The One Positive Thing About #Trump? Endless Fodder For Ridicule

It's true. The man practically begs to be made fun of. That bit about 'the best crowds ever' at the inauguration—seriously? His choices for cabinet members—an illiterate moron for Education, a climate change denier for the EPA, a freakin' banker-slash-Wall-Street-scammer for Finance—and his own son-in-law as 'Senior Adviser'! I mean, you can't make this stuff up. Any dystopian novel that included even a fraction of this goofed-up circus would be laughed out of even the most amateur of literary agents' offices. To quote Monsieur Cheeto himself: Unbelievable. 

And tragic. And—to put it mildly—worrisome. But a sense of humor is the hallmark of an educated mind, and if we can't see the hilarity in all of this, we're that much farther away from gaining the perspective we need to fight back.

Enter The Netherlands.

(Updated video, since original is 'no longer accessible'... Censured, perhaps? :D )

Got to love the Dutch. (Plus, Cheeto-man really hates to be laughed at, which makes the laughing all the more enjoyable. Thank you, dude, for elevating laughter into an instrument of resistance.)

(No More) Queen's Day -- Quirks of #Curacao in the #AtoZChallenge 2015

Okay, so this isn't really language-related, and it's not exclusive to Curaçao. But, this island being part of the Dutch kingdom, I think it qualifies as a quirk I can expound on for my Q post. (And, also, there are no Q words in Papiamentu.)

On April 30, 2013, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated in favor of her son, Willem Alexander, thereby giving the Dutch kingdom its first king in over a century -- and putting an end to one hundred and twenty-plus years of celebrating Queen's Day.

Top Photos of 2013 -- #1

This was hard. Much, much harder than I thought. Number 1 of the Kuantan blog's Top 20 Challenge:

July 2013, Amsterdam

There's an untold story here. A story which I, as a passerby, don't know and never will.

That's what captivated me here. It will be forever unknowable, won't it, the reason why this

toy ostrich was abandoned on a front step in a busy city. Where is the child that played with it?

The toy has no means of expression, but its forlorness cried out to me anyway.

The moment made me respond viscerally, and because it was so random, it became special.

I've so enjoyed this challenge. Thank you to Duncan of the Kuantan blog for hosting it, and for the wonderful photographers that shared the best of your 2013 with us. Loved it, and look forward to your Best of 2014 :)

Top 20 Photos of 2013 -- #3

This is the final stretch of the Kuantan Blog's Top 20 Challenge. I give you #3:

July 2013, Amsterdam

Close-up of ship ropes on the Amsterdam--or, rather, the replica of the Amsterdam,

a 18th-century commercial ship of the Dutch East India Trading Company

(which, not very auspiciously, sank on its maiden voyage to Batavia).

Top 20 Photos of 2013 -- #5

And we come to the top five of the Kuantan Blog's Top 20 Challenge! This is the worst of the best:

July 2013, Holland.

A typesetter's display at the Westfriese Markt (West-Friesian market) in Schagen, Holland.

The Joys of Procrastination

We're leaving tomorrow for a visit to Holland. Have I packed? Have I even done laundry--or cleaned out the refrigerator, or checked I have enough deodorant / shampoo / face cleanser, or gotten a haircut, or any of the other gazillion things one's invariably swamped with before traveling?

No.

Instead, I'm writing this post. And sorting photos (don't you just looooove finding old pics?). I just came back from the beach with the six-pack.

The six-pack. Minus one.

The joys of procrastination.

A to Z: Xenophobia

intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.

~ Mac dictionary

fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange

~ Wikipedia

unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange

~ Dictionary.com

Irrational. Unreasonable.

And yet... So prevalent.

It's not a modern thing, a product of our globalized era. Xenophobia has been around from the beginning of time, so much so that I'm beginning to think it's a key ingredient of the human psyche. Us And Them. Insiders vs. Outsiders. Black vs. White. Old vs. Young. Me vs. You.

A to Z: Verjaardag: Birthdaying in Dutch

In Dutch, people don't have birthdays--they birthday. The closest translation for birthday is verjaardag--the day you celebrate the anniversary of your birth. As in it's your birthday.

But jarig, an adjective (in English it might be more of a verb) is used much more often. Instead of saying today is my birthday, people say Ik ben jarig vandaag, which translates as I'm birthdaying today. In Dutch, you wouldn't ask when's your birthday, but when are you birthdaying (waneer ben je jarig?)

In Holland, birthdaying is a unique thing that, for us poor non-Dutch souls, is totally worth experiencing.

A to Z: Universal Values

Respect, integrity, honesty, freedom, equality. If the whole world lived by these values, we'd all be just fine, wouldn't we?

But--wait a minute. Is there any culture on Earth, any group of people with a belief system, that doesn't believe they do live by them?

Talk to anyone. A Ku Klux Klan member. The Catholic church. Any religious extremist. Any Republican, or Democrat. Any political activist. Your friendly neighborhood terrorist. They all believe they live by these values, too.

A to Z: Holland, a Boutique Country

Tulips at the Keukenhof Gardens
Spring 2009

When you think "Holland", what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Tulips? Windmills? Marijuana everywhere? Van Gogh? Gay Pride? The Red Light District? Dikes and water engineering?

A to Z: Gezellig, the untranslatable word

Gezellig is the essence of Dutch culture--and it's untranslatable.

The difficulty starts with the pronunciation. Dutch has a few sounds that are a mystery to us English speakers--the funky ui sound, for example, that's made by shaping your mouth as if you were going to say oo but then saying ee (as in eerie). If you speak French, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't... Give it a shot. Funky, ain't it?

A to Z: Dating

Where I come from (Mexico), dating is a pretty straightforward affair. Assuming, for ease of comparison, that this Boy and Girl that Will Date don't know each other from childhood (very common in Mexico), this is what happens:

• Boy meets Girl.
• Boy asks for Girl's phone number, Girl says no. (Yes, even if she likes him. He's the hunter and she's going to make him chase her.)
• Boy embarks on crusade to get the number--find out who her friends are, see if any of them are friends of his friends, too, and might hacerle el paro (slang for "do a favor").

Defining Right And Wrong

While discussing my WIP, Restoring Experience, with some really excellent beta readers, a question came up that I thought would be interesting to share with you.  See, Alexia is going to have to make a decision, sooner or later, about the way she's going to live her life--whether she's going to do what she's supposed to, or what she wants to.

This led me to thinking about how our concept of "right" and "wrong" is so often defined by what others expect of us and not by what we really believe ourselves.  And actually, even that belief, the inner thoughts and commentary we provide ourselves with, is also based on others' expectations, in some degree, isn't it?