Iceland

The Embassy of Iceland is compelled to write to you about the Oct. 5 Andy Rooney column. We have received angry letters and telephone calls about this column from many Americans familiar with Iceland and from some of the 20,000 Icelanders living in the Philadelphia area and elsewhere in the United States. Mr. Rooney admits at the outset he writes from an experience of spending only one hour and 40 minutes at an airport in Iceland between flights, and I hope your many readers unfamiliar with Iceland will read the article with that in mind.

Here, on a thin rib of black volcanic rock jutting above a grassy plain, the world's oldest surviving legislature was born. Iceland's early citizens also unwittingly made a suggestion to other democracies that sadly hasn't been taken up: The parliament, or Althing, met outside. It undoubtedly guaranteed short speeches in the unpredictable Icelandic weather. The establishment of the Althing in 930 made Iceland the first republic north of the Alps. Although parliament now meets about 40 miles to the west in Reykjavik, the ancient speaker's rock has survived the centuries and is still used when lawmakers return here once a year.

When Council Rock basketball coach Dennis Matika travels to a game at the school, he drives a car. After a game, Matika is the last one out and usually heads home - either alone or with his wife. When the team wins or loses, the positive or negative feeling is experienced by the players and coaches - and not necessarily the entire school district. All that is contrary to the way basketball is in Grindavik, Iceland, where Matika spent last season coaching four men's basketball clubs while on a sabbatical leave from Council Rock.

While everyone else focuses on what's going to happen to actor David Caruso, the producers of "NYPD Blue" have to figure out what to do with Detective John Kelly. They could get Hong Kong action director John Woo to work the season's fourth episode and have him die in a maelstrom of shrapnel while trying to stop the Zodiac killer. Or, if Steve Bochco and his writers need more inspiration, they could look at how past shows have handled the departure of important cast members: SHANNEN DOHERTY, "Beverly Hills 90210.

Quiet-spoken and doe-eyed Rod Coronado, wanted in two countries for his anti-whaling activities, fiddled absent-mindedly with a rope bracelet yesterday as he described, in militarily precise detail, exactly what it took to cripple Iceland's whaling industry last weekend: A couple of monkey wrenches and a cursory knowledge of which plug to pull. "It was easy," the lanky, dark-haired 20-year-old said. "And no one got hurt. It was an efficient, professional operation that dealt a devastating blow to Iceland's illegal whalers.

The U.S. secretary of state and Soviet foreign minister met here yesterday in an effort to repair their nations' damaged relations in the wake of the Iceland summit, with no immediate evidence of progress. The three-hour meeting between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze was a "serious discussion on how to build on the full agenda discussed at Reykjavik," U.S. State Department spokesman Charles Redman said yesterday. Shultz and Shevardnadze agreed to set up a special "working group" of lower-level officials from both sides to work last night on outstanding problems, Redman said.

With less than three weeks left to go before congressional elections, the facts about the Iceland summit are being buried under tons of campaign rhetoric. President Reagan, with ballot-time hyperbole, has charged unfairly that "liberals" are out to "chop up" his Star Wars missile defense program, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is pitching his Iceland postmortems as much to American and European voters as to his captive Soviet audience. What's important to remember is that it's not just "liberals" but Americans of all persuasions who are trying to weigh the gains and losses of Reykjavik.

Council Rock coach Dennis Matika spent last year on sabbatical in Iceland, where he coached a club team, and he says he has learned from the experience. "Working with a different level of athlete, working with what is their semi-pro-type athlete, being on national TV, being in big games night after night, having a shot clock, there were a lot of things that I was able to try that maybe I was afraid to do in the past at Council Rock," Matika said. "Hopefully, that'll be something that'll just help me grow as a coach.

MIAMI - Two skydivers died during weekend jumps at a popular Florida, and the co-owner of the facility said Sunday that they did not deploy their main parachutes. Deputies found the bodies of the skydiving instructor and a student, both from Iceland, on Saturday after the two didn't return from a jump with a group, setting off an hours-long air and ground search around the site in Zephyrhills, about 30 miles northeast of Tampa. Pasco County sheriff's authorities identified the victims as instructor Orvar Arnarson, 41, and student Andrimar Pordarson, 25. The men jumped separately, not in tandem.

It's the land of fire and ice, where volcanoes are buried under glaciers and the sky erupts with the changing winds. In this land of contrasts, glacier streams carve their way through lava fields, waterfalls cascade over moss-covered hillsides, and waves crash against the rocky coast. It's the rugged beauty of Iceland and its eerily captivating landscapes that have drawn photographer John Welsh back again and again. "I just fell in love with the place," said Welsh, of Jenkintown, who's been shooting photographs in the Philadelphia area and abroad for 16 years.

MIAMI - Two skydivers died during weekend jumps at a popular Florida, and the co-owner of the facility said Sunday that they did not deploy their main parachutes. Deputies found the bodies of the skydiving instructor and a student, both from Iceland, on Saturday after the two didn't return from a jump with a group, setting off an hours-long air and ground search around the site in Zephyrhills, about 30 miles northeast of Tampa. Pasco County sheriff's authorities identified the victims as instructor Orvar Arnarson, 41, and student Andrimar Pordarson, 25. The men jumped separately, not in tandem.

CHICAGO - American midfielder Carli Lloyd will be sidelined 6 to 8 weeks after breaking a bone in her left shoulder during the Algarve Cup. After initially saying the injury was minor, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced Tuesday that an MRI showed the fracture. Lloyd, who is from Delran, N.J., was injured March 6 against Iceland and missed matches against China and Sweden. She also will miss Wednesday's Algarve final against Germany at Faro, Portugal Lloyd has 43 goals in 154 international appearances, including the gold-medal game-winners for the United States in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland - In the age of instant information, globe-spanning viral videos, and the World Wide Web, can a thoroughly wired country become a porn-free zone? Authorities in Iceland want to find out. The government of the tiny North Atlantic nation is drafting plans to ban pornography, in print and online, in an attempt to protect children from a tide of violent sexual imagery. The proposal by Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson has caused an uproar. Opponents say the move will censor the Web, encourage authoritarian regimes, and undermine Iceland's reputation as a Scandinavian bastion of free speech.

PRINCETON - Police are searching for a beloved resident who has gone missing - a 100-pound stuffed bighorn sheep that has sat in front of a wool shop for decades. Princeton Borough police said Lindi, the mascot that had guarded the entrance to Landau's, a family-owned wool shop, for nearly 40 years, has been missing since Monday, the Trenton Times reported. The Nassau Street landmark is a popular subject for tourist photos. Store owner Robert Landau told the newspaper that he spent $10,000 in the 1970s to ship the award-winning specimen from its native Iceland as a representative of the business Landau's was doing with that country.

IT MUST HAVE been hard living in the shadow of "Mission: Impossible" star Tom Cruise. But the proverbial final straw, the thing that may have prompted Katie Holmes to file for divorce from Cruise, may have been the latter's reported insistence on sending the couple's daughter, Suri, to a boot-camp-style program designed to indoctrinate her in the teachings of Scientology. Cruise is said to be a big fan of Sea Org, as it's known. Humph. Ain't no man worth all that. If reports that that is what's behind the split are accurate, it's no wonder why Katie Holmes finally packed her things and moved into a new New York City apartment with her 6-year-old daughter.

FOR A NUMBER of years, I have been having regular discussions about the world's economic situation with a very close friend. To keep him in proper perspective, I should note that while he is not in the top 1 percent of America's wealthiest, he is certainly in the top 20 percent and possibly 10 percent. He is now retired. Most of our disagreements concern the best way to get out of our economic doldrums.   He is firmly convinced that the only way to restore substantial growth is to have an austerity program with a key provision of sharp cuts in government spending at all levels of government.

There are so many truly fascinating ideas floating around InterAct Theatre's world premiere of Kara Lee Corthron's drama Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night , it's a wonder she managed to cram them all into the same play. Then again, there's a big difference between cramming and finessing. For starters, Jules (Phyllis Johnson), an African American painter living in Iceland, married to Ólafur (Ian Bedford), an investment banker and native, harbors a dark, secret past. She also receives hallucinatory visitations from Jónsi (Jered McLenigan)

1. c. Costa Rica, president. 2. a. Argentina, president. 3. j. Lithuania, president. 4. e. Finland, president. 5. b. Bangladesh, prime minister. 6. i. Liberia, president. 7. f. Germany, chancellor. 8. h. India, president. 9. g. Iceland, prime minister. 10. d. Denmark, prime minister.

Eve Shafter Adalsteinsson, 57, of Kennett Square, who wrote about her fight with breast cancer, died of the disease Sunday, Aug. 21, at the Neighborhood Hospice in West Chester. Mrs. Adalsteinsson was found to have advanced breast cancer in 1996 and underwent various treatments, including a bone-marrow transplant, her daughter Solny said. During that time, Mrs. Adalsteinsson counseled other women who had cancer. "They counted on her for her knowledge and humor to cope with their illnesses," her daughter said.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland - A volcano in Iceland was flinging ash, smoke, and steam miles into the air Sunday, dropping a thick layer of gray soot in an eruption far more forceful - but likely with far less impact - than the one that grounded planes across Europe last year. The country's main airport was closed and pilots were warned to steer clear of Iceland as areas close to the Grimsvotn volcano were plunged into darkness. But scientists said a widespread aviation shutdown was unlikely, in part because the ash from this eruption is coarser and falling to Earth more quickly.