January 27, 2021

Dutch girl first to join the Ferrari Driver Academy

Filed under: Automobiles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 4:52 pm

Maya Weug

Sixteen-year-old Maya Weug of Belgian-Dutch-Spanish nationality, has recently made history by becoming the first female driver to join the Ferrari Driver Academy.

She was selected from the final stage of the Girls on Track – Rising Stars initiative, a program run by Ferrari together with motorsport governing body the FIA.

Weug apparently beat competition from 17-year-old Doriane Pin of France, 14-year-old Antonella Bassani of Brazil and 15-year-old Julia Ayoub of Estonia.

Weug has earned a place in the Academy which prepares talented young drivers for a potential career in motorsport.

“I will never forget this day! I am so happy to be the first female driver to join the Ferrari Driver Academy,” said Weug, who was born in Spain to a Belgian mother and Dutch father.

(Link: edition.cnn.com, image from Maya Weug’s instagram)

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December 13, 2018

Peet’s Coffee: from Alkmaar to California, by Jasper Houtman

Filed under: Comics,Food & Drink,Literature by Orangemaster @ 2:27 pm

You know how when you learn something new or you have a bit of a fixation about something and you start to see it everywhere? Well, I’ve been listening to podcasts by Nerdrotic, which besides being a fabulous replacement for radio and having nothing to do with 24oranges (it’s mainly about television shows and comics) occasionally plug Peet’s Coffee, which I assumed was just another American coffee company from California with an alternative hipster spelling for Pete.

Except it’s not: it’s originally Dutch (Dutch-American). Editor of Het Financieele Dagblad Jasper Houtman wrote a book this year about coffee legend and founder of Peet’s Coffee, Alfred Peet entitled The Coffee Visionary (In Dutch, ‘De man die de wereld leerde koffie drinken’, ‘The man who taught the world how to drink coffee’). Someone who’s not me really needs to update Peet’s Wikipedia page.

At a time when most Americans drank coffee percolated from canned grounds, the son of a coffee roaster from a small town in the Netherlands [Alkmaar] laid the foundation for specialty coffee in the United States. When Alfred Peet opened Peet’s Coffee, Tea & Spices in Berkeley, California in 1966, and started selling small batches of on-site, hand-roasted coffee beans, the renowned roastmaster had no way of knowing that he was brewing a coffee revolution and defining the coffee culture we know and love today.

Houtman is said to have twenty-five years of experience writing for magazines and newspapers in the Netherlands. Travelling through Guatemala and Honduras in 2004, he became interested in coffee, which led to a fascination for the story of Alfred Peet, who is relatively unknown in the Netherlands. Hope this helps a bit.

(Photo by Suzette Pauwels, some rights reserved)

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November 22, 2018

Dutch comedian Arjen Lubach on Seth Meyers in US

Filed under: General,Shows by Orangemaster @ 11:36 am

windmill-leiden-branko-collin

Dutch comedian Arjen Lubach, known for his comedy show Zondag met Lubach (‘Sunday with Lubach’), was a guest on the Seth Meyers show in New York City last night.

In a good game of Zoek de Nederlander (‘Find the Dutch person’), Lubach has been getting more and more international attention with his punchy, satirical videos, which are very much compatible with American-style humour, such as the ‘American First, Netherlands Second’ video, voiced by Amsterdam-based American-Dutch comedian Greg Shapiro, who in turn did the rounds himself on Dutch talk shows after the video went viral back in January 2017. Oh, and Lubach also did that hilarious video about the NRA (Nonsencal Rifle Addiction).

Why Seth Meyers? Seth Meyers was based in Amsterdam at Boom Chicago back in the 1990s where Shapiro was also a regular. This also goes for Amber Ruffin, an American writer for Seth Meyers, a comedian in her own right and a Boom Chicago member at one point.

Name dropping aside, there’s no legal video to be shared about it yet, but Dutch news site nu.nl has a nice clip of it. I know how we all get excited when someone speaks Dutch on telly in the US.

(Link: parool.nl)

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December 15, 2017

Queen Wilhelmina featured in Civilization VI

Filed under: Gaming by Orangemaster @ 3:45 pm
Kdag2010-2

Set to be released on 8 February 2018, computer game Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Rise and Fall will feature Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, the country’s longest-reigning Dutch monarch from 1890 to 1948 as well as the world’s first female billionaire in American dollars. In the game, the Netherlands’ particularities includes ‘grote rivieren’ (‘big rivers’), polders and ‘scheepsbouw’ (‘shipbuilding’). It is nice to see a game that left William of Orange aside for a change.

Although game creator Sid Meier is Canadian (actually, Canadian-American as well as Swiss by birth), he also inherited Dutch roots from his parents, which may or may not have played a roll in designing this part of the game. And the Dutch press loves playing a quick game of ‘Zoek de Nederlands’ (‘Find the Dutch person’) any chance they get, especially when it’s a talented person.

24oranges HQ has staff still playing Civilization III that was not designed by Meier, but rather by Americans Jeff Briggs and Soren Johnson, but hey, it’s still ‘Civ’ to us.

(Link: bright.nl)

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July 24, 2017

Dutch drone used in Game of Thrones

Filed under: Film,Technology by Orangemaster @ 3:56 pm

Back in 2014, we expanded on the Dutch actors in the television series Games of Thrones, and now in a friendly game of ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ (‘Find the Dutch person’), a Dutch drone is now also part of the series.

In season seven of Game of Thrones, a NEO drone from Dutch manufacturer Acecore Technologies from Oss, Noord-Brabant was used to film aerial shots in Iceland.

The NEO drone can lift up to nine kilos in the air, which was needed to carry the RED Epic Dragon 6K camera with Cooke s4 25mm lens, hanging from a Gremsy H16 gimbal. Even though there was a lot of wind during the shoot as well as temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius, the kit held up very nicely. The drone was used instead of a helicopter to save on time and money.

(Link: bright.nl, Photo by Anthony Kelly, some rights reserved)

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July 17, 2017

Dutch model to become Malaysian prince

Filed under: General,History by Orangemaster @ 5:00 pm

Tunku

Model and former semi-professional footballer Dennis Verbaas, 28, from Lisse, South Holland, now known as Dennis Muhammad Abdullah after converting to Islam two years ago, is set to marry Princess Tunku Aminah, 31, the only daughter of Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, Malaysia, a state that borders on Singapore.

The second of three children, Dennis wanted to play professional football, but had heart issues. His sister signed him up to a modelling agency, which kicked off his career. Verbaas travelled around the world for work and probably came into contact with royalty in Johor while doing so.

The pair will be married on 14 August in a ceremonial process that will start on 8 August with all the traditional obligations, including a ‘royal bath’ in the botanical gardens of the Sultan.

(Links and photo: nos.nl, straitstimes.com)

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November 21, 2016

Dutch-born Republican to head CIA

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 4:33 pm

Peter-Hoekstra

In a special post-American election edition of ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ (‘Find the Dutch person’) where the Dutch media finds remote Dutch connections for the sake of a story, Groningen-born, Republican Pete Hoekstra is being touted as the new big cheese of the CIA. Hoekstra, 63, who lives in Michigan and may or may not speak a few words of Dutch, claimed he worked hard on Trump’s campaign and knows which direction he wants to take the United States [insert all of the jokes right here].

Hoekstra is an American who emigrated when he was three, which is why ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ is always a sad attempt by the Dutch press to remain internationally relevant, the same press that treats long-time Dutch folks of other ethnicities as if they didn’t count when it suits them. Other attempts at finding ‘Dutchiness’ have included Britney Spears, Tiger Woods and Dave Benton. On the opposite end of the scale is Anne Frank who was never Dutch (she was German), but many people think she was or enjoy saying that her not being Dutch was ‘just a formality’.

(Link: nos.nl)

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October 9, 2015

Young Dutchman makes professional hockey debut

Filed under: Dutch first,Sports by Orangemaster @ 9:21 am

If a Dutchman grows up in a hockey country and has hockey father Hannie Sprong encouraging him, he’ll play hockey instead of football (soccer). Born in Amsterdam, this is Daniel Sprong’s story, an 18-year-old with star quality who has been living in Quebec, Canada since he was seven and played his first NHL game with the Pittsburgh Penguins on 8 October 2015 against the Dallas Stars, in a game that saw the Penguins lose 3-0.

The Dutch media is not into hockey otherwise, but since Sprong is still a Dutchman with no dual citizenship (he’s apparently still waiting on his Canadian one), he qualifies for our ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ (‘Find the Dutch person’) tag. Sprong has also said that he does not want to play with the Dutch national hockey team in the hopes of playing for the Canadian one, which means he probably enjoys winning.

The first Dutch Canadian to play NHL hockey was Ed Kea, born in Weesp, who played among others with the Calgary Flames in the early 1970s. His career came to an abrupt end when he hit his head on the ice (no helmets back then), a severe injury that left him physically and mentally disabled. As well, because his injury happened when he was in a minor league at that point in his career, he was not financially covered and his family struggled to make ends meet. Sadly, Kea died accidentally in his family’s swimming pool at age 51.

In 2013 we told you about Mike Dalhuisen’s debut with the New York Islanders, a guy who likes to fight on the ice.

(Links: www.parool.nl, stlouisblueslegends.blogspot.nl, en.wikipedia.org, Photo of hockey sticks by kicksave2930, some rights reserved)

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February 9, 2015

Dutch Americans sought for dating show

Filed under: Shows by Orangemaster @ 4:27 pm

This is a great ‘Zoek de Nederlander’, or ‘Search for the Dutchie:

Are you of Dutch origin, single (21-45) and looking for true love? Have you been raised abroad with (a bit of) Dutch blood in your system? Let one of the biggest TV channels in The Netherlands help you find love. Dutch TV network (Blue Circle) is looking for singles from the USA of Dutch origin who want to take part of a new heartwarming television show about Dutch love.

Apply on Blue Circle’s website. It’s probably for straight people and we’ll wave at you if you make it on television.

(Link: www.dutchdailynews.com, Photo of the first Philips colour TV from 1964 by Philips, used with permission)

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September 10, 2014

Dutch ‘scarf guy’, latest social media trend

Filed under: Fashion,Gaming,IT by Orangemaster @ 2:38 pm

scarf

In a fashion/IT edition of ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ (‘Find the Dutch person’), it wasn’t Apple’s new Apple Watch, iPhone 6 or even the band U2 that stole the show at its latest product launch in Califormia, but Dutch IT designer Tommy Krul’s tube scarf, earning him the nickname of ‘Scarf Guy’. Dutch-born Krul is founder and CTO of Super Evil Megacorp in San Francisco and was presenting the new game Vainglory, specially developed for the iPhone 6.

Apple’s on stage presenters are reputed for being casually dressed, and Krul was no exception. For reasons that only the Internet understands his purple ‘infinity’ scarf took on a life of its own on Twitter and Facebook during the presentation. Fake Twitter accounts such as @scarfbro and @purplescarfguy have started up and comparisons to other scarf-wearing celebs such as Gavin Rossdale and Lenny Kravitz (and I would add Benedict Cumberbatch, as himself and as Sherlock) have been made. People want to know if he’s single, but Krul hasn’t provided an answer. All he has said apparently is “I often wear scarves, it’s funny.”

(Link: www.rtlnieuws.nl, Photo of men’s scarf by smittenkittenorig, some rights reserved)

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