest in Danish military technology

    Defence Minister: Great international interest in Danish military technology

    Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen attended the Association of the Unites States Army’s annual expo in Washington DC from 14 to 16 October, together with some 20 Danish leading defence companies, where he says Danish drone technology attracted significant attention.

  • Doctors request opioids in smaller packs as over-prescription wakes abuse concerns

    Doctors request opioids in smaller packs as over-prescription wakes abuse concerns

    Doctors, pharmacies and politicians have voiced concern that the pharmaceutical industry’s inability to supply opioid prescriptions in smaller packets, and the resulting over-prescription of addictive morphine pills, could spur levels of opioid abuse in Denmark.

  • Housing in Copenhagen – it runs in the family

    Housing in Copenhagen – it runs in the family

    Residents of cooperative housing associations in Copenhagen and in Frederiksberg distribute vacant housing to their own family members to a large extent. More than one in six residents have either parents, siblings, adult children or other close family living in the same cooperative housing association.


  • Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    On Friday 27 and Saturday 28 of September, The Copenhagen Post will be at International Citizen Days in Øksnehallen on Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Admission is free and thousands of internationals are expected to attend

  • Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Chisom Udeze, the founder of Diversify – a global organization that works at the intersection of inclusion, democracy, freedom, climate sustainability, justice, and belonging – shares how struggling to find a community in Norway motivated her to build a Nordic-wide professional network. We also hear from Dr. Poornima Luthra, Associate Professor at CBS, about how to address bias in the workplace.

  • Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality, home to Denmark’s largest infrastructure project – the Fehmarnbelt tunnel connection to Germany – has launched a new jobseeker support package for the accompanying partners of international employees in the area. The job-to-partner package offers free tailored sessions on finding a job and starting a personal business.