June 14, 2017

All this fast food, but no Wendy’s

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 10:21 pm

The year 2017 is a record year for opening American fast food chains in the Netherlands, as they seem to be ‘flooding the Dutch market’. On the menu is Dunkin’ Donuts (relaunch after failing in 1997), TGI Friday’s (relaunch after failing in 1997), Five Guys, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut (relaunch after failing in 1973).

While McDonald’s and Burger King are well established fast food chains in the Netherlands, the third big name in burgers, Wendy’s, is nowhere to be found. Wendy’s opened a branch in Rotterdam in 1985 for 1.5 years, having already trademarked its name several times in the late 1970s, the late 1980s and on 1 and 7 December 1995. Wendy’s opened a few places in Belgium and Luxembourg, but eventually disappeared after 1986, although in 1987 they got a 10-year extension on the name, as trademarks are valid for 10 years and can be extended for 10 years at a time.

In 1988 Raymond Warrens bought out a snack bar and a croissant shop in Goes, Zeeland and named them after his daughter, Wendy, which is also what Wendy’s International founder Dave Thomas did. When Warrens registered the name of his businesses with the Chamber of Commerce, they said the name wasn’t a problem. Sometime later Warrens decided to trademark his company name on 16 February 1995.

Wendy’s International threatened Wendy’s from the Netherlands, and Wendy’s from the Netherlands fought back. Wendy’s International felt that they were a known brand and that Warrens trademarked his company name in bad faith, while Warrens says he had never heard of Wendy’s, that Wendy’s International was no longer registered with the Chamber of Commerce and that the trademark was no longer active in the Benelux.

Wendy’s International knew about Wendy’s from the Netherlands, otherwise they wouldn’t have sent threats. And much later in 1995 they reactivated their trademark, after Warrens had registered his. This meant that Wendy’s International was acting in bad faith, not Warrens. Warrens successfully had Wendy’s International’s trademark revoked and Wendy’s International was not happy.

Wendy’s International took their grievance to the European court and lost. To quote one of Warrens’ employees in the Volkskrant newspaper, “They [Wendy’s International] certainly didn’t expect that a hick from Zeeland would be a nuisance for 20 years”. And Wendy’s International is apparently going to fight some more, so we’ll update you some day.

(Links: hln.be, charlotteslaw.nl, Photo of burger by huppypie, some rights reserved)

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January 13, 2017

Making money off pushy delivery people

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 1:02 pm

Doorsign

I work at home and often accept packages for my neighbours who like many people are rarely home to receive their wares. People who are often at home for whatever reason end up playing post office for the entire street. Once the delivery people know you’re at home often, you’re screwed. Sure you can refuse packages, but not without having to defend yourself against pushy delivery people. You get that ‘but you’re at home doing nothing’ look from the delivery person who is ‘just trying to do their job’. In fact, you’ll end up doing their job for them. For a woman in the link below, it was so bad she turned off her doorbell and still had delivery people banging down her door, trying to deliver their packages. And that’s harassment.

I’ve unofficially turned into the package delivery point, and since I believe in getting along with my neighbours, I don’t really mind. Of course, it was terrible when I was on crutches with a broken leg in 2012 and the delivery people would ring and bang on my door, but that was par for the course. It stopped being OK a few weeks back when someone tried to deliver a huge bouquet of flowers to a sick neighbour who wasn’t home. I told the guy I wouldn’t accept it because the neighbour in question had been away for a while and that the flowers would wilt. He tried to convince me that flowers are nice and I could enjoy them until she got back. I told him that if he expected me to deliver wilted flowers to a sick woman just so he could make his delivery, that he was a bit of a dick. He told me again how nice flowers are and I told him he’d better leave before I put in a complaint.

My front door has a sign that says ‘no salespeople, no donation collectors and no religion peddlers’ (see photo), which I thought covered the scope, but apparently not. The woman who was being harassed put a ‘no packages’ sticker on her door, which sounds like a good idea, but Michiel Nieuwkerk from Zeeland went much further and turned a common problem into a business opportunity.

Annoyed at having to get his packages from the neighbours who were never home in the evenings, he set up package pick-up and delivery points with willing neighbours on ViaTim.nl, which charges people for that service. ViaTim service now has 22 points in South Holland and Zeeland and is growing fast.

I’m off to ponder joining in on this.

(Link: waarmaarraar)

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June 6, 2016

Parts of Zeeland cut out of Dutch map

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 10:12 am

Even though the Netherlands is a small country, many institutions apparently don’t know what their country looks on a map, seeing as they have cut out the region of Zeelandic Flanders four times in one year. The mistake has been spotted with a rugby union, a funeral insurer, a website for beach hangouts and more recently amusement park De Efteling.

According to Wikipedia, “Zeelandic Flanders (‘Zeeuws-Vlaanderen’) is the southernmost region of the province of Zeeland in the south-western Netherlands” and is “bordered to the south by Belgium”. Barely any trains go there and you’ll need to drive or take a bus to get to part of it, but that’s still no excuse.

In an attempt to encourage Chinese tourists to come to De Efteling, Zeelandic Flanders was left out (see what that looks like) of a video, although they’ll correct their mistake soon. For them it was painful because one of their newest attractions, The Flying Dutchman, named after Willem van der Decken, hails from Zeelandic Flanders. As well, the rugby bond omission is also painful since it was made by a club from Middelburg, the capital of the province of Zeeland.

(Link: nos.nl, Photo of Mussels by HarlanH, some rights reserved)

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October 14, 2015

Biggest bra sizes and interesting condom purchases

Filed under: General,Health by Orangemaster @ 2:06 pm
bra

Dutch online lingerie shop Pabo.nl, also Europe’s biggest, conducted its own survey into who has the biggest boobs and the longest dongs per province, something to briefly take your mind off the fact that the Netherlands is not playing in the European Football Champs this summer.

Women in Zeeland have lots of cup A fans, but Utrecht takes the win for the smallest boobs overall. However, Zeeland has about 10% of women ordering cup F, which no other province has. The cup B fans come from Flevoland, the C cups are for Utrecht, D cups Overijssel, and most of the bigger sizes go to Groningen in the lead for Cup E.

If you believe in condoms sales as a size indicator, North Holland and Friesland buy the biggest condoms. Friesland stands out as a province that buys twice as many flavoured condoms as the rest of the country. I wonder if they’re orange flavoured.

(Link: www.bndestem.nl, photo: ecollo.com)

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December 23, 2014

Dutch weed burger made from local seaweed

Filed under: Food & Drink,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 1:17 pm

Weed burger

Founded in 2012 the Dutch Weed Burger company makes seaweed burgers, demonstrating an innovative and sustainable use of food without using animal products.

The company explains that the patty is made from kombu seaweed and chunks of roasted soy shreds. Their buns contain the microalgae chlorella, which is packed with proteins and other essential nutrients. The weed sauce is a vegan cream sauce enriched with Dutch sea lettuce from Zeeland.

The Japanese and other cultures have been eating seaweed for ages, so why not the Dutch? If we ever have one of these burgers, we will report back. I’m already thinking the burger will have enough salt in it for my taste.

For anyone thinking of yet another boring pot joke: a ‘weed’ burger would be the worst thing you could eat to calm the munchies.

(Link: www.fastcoexist.com, via www.dutchnews.nl)

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October 26, 2014

Woman trolls offline, bad mistake!

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 3:49 pm

church-koewacht-rijksdienst-cultureel-erfgoedFor the past three years citizens of Koewacht, a village straddling the Dutch-Belgian border, have been receiving anonymous hateful letters, but two weeks ago the perpetrator was caught.

Cristel was known to be a respectable woman, living a model life with her husband and dog in a detached house. However, behind those immaculate walls, AD says, the 51-year-old was busy writing letters to her neighbours signed with “a mother of three children” and “the group” in which she told the recipients that they were ugly, had ugly faces and big posteriors, and that she hoped their children wouldn’t grow up to be as ugly.

Don’t trash talk my children, a 32-year-old victim must have thought, and she contacted the neighbourhood cop who as it happens had also received hate mail from the same author. The police discovered about 15 people had received hurtful and sometimes threatening letters. Eventually the author was caught on 15 October and confessed immediately.

Last week during a meeting in the village’s only restaurant, ‘T Hoekske, the letter writer apologised to the victims. Her husband told people that his wife is undergoing treatment, although it’s not clear from the newspapers if it’s for her hateful tendencies.

Since none of the victims filed charges, the police won’t prosecute, much to the chagrin of the online peanut gallery who immediately branded her as a lunatic and a terrorist and clamoured for her arrest. This in turn led columnist Luuk Koelman to conclude that the woman’s biggest crime wasn’t writing hate mail, but doing it through the traditional post.

“On Internet forums it is custom to belittle everybody who disagrees with you. In real life the police may hunt you down when you tell a neighbour you think she is ugly. Online you can safely express your desire to see her dead or wracked with cancer. Nobody bats and eyelid at that.”

(Photo by Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, some rights reserved)

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October 4, 2014

Fruit grower blames Russians for publicity

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 10:59 am

imageIf you want to get cheap apples, starting today you can get them in Zeeland for 50 cents per kilogram. Martin Duivekot from Vrouwenpolder has 80,000 kilogram Jonagold apples and nowhere to put them, or so newspaper PZC claims.

Apprently now that the Russians have closed the borders to European fruit, traders won’t touch his apples. The apples need to be harvested, Duivekot says, in order to make sure his trees still produce fruit next year. The European Union will buy his apples for 6 cents per kilogram, but having them picked professionally costs 10 cents per kilogram. I am sure you see the problem there.

That’s when Duivekot stumbled on the solution of letting consumers pick his apples for him. Considering though that picking your own fruit is a service offered by many farmers around the world even outside times of international tension, one might entertain the possibility this is little more than a publicity stunt.

(Photo by Alessio Maffeis, some rights reserved)

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September 25, 2014

Old pictures of Zeeland tell their own story

Filed under: History,Photography by Orangemaster @ 10:11 am

Dutchpicold

These pictures of the Netherlands were taken by a Northumbrian photographer and show what the Dutch wore some 100 years ago. The women are not wearing national dress as the source indicates, but regional dress because the Netherlands is big enough to have had different styles. True, the past was “crisp, sharp and as high resolution” as today. And no, the little girl on the left is probably not smoking, but enjoying a traditional ‘stroopsoldaatje’ (‘syrup soldier’), a small paper cone filled with syrup, which you can still buy today.

The woman on the right below with different traditional attire than the girls looks like a woman from Zeeland, like this woman and margarine brand Zeeuws meisje. Looking more closely at the photograph, the ‘cafe restaurant’ on the right has a sign that says ‘on parle français’, (‘we speak French’), which tells me this is Zeeland as it borders Belgium, and back then the Flemish spoke a lot of French. Research tells me the ‘book, music and art store’ in the back could be 1465 De Koninklijke Boek-, Muziek- en Kunsthandel van F.B. den Boer in Middelburg, Zeeland on the corner of Lange Delft and Markt. There’s also a woman on the far right dressed quite normal for her era.

For a modern-day version of looking at Dutch people wearing traditional garb, you can visit the religious community of Staphorst, Overijssel who still dress according to local tradition.

Dutchpicold2

(Link and photos: www.bbc.com, Tip: Thanks Fred!)

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September 20, 2014

The Delta Works are due for an upgrade

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 8:01 am

Delta works

Last Tuesday the Netherlands unveiled a multi-billion-euro, multi-decade plan to counter the biggest environmental threat to the nation: surging seawater caused by global climate change.

For centuries, the Dutch have battled the waters of the North Sea that have at times flooded large swathes of the country, particularly in its southwestern Zeeland province. After a disastrous flood in 1953 which left almost 2,000 people dead in Zeeland, the Dutch built a system of dams, storm surge barriers, dykes and other water-management projects, known collectively as the Delta Works, to keep the sea out.

But a growing population, growing industry and climate change have necessitated a ‘new Delta plan,’ Schultz van Haegen said as she unveiled the details in The Hague. A study by the Dutch National Environmental and Living Institute, released last week, showed one in three dykes or dams did not comply with current safety standards.

Wikipedia tells us that the Delta Works have been declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by American Society of Civil Engineers.

See also Dutch dike protects national archives in Washington.

(Link: phys.org, Photo of Delta Works by Coanri/Rita, some rights reserved)

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December 27, 2013

Woman finds twin pearl in oyster during Christmas dinner

Filed under: Food & Drink,Nature by Orangemaster @ 10:28 am

oysters2

In Yerseke, Zeeland, a small Dutch fishing village, Hannah van den Boomgaard crunched on something hard while eating oysters only to realise she had found a twin pearl, two pearls grown together, which look like a big tooth or even a good luck doll, as Van den Boomgaard said herself.

Earlier this year in Arnhem a chef found a pearl in an oyster, which was rare, but the double pearl is of course, even more rare.

Oyster make pearls around grands of sand or other irritants as self-protection using nacre, the same substance its shell is made of, but then usually round. Cultured pearls are made by putting irritants in the oyster so that they will produce a pearl around it.

(Link: www.rtlnieuws.nl, wonderopolis.org)

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