Chronicles Continued

Create new words? Reader ‘A’ sent me ‘QUEENAGERS’ which is absolutely divine. I thought I made up the word BLOGFOG but someone else did -11 years ago! I do like UOU in place of you – and Y not, makes sense so plan to use it. You all know WASBEEN for a former male spouse… looking for something more gracious than Ex-wife. Send your new words and we’ll eventually get them added to the big Oxford book.

First it was this carton – obviously empty. Now it is this pen

why is ham pink, pork white and bacon brown

It had been a question for me for a long time. Since 1883 cookie has been named a “Jewish cookie”. Thought it a strange name as it resembles a ‘sand-cookie’ or a thin-shortbread cookie. Most interesting to me is that the cookie originated in the city where I live. Now there is a new tin and a new name. The change: the letter J before the O and the N after E are dropped. Now it is Odekoeken rather than Jodenkoeken. An “Ode” in Dutch the same as in English. Clever woke response. The original tin.

if you get my meaning!

My super-star niece L has a friend who knows all about bridges. So she asked him to comment on the fact that I did not know the location of the bridges on the Euro bills….

His Answer: When they designed the Euro Bills, they were careful to use drawings of “fictional” bridges so that none of the member nations could claim ownership.  The “matching” pictures of real bridges in the list are just good “similars”.

Self explanatory. The missing information is exactly where the bridges are located.

On every mailbox is one or the other of the above stickers; the mailbox owner may choose.

The first one is, don’t leave marketing mail if it is not addressed to this house number. but you may leave the free local newspaper.

The second is no marketing mail and no free newspapers. I have the top one, my neighbor the bottom.

17 March is election day for positions in the “Federal” Government. 150 seats make up this initial body of governance. A voter chooses their candidate from one of a whopping 34 parties. The first picture is the overview of the list of candidates and the parties.

Picture 2: Starting at the left-hand-side of the page of lists, introducing the largest parties.

1. V V D– [People’s party for Freedom and Democracy] a sort of old-time US RepublicanParty idea; big business, economics first. right wing. 2. P V V– [Freedom Party]. right wing. 3. C D A– [Christian Democrats]. Catholic from origin, center to right. 4. D 66– [Democrats] [founded by an intellectual journalist in 1966. 5. GROENLINK– [Green left] formed by 4 parties, the Communist party, Pacifist Socialist, Evangelicals People Party and Political Party of Radicals. 6. SP- [Socialist Party]. 7. P vd A– [Labour Party]. 8. ChristenUnie– [Christian Union] conservative on all opinions from A-Z. Sees every aspect of life through the lens of strict Christian belief. 9. PvdDieren– [Party for Animals]. Very much a green planet, take-care-of-earth-first-party. 10. 50plus. [you guessed it].

Picture 3: Smallest parties on the list: 26. OPRECT- [Honesty party]- smaller government, right wing. 27. JESUS LEEFT- [Jesus lives]. Everything that the name implies plus a call to exit the EU. 28 TROTS op NEDERLAND. [Netherlands Pride]. 29 U-Buntu Connected Front. [Honest Rights for citizens of African heritage]. 30. 32 DFP [The Party party] – strives for more creativity and positivity in politics. 34. Wij Zijn Nederland. [We are the Netherlands].

And there you have it… choices for the nearly 13 million voters on 17 March.

An opinion? A few of these groups could safely unite without diluting their ideas. However in a country that firmly believes in ‘Group-Think’, their political ideal is that even the dog-catcher can stand for his beliefs in a party of his making and garner votes.

Granted, there should be more sympathy oozing from this post but the humor of it squashed that reaction. In the fall, for a few weeks, at unscheduled times, a 10 year old boy stationed himself on the same street corner with his recorder*. It is easy instrument to learn, but apparently, not for him. He would play Frere Jacques on repeat and always out of tune. At a short distance from his feet was a hat of sorts, to collect money. One never knew how much to give, because the money was not to reward him, but to pay him to stop. Finally it came to a head. One of the nearby shops, going around the bend after listening to this recital for more than was good for the owner’s mental health, asked him to stop. His father took umbrage, and brought it to the newspaper: https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2020/07/bell-tolls-for-frere-jacques-after-residents-call-council-on-10-year-old-busker/

Due to this notoriety the boy was offered lessons, a new flute and for a while he was absent. Then as unexpectedly he returned. The Result? Still out of tune. It’s winter now and that keeps him off the streets.

*The recorder is a family of woodwind musical instruments in the group known as internal duct flutes—flutes with a whistle mouthpiece, also known as fipple flutes. A recorder can be distinguished from other duct flutes by the presence of a thumb-hole for the upper hand and seven finger-holes: three for the upper hand and four for the lower. I