Dunglish.nl, one of Orangemaster’s many ventures, posted this brilliant ad for Unox pea soup a while ago. In it, you see some sort of sales manager walk through a company cafeteria while holding a bluetooth-enabled phone conversation in that lingua franca of the Dutch business world, English with sprinklings of Dutch. When it matters though — that is, when he wishes to order pea soup — he switches to all-Dutch.
December 21, 2008
Guy in ad switches from English to Dutch to order pea soup
Tags: ads, advertisements, advertising, business, English, language, soup, Unilever
December 20, 2008
Tour company profits from financial crisis
Tour company Amsterdam Excursies has decided to profit from the financial crisis by organizing themed guided tours of the financial history of Amsterdam. It’s Crisis Tour starts at the Zeedijk, where the first share in the world was traded in 1606, and ends on the Spuistraat at De Keuken van 1870, the oldest and only still extant soup kitchen of the city. Other crises touched upon during the tour are the collapse of Tulip Mania in 1637, and the end of the Dutch Golden Age.
Via the print edition of NL20. Photo of the VOC HQ (East India Company) by Josh, distributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
Tags: Amsterdam, banking, crises, crisis, economy, Golden Age, money, shares, VOC
December 19, 2008
Giant threads for knitting furniture
Bauke Knottnerus came up with these colorful, arm-thick threads for creating “interior products,” “knitted or not,” and calls ’em Phat Knits. Cory Doctorow loves this stuff and says it’s “like being miniaturized and set loose on a chunky sweater.”
Knottnerus is one of the 2008 graduates of the Design Academy Eindhoven, a prolific bunch (see here and here and here for instance).
Tags: big, Design Academy Eindhoven, knitting, threads
December 18, 2008
The best Dutch word of 2008 is penis swinging
We at 24 oranges always want to know what the youth is up to, and the winner of the best Dutch word for 2008 comes straight out of youth culture to teach us a new verb: swaffelen, conveniently spelled and pronounced the same in English and said to be an English word with Dutch and German roots.
The urban legend origin of the word comes from some boy, who during a school trip to India, “swaffeled” against the Taj Mahal, which is more than just bad etiquette. Basically, he swung his penis so that it touched the holy building and the film of this incident is rumoured to be floating around the Internet. Somehow I don’t need visual confirmation.
The second place winner was “wiien”, a verb about playing the Wii, while third place went to “bankendomino”, (“bank domino”), which refers to banks falling like dominoes as of late.
(Link: depers.nl)
Tags: bankendomino, swaffelen, wiien
December 17, 2008
‘Vegetarian’ star eats chicken
While I’m looking forward to a special get together this week with a bunch of local musicians where I was asked to bring a vegetarian dish (a refreshing change), some self-proclaimed vegetarians apparently ‘omit details’ about their chosen eating patterns when it suits them. Jan Vayne, a celebrity who plugs Unox smoked sausage on television but who does not eat it, was not only nominated as one of the sexiest vegetarians of the Netherlands, but he does eat chicken every once in a while, as apparently shown on television. As far as I can read, he is not a vegetarian. He also claims not to take the ‘election’ seriously, which is obviously a good thing. I voted for columnist Leon Verdonschot; the difference is plain to see. The activists at Wakker Dier were ready to let the smoked sausage thing slip, but eating chicken and saying ‘mmm, delicious’ on television has got their forums buzzing.
And don’t get me started on the all-year-round vegetarians except at Christmas when they shove all that turkey, chicken and pâté down their gizzards gullets, claiming their loved ones didn’t want to cook separate dishes just for them and what not – you’re lying too. And there’s always fish if you want to bring your guilt down a notch or two.
(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)
Tags: Jan Vayne, Leon Verdonschot, vegetarianism
December 16, 2008
First court victory for copyright trolls
“Copyright trolls” Cozzmoss got their first victory in a court of law, where they successfully sued blogger Joffrey Vermeule for copyright infringement of a newspaper article. The court awarded 402 euro to Cozzmoss (decision, Dutch, PDF). Cozzmoss had claimed at one point well over 5000 euro in damages.
A copyright troll is a particularly heinous creature that feeds off accidental copyright infringement by those least likely to defend themselves. It seeks out such infringements and then sends bills claiming preposterous amounts of damages. In countries like the Netherlands, where courts typically claim that damages must actually be proven, the troll then offers the infringer a discount on their trumped up ‘fine’ in the hope it won’t come to a court case. Vermeule was the first Dutch blogger to pass up on that offer.
The rise of copyright trolls in the Netherlands has led to a foundation that helps bloggers with their defense against these creatures, the Stichting Copyright & Nieuwe Media. It’s not clear if the foundation played a part in Vermeule’s defense, nor what part they would have played.
Link: Marketing Facts (Dutch). Image: stolen off the internets, arrr! (Actually, it’s in the public domain.)
December 15, 2008
Revolving door generates power
As if it isn’t bad enough that since they privatized, the national railroad monopolist barely seems to manage to run a train on time, to boot the NS (Dutch Railways) has now resorted to forced labour. Everybody passing through this revolving door helps the Driebergen-Zeist railway station generate a little bit of electricity. According to an enthousiastic manufacturer, Boon Edam, this is the world’s first energy generating revolving door and a breakthrough in “entrance technology.” There’s a word I bet you did not know existed. They estimate the amount of revolutions to be a scientific “gazillion times.”
The electricity thus won is used to illuminate a sign that says how much electricity the door has generated so far.
Link: Forever Geek. Photo Boon Edam.
Tags: doors, Driebergen, electricity, energy, Zeist
December 14, 2008
Dutch pop
Being partly a child of the 1970s I am accustomed to a barren Dutch pop music landscape, and therefore always a little surprised when an act shows up in and from this country that’s worth listening to. The past 18 months I have found myself surprised more than once.
Leaf – Wonderwoman. “Why’s my life so boring? I am up for a little bit more.” And here’s the surprise: in the third act she doesn’t introduce a guy to make it all right.
All Missing Pieces – I want you to know. February this year was a special month for the band, because that’s when the Labour Inspection gave 11-year old bass player Quinten an exemption that will allow the three-year old band to perform more than the 12 times a year the law permits.
De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig – Hollereer. When I see the lyrics I get the creepy feeling I should be glad I don’t understand them.
Which Dutch pop artists do you recommend people listen to?
December 13, 2008
Postman fired over warning customers about fraudulent bills
When a postman from Rotterdam warned his customers about fake Chamber of Commerce bills following a recent spate of them, he got fired by his employer Sandd, according to Dutchnews. Having read about the fraudulent bills in the paper, he recognized them on his daily route:
“I told my delivery manager, but the reply I got was that we only deliver the mail, and that we cannot and may not check the contents,” postman Rick Timmer (51) told Parool (Dutch). Timmer then went on to warn the companies along his route of his own initiative, sometimes even putting warning stickers on letters to people he could not reach in person.
Sandd thinks Timmer has violated the secrecy of correspondence, a legal right that’s enshrined in the constitution and that holds that letters may not be read while being delivered. In this light the support that Timmer got is a bit shocking: Sandd competitor TNT even offered him a new job, according to Telegraaf. Does this mean that TNT does read our letters? Because that is in my opinion the message they are now sending. Telegraaf mentions that Timmer did not open the letters.
Photo by Hans Vink, some rights reserved.
December 12, 2008
Adoption case with DVD for adoptive parents
In the Gelderse Vallei hospital in Ede, Gelderland, babies that get put up for adoption also come with an adoption case complete with a DVD of the first few days, toys and a diary written by the attending nurse. Of the 20 to 40 adopted babies every year in the Netherlands, five of them are born at the Gelderse Vallei hospital. Since the first few days are so important, as adoptive children rarely have any photos or information about that time in their lives, the hospital thought a nice case full of memories and practical things, such as a blanket and some clothes, was a good idea. On television, there was also talk of the biological mother leaving a note and whether nurses had time to write something in the diary for the future parents.
(Link and photo: deweekkrant.nl, via Editie NL)