For Specter, No Great Shakes

Occasion: Summer solstice, a time of 20-hour Helsinki days and serious partying across Finland, according to our host, press secretary Kari Mokko.

Guests: Journalists, PR folks, Hill types. (The ambassador and his wife were not present, but we're assured they were okay with all this.)

Food: Delicious pre-sauna buffet of Finnish cuisine -- salmon, beef stew, shrimp salad -- heavy enough to prevent lightheadedness.

Bar: Open! Sauna beer of choice: Budweiser.

Attire: Embassy provided a changing room and towels.

Wait, you really DID this?: Separate sauna times for women and men; no high jinks.

Comfort: Very nice. After the body bakes to a muscle-relaxing, pore-opening dryness, the sweat starts to pour. Few could take more than 15 minutes before running to the showers -- but they also couldn't resist sneaking back for another round. The sauna just fit eight women, so what was it like when twice as many men squeezed in? "Like a sausage festival."

Overheard: Trash talk about Swedish sauna culture. (Supposedly Swedes take it up to just 100 degrees. Wimps.)

Parting gifts: A Finnish cookbook and a certificate of induction into the Diplomatic Sauna Society.