October 19, 2009

Football cup that any team can win

Filed under: Sports,Weird by Branko Collin @ 8:34 am

The Helmond Cup is an unofficial football championship grafted onto official competitions. The team that beats the last champion in an official match becomes the new champion, so that you get a chain of champions across many unrelated competitions.

It was founded by the Huisman family from Hillegom, avid fans of Helmond Sport, a club that has yet to get out of the Dutch second division. Since it was founded in 2008, the Helmond Cup was won and held shortly by teams from the Netherlands, France, Ukraine and Spain. You can it follow its travels at the Ajaxtalk forums.

A similar cup is the Unofficial Football World Championships, founded by Scotland fans when Scotland beat archnemesis England, who were then the real world champions. Currently, the Netherlands hold that trophy, although we might lose it next month when playing Italy in a friendly match.

(Photo by Wikimedia user Carolus Ludovicus, some rights reserved.)

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October 12, 2009

Alcoholics wanted as tour guides

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 11:51 am

A tour company in Amsterdam claims it wants to hire alcoholics as guides, writes Z24 (Dutch).

Amsterdam Excursions believes that habitual drunks know where to find the bars for its tour of Amsterdam watering holes. In order to test suitability the company lets applicants fill out a questionnaire, open a beer bottle without an opener, and do a breathalyser test.

So far it appears only people who drink in the street or quietly at home have shown up, not the ‘kroegtijgers’ (bar flies) the tour company was hoping for.

This is the same company that organized an economic crisis themed tour.

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October 7, 2009

Amsterdam-like scent leads to destruction German cannabis field

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 12:09 pm

German police destroyed a marijuana field in Ruhrauen near Duisburg after they were tipped by a passer-by that it smelled “just like Amsterdam” there, writes Der Westen (German).

When the police checked out the nearby water protection area, they discovered and impounded 47 plants with a sum weight of 117 kilos. The plants were chopped up by city employees for “easier transportation” and further processing.

(Photo by Eric Caballero, some rights reserved.)

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October 1, 2009

Man must remove 5,000 books from his house says court

Filed under: Architecture,Literature,Weird by Branko Collin @ 9:10 am

book_stackHans Bauer from Groningen must remove 5,000 books from his home, after a court agreed with housing corporation Patrimonium last Tuesday that his library constitutes a fire hazard.

Telegraaf reports (Dutch) that Bauer had already voluntarily removed 4,000 books earlier after the housing corporation had complained. Looking at the picture accompanying the article, I cannot say that his house looks more cluttered than several book stores I’ve known, although truth be told none of them are still around today. And 5,000 books is peanuts compared to for instance the library of late writer, TV presenter and bibliophile Boudewijn Büch, which counted 100,000 works at one point in time.

In the meantime, a local self storage company has given Bauer six months worth of free storage, RTV Noord reports (Dutch).

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September 22, 2009

Hotel entirely made of key cards

Filed under: Architecture,Design,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:22 am

The Key Card Hotel (tons of pics here) was recently opened in New York City, a hotel entirely made of key cards, designed and built by world record holder of card house building, Bryan Berg, aka The Cardstacker.

The hotel is 37 m2 in size and has a bedroom, bathroom and lobby, entirely made of Holiday Inn key cards. Berg says that it is his biggest challenge ever on a human scale.

(Link: telegraaf.nl)

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September 19, 2009

Vote for your favourite Prinsjesdag hat

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 4:07 pm

Newspaper Spits is running a poll that lets you select your favourite Prinsjesdag hat.

Prinsjesdag (Day of the Princes) is the day that the government presents its budget for the next year, that the Queen addresses a joint session of both chambers of parliament, and that is always held on the second Tuesday of the year. It is tradition for female parliamentarians to wear outrageous hats during the joint session.

And rather than holding Prinsjesdag on a Monday, Tuesday was chosen because in times before the introduction of railroads, it could take a representative more than a day to get to The Hague, and travelling on Sundays was frowned upon.

(More hats at NOS Journaal. Source screenshot: Spitsnieuws.nl.)

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September 17, 2009

Preserved junk food collection on display

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:48 am
Snack

Fons Biemans, a deceased snack bar owner from Tilburg, left behind an entire collection of Dutch junk food favourites preserved in jars, which promptly reminded me of the Chamber of Curitosities Tsar Peter the Great had in Saint Petersburg, Russia, but with food instead.

Biemans used the preserved food as a menu, never having to display fresh product which could just stay in the freezer. A teacher discovered the collection in a cellar, during a move.

And there’s a website called Snack-O-Theek where you can look at the collection online. You can play ‘guess that snack’, too.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl, Photo: Snack-O-Theek)

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September 7, 2009

Hotel offers baby bonus to attract tourists

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:56 am
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According to a press release issued by the Westin Resort on the island of Aruba (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands), the hotel is offering couples a 210 euro cheque (300 USD) for conceiving babies at their establishment.

“Couples who were inspired by Aruba’s coral mating ritual during their fall getaway (September 1 – December 19, 2009), and can prove they conceived during their stay [by way of a doctor’s note], will receive a $300 ‘Conception Credit’ towards a return visit to the resort in 2010. With all the stress of preparing for a new arrival, the expecting parents will surely be in need of a pre-baby Caribbean retreat.”

Just remember that Dutchman Joran van der Sloot, the guy who allegedly kidnapped and killed American Natalee Holloway pretty much ruined any kind of tourism on the island for a very long time. I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.

(Links: bizz, frommers)

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September 4, 2009

Game on: Dutch guys keep kicking Fox News’ lies

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:26 am

Poor, poor Amsterdam. It’s tough having everyone wanting to clean you up and use you as the symbol of everything bad in the world. As if the US was so clean and well-balanced. Fox News is so ignorant it’s sad. Dear American readers — do something!

“Robbert (26) and Elian (28) live in Amsterdam. They created the TruthAboutAmsterdam website as a response to silly prejudices about Amsterdam. TV host Bill O’Reilly from Fox News (USA) is one of the most hilarious representatives of these false ideas. We aim to show you a more realistic view of Amsterdam.”

(Link: truthaboutamsterdam.com)

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August 13, 2009

Belgian telecom advert offends the Dutch and Flemish

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:36 am
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There is no lack of references about Belgians in the Netherlands, often referred to as ‘our southern neighbours’ by the media. When they do something stupid or brilliant, the media is on the front lines either poking fun at them or praising them for their ingenuity. However, poking fun at people’s lesser national traits, albeit a top sport in Europe, is not always appreciated.

The Belgian organisation for ethical advertising (JEP) has reprimanded the new Belgian mobile phone company Vikings because of their questionable slogans. “Gratis is voor Hollanders” (“Free is for Dutch people” – ‘Hollanders’ is a pet name for the Dutch in Flanders) has the press buzzing. The company’s French-language slogan “Gratuit, c’est pour les Flamands” (“Free is for the Flemish”) plays on the stereotype of the Flemish being cheap and is not going over well either.

AustralianSwedish telecom provider Tele2 (shown here) has had adverts in the Netherlands for months using the concept of cheapness. The idea here is two-fold: the sheep are a reference to ‘being cheap’ (the ads in the Netherlands are all in English and subtitled in Dutch) and point out the similarity of the words ‘sheep’ and ‘cheap’ with a talking black sheep standing out from the herd. Although boring to look at more than twice on telly, Tele2 is doing it right, while the southern neighbours are doing it wrong.

Why the cheap jokes? The Dutch have a reputation (deserved or not) of going on vacation to France driving through Belgium with their caravans and bringing all their own food to save on costs. The goal is to enjoy the weather.

The Flemish part of Belgium used to be poor and frugal I would imagine. Today the Flemish part of Belgium (including Brussels or not, technically a governmental no man’s land) is the most dynamic part and the Walloon part has many economic problems.

(Link: zibb.nl, Photo: pleasecopyme.blogg.se)

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