Alright, sorry I'm late, but you won't believe how busy I've been today. I'd also like to take this opportunity and let you all know that the upcoming week, I'll be taking time off work but also off here, to work on my comics and on the ClickBurg convention. So no Word of the Day next week, it'll return after that. Sorry folks.
But, I'll do my best to find one for today (Friday - yes, as I said, sorry I'm late) and tomorrow (Saturday - yes, technically that's today. Get over it.), I promise.
And boy, did I ever find a great article in the Volkskrant today. It took me all of three seconds to find since it was wham, right in the middle of the front page. And it's about something in my own city, Tilburg !
Ok, here's the short summary: the article is all about a special bonus for their employees, of a whopping 100 euros (wow, who can resist THAT offer ?!) if they take extra effort - in their own time, of course - to get in good shape and health. You know, excercise and all those other terrifying words.
Now, I suppose it's not quite as fascist as what Michigan-based health insurer Weyco pulled (firing anyone who still smokes, and announcing that overweight people are the next group of employees forced to quit their unhealthy habits or quit their jobs) so I won't actually criticize the idea. It's ok, it shows that the insurer cares about the image of the company through their employees, in a positively encouraging way that doesn't actually FORCE anyone. So I'll leave the message itself alone. But boy, did I find some amazing words in there...
First of all, the idea is called 'fitwerker-plan' (I think you can figure that one out if you know that 'werk' means to work). They eventually want to expand it into a national 'fitburgerplan' (fit citizen plan), in which context they use the words 'Care-miles', 'ren-je-rijk-bonus' (run yourself rich bonus), 'vettax' (fatness taxes) and to be able to pay for all this they want to set up a 'Nationaal Fitburgerfonds' (National Fit Citizens Fund). I mean, is this article priceless or what ? Not one, not two, but SIX new words introduced into the Dutch language that could have easily been expressed otherwise.
However, fair is fair, there is only one Word of the Day, so I have to choose, and in my ever dictatorial wisdom I have chosen the word 'Care-miles'. And that's that.
Tomorrow I'll return with the last Word of the Day for this week. I promise. And yes, tomorrow is today. Go to sleep, insolent one.
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