Two days in the office and I'm sick.

I can't believe this - two weeks of working my ass off and running around in my own time, even taking an exhausting trip back and forth to London, and I'm healthy as can be. Two days back in the office and I'm sick as a dog.
I'm not home, of course, because I'm not a wuss. A bit of coughing, sore throat, crappy feeling and sneezing large green blobs isn't enough to keep me off my duties. And likewise I'm, of course, also here to report today's candidates for the Word of the Day for you all. I'm hardcore. I have character. I'm keepin' it real. And all that jazz.

So let's have a look while I haven't sneezed all over the newspapers yet, shall we ?

- 'prijsvechterspier' (price competitors pier): this comes from an article about Schiphol Airport, which has plans to expand with another pier, specifically built for passengers of cheaper flights. The usual arguments apply here: how many 'prijsvechterspieren' will there ever be, does this justify creating a whole new word for it, can't this just be expressed in a few loose words instead, isn't it just way too long, etc. - and besides that, it can also be read as 'price competitor muscle' which makes no sense whatsoever.
- 'artsenstaking' (doctor strike): Oh, come on ! How many doctor strikes will there be ?? It's a hype word, for chrissakes !
- 'fietschip' (bicycle chip): after creating a chip that can be planted on pets to track them down electronically in a database when found, they've now invented a similar chip that can be placed on bicycles so that cops can easily and electronically check wether or not this bike was stolen. Hard to understand perhaps for foreigners, but here in the Netherlands the majority of our population has bicycles that they use frequently and theft is an everyday occurrance. Although I suppose the object needs to have a name, my objection is that 'schip' means 'ship' (albeit 'fiet' doesn't actually mean anything). The word looks confusing. Put a dash in there, darnit !
- 'tonnairs' - this word is basically a variation on 'millionairs' (I doubt I have to translate that) and means 'people with wealth that deals with hundreds of thousands, not so much millions'. Apparently this is a new target group for one of the financial companies, who are planning to target those consumers specifically - so not the insanely rich, but not John Doe off the street, either. I think the word looks ridiculous and I doubt anyone will discuss tonnairs in the near future. Unless we get a TV show 'who wants to be a tonnair'...
- 'hitlijstmuziek' (pop hits lists music): SlamFM, which was created to be a strictly dance radio station, is apparently playing too many hits and will now probably be fined with some 100,000 euros. That's right: a *dance* station playing too many *hits*. (Don't people have anything better to do with their time ?? Aren't there any, oh, I dunno, actual criminals to catch ?) But what makes it worse is that this monstrosity of a word needed to be created just to describe what kind of music they're being fined for. We don't need this word - don't call us, we'll call you.

But, I can't ignore this: an article celebrating the invention of a new word. That's right: a news article with a new word for a certain phenomenon it's describing, that not only honestly admits this word was specially created, but in fact is *about* its creation. No matter how great the other candidates are, I have to make this the Word of the Day. I have to ! The word of the day is 'cryomeren', and it was invented as a verb to describe the lyophilizing (freeze-drying) of the deceased. That's right - when your loved one has passed on to possibly a better place, you don't have to choose merely between burying or cremating (or mummyfying, or having them cryogenically frozen, etc.), you can now also have them freeze-dried and then vibrated into powder. Nothing shows you loved ol' grandma like having her 'gecryomeerd', now, does it ? The thought itself is sickening enough, and because 'freeze-drying' simply sounded too ghastly (gasp ! a ghastly procedure with a name that actually describes what it is !) there was a competition to come up with a new word for this. 750 potential words were sent in, and sixteen people came up with this one. 'cryo' is obvious, I suppose, but it took some thinking before I figured out 'meren' was copied off 'cremeren' (to cremate).

Here's to you, Holland. Beautiful country, where mainstream media have to call upon the people to come up with a new word for freeze-drying and then pulping up the dead.
In this context, I guess I have no right claiming that *I* am sick.

Some More Scrabble Words.

Today has been a little less quiet at work than yesterday, so it took me a bit longer to find the candidates for the Word of the Day. But, here goes !

- 'schoonheidsindustrie' (beauty industry). This includes, apparently, everything from hairdressers to beauty salons to plastic surgeons. Chinese folks are getting more and more wealthy (says the newspaper article I'm looking at) and they consequently all go and 'improve' themselves. A scary thought in its own right - people who en masse obsess about their looks enough to put in such efforts, I wasn't so much scared of which nationality they have, mind you - and when you can speak of a 'beauty industry', I'm nominating this word.
- 'stoplichtenvandaal' (traffic lights vandal). It's just a useless word that could easily be replaced by a term of two or three *existing* words.
- 'hulpstroom' - this one's hard to translate, because the way it's used in the context it means 'stream of help' (it's related to the second tsunami), but in Dutch it can just as easily mean 'assisting electricity' in lack of a good translation. Either way, I don't think we require this word and it's way too confusing.
- 'gentechlandbouw' (gen(etic) tech(nology) agriculture). Hip hype word. It looks stupid in all it's forced brevity.
- 'schuldsaneringsregeling' (debt purging arrangement). I'm not entirely sure, but I think that's today's ultimate scrabble word. Except it's not in the dictionary. No points, folks. Put 'm back on your slate.
- 'superbelegger' (super investor). It's a bird, it's a plane.. no wait, it's a company that's buying up all our stocks !!

And the Word of the Day is... 'gentechlandbouw' !

Yes, I'm Back, Big As Life And Twice As Ugly.

Yes, I know, I know.. I promised.. and yet... there was no Word of the Day for Monday, because it was Easter. And since this is a predominantly catholic country, no newspaper that day.
So here goes - Tuesday ! Another look at the brilliant new words made up by our media and how they enrich our language.

- 'homomonument' (gay monument): a few hundred people had a protest rally against racism and intolerance yesterday which started at the 'homomonument' in Amsterdam. No capital 'H', so the assumption seems to be here that this object, as a word, is commonly known, and not a specific name or anything. Not sure we need it - I'm sure there's a reason for the monument itself, but the word ??
- 'zomerhoofdstad' (summer capital): er... ok... Kashmir apparently has a seperate capital city for the summer period. I didn't know this. I'm also not sure how many other summer capitals there are. But I'm fairly certain there aren't enough to justify the existence of this word.
- 'fietsbom' (bicycle bomb): come on, folks, this has to be a joke. The kind that you get in Spy Hard and Loaded Weapon I. I mean.. a bicycle bomb ? Someone apparently parked a bike, loaded with explosives, next to a police vehicle and then ran off, after which it exploded. I'm trying to picture this. How can you load a bike with explosives without anyone noticing ? Even *if* it's in the frame, isn't that very strong, and thus able to stop a lot of the explosion ? And how do you trigger it ? Or were the explosives hanging all over the bike and just nobody happened to see this ? The puzzle that this poses just to imagine is enough to nominate this word.
- 'retro-gamen' (retro gaming): due to the popularity of nostalgic game systems such as the Commodore 64 (which, technically, is a PC and not a game console) and the Atari 7800, are basically being re-released in new forms. So now we can look forward to an evening of wonderful 'retro gaming'. I get shivers just reading this verb. It's.. it's... it's horrible. Unnecessary, put together from hip terms, basically English and not Dutch, and.. I just don't like it. The word. I'm actually kind of fond of nostalgic games myself, but.. retro gaming ???
- from same article: 'meestverkochte' (most sold). This does not exist as one word, folks.
- more from the gaming section of the newspaper: 'veldvoetbalspellengeweld' (field soccer games violence) and 'voetbalspellenliefhebber' (soccer games fan). Especially the first one of these two will be fun to learn for foreigners. I mean, look at it ! Imagine it being the secret password in a resistance movement.
- 'karakterfietsen' (character bicycles) - first off, this isn't from an article about bicycles, but about motorcycles. And... 'character' ? I'm sure bikes can have character, in fact, I don't doubt it, but 'characterbike', which this basically means ? I don't think so.
- in bigger news: 'paasakkoord' (Easter agreement). The short version is one of our ministers up and quit, leaving the government in peril of breaking up (which would lead to re-elections). To prevent this, the governing parties have set up an agreement, and all this went down during Easter. So now we have a word for agreements set during Easter. Very useful, fellas.
- 'solidariteitsbelasting' (solidarity tax). Look at the word first, especially if you don't speak Dutch. Then let the translation sink in. Seriously. This should already have you chuckling at the least. I don't even care about the context anymore (tax proposition from French president Chirac of which the proceeds should go to Africa), this is too good. The word looks like anyone being loyal to anyone else is being taxed. Admit it !
- 'pinpasfraude' (PIN pass fraud): the ATM's in this country can be tampered with to read the electronic information from your PIN card and to record with a small camera what number you are typing in. What bothers me is the evolution: first there was the invention of PIN, the Personal Identification Number (how many people know what it means anymore ?). Then the 'PIN-pas', which quickly became 'pinpas'. And now, in an article about the steps taken to prevent it, the word 'pinpasfraude' is introduced. If it's practically ruled out by these new measurements, then why bring it into use ?
- same article: 'spookopnames' (phantom withdrawals): this is basically the above mentioned fraud, basically taking out someone else's money while pretending to be them. I've never seen a phantom pretending to be someone else - not that I've ever seen a phantom, but that's besides the point. The word looks odd and isn't instantly clear. I oppose its usage. Down the drain with it !

And that's that for today's candidates. Now the moment that you've all been waiting for for over two weeks (I'm sure you were sitting around by your computer screens, breathless with excitement).. the winner, or The Word Of The Day for today, Tuesday March 29, is... *drum roll to raise the tension even further*... 'veldvoetbalspellengeweld' !!!

Little confirmation.

Just to confirm that I'm still alive folks, a tiny post. I took the test from Greg's blog even though I've already been telling folks for over half a decade that I'm an agnost, and sure enough, I am. However, I find the percentages of other religions that result from my answers equally accurate, yet surprising:

You scored as agnosticism. You are an agnostic. Though it is generally taken that agnostics neither believe nor disbelieve in God, it is possible to be a theist or atheist in addition to an agnostic. Agnostics don't believe it is possible to prove the existence of God (nor lack thereof). Agnosticism is a philosophy that God's existence cannot be proven. Some say it is possible to be agnostic and follow a religion; however, one cannot be a devout believer if he or she does not truly believe. agnosticism 100% Satanism 88% atheism 58% Paganism 54% Buddhism 50% Islam 33% Christianity 29% Judaism 17% Hinduism 4% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

This Is René, Signing Off.

That's right: you're getting the Word of the Week from me, and then, for a while, nothing. Unless I want to. The upcoming two weeks I have off, and I'll be very busy. Hopefully with some fun stuff in there as well - I'll be going to the UK next weekend for the UK Mini & Webcomics Thing, so perhaps I'll report what that was like on here. And maybe if there's other interesting things to tell, and I feel like it and have the time. But other than that, see you in two weeks !

Monday: 'belhel'
Tuesday: 'zwangerenbutton'
Wednesday: 'gijzelingsindustrie'
Thursday: 'Maagdenhuisbezetter'
Friday: 'rollatorimago'
Saturday: 'uitzend-pool'

And the winner is: 'zwangerenbutton' ! Good grief, they *really* looked hideous. I hope I'll see some on the tube, next weekend. I'll laugh. Out loud.

See ya !

Damnit, I'm Tired.

Okay, there was no Word of the Day on Saturday itself. I spent the entire day working on the new Grim DotCom episode, because it required some research, AND some animating. I was also busy tweaking something in the ClickBurg code for half an hour or so - all in all, I didn't have the time to check the media.

In retrospect, it's good that I didn't, because they really disappoint me today. You'd think that, as tired as I am right now, they would be more considerate and made it easy on me. But no such luck - in the Metro I couldn't find anything, Sp!ts doesn't release a newspaper on Saturday, and I had to read the Telegraaf pretty thouroughly before I found the only real candidate of today. Also, I had typed nearly all this text already when my Internet Explorer exploded, so I'm even slightly ticked off right now. Especially because I *did* quickly ctrl+c the text, but apparently Windows disagreed with that and there's nothing in the copy buffer. Yay !

The Word of the day is 'uitzend-pool'. It's difficult to translate: the word 'uitzenden' means to send out or to broadcast, and it can also apply to temp work. From reading the context I could sort of comprehend that apparently the word here applies to a one-time only team of military police who are sent to Iraq for a few missions that all seem to involve finding out why some of 'our' boys got shot in that whole nastiness there. (I'm tempted to say 'hey, here's a newsflash for you: there's been a war there !' but ahwell)

Since I'll be on the other side of this country for a fair deal tomorrow, give me a few minutes and I'll also pick the Word of the Week.

Counting Down Again.

First off: the word of the day is 'rollatorimago'. It's from an article about the city of Maastricht which is turning into a 'rollatorcity' (this one was definately the runner-up) which means more and more rich seniors are moving there and the younger crowd is actually a minority there. Basically, it's becoming the Miami of the Netherlands. And that worries our socialist government, of course.

Now, while searching for this word, I actually noticed a few articles that made me more hopeful about this country. Very sympathetic initiatives, such as a proposition that organ donors, by law, should get priority if they would need donor organs themselves. And free parking for hybrid (electric / petrol) cars. A Tilburg professor (go Tilburg !) who proposes we should curb the old fashioned ideas about 'love' and embrace the single and poligamic lifestyles more instead of being so judgemental and uptight about it. The Dutch society that oversees credit products offered by financial institutions that wants to temper the excessive loans allowed to people with minimum income or less, to prevent people being in debt for the rest of their lives (not uncommon in certain other parts of the Western world).

I like these things. The newspapers also reported plenty of crap, but that's practically become commonplace by now. The news has been lacking inspiration for optimism, and I feel happier today for having found some of it.

On a personal note (since this is my blog, let's not forget that), I've booked a ticket to go to the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing on March 19th. It'll be a long bus drive back and forth, but that will give me time to focus on my comics AND get a bit of rest. After all, there'll likely be very little else to do underway. The convention should be fun, and the trip back and forth is very affordable.

And although it'll be filled with a lot of activities that I *won't* like, I just started a two week vacation, as I mentioned yesterday. So tomorrow will be the last Word of the Day, and sunday will bring the last Word of the Week. After that, there will be relative radio silence here for two weeks. I'll try to get a report in here about my UK Web & Mini Comix Thing experiences though. Including pictures, unless my camera decides to die again.

I'm having a good day. Hope you are too !

Working Up To Another Break.

Well, entertaining as I don't doubt the Word of the Day rants are, at the end of my workday today start two weeks of vacation, which - as usual - will be very busy. So I'll finish the week (Friday and Saturday will bring some more nominations, and Sunday I'll pick the Word of the Week again) and after that, two weeks of mostly quietude here. After that, I'll return again, of course. Someone needs to scrutinize the expansion of this language after all, and the critical eye of today's journalism can clearly not be trusted.

Want today's proof ? Ok, let's go:

- 'ziektejaar' (illness year). Yep, another article about all the cut-backs in our social securities systems. It's bad enough that the working environments, the work itself, bad decisions by government and companies, etc. are making a lot of people ill enough to be out of the rat race for over a year, but to actually invent a word to call such a year is a clear indication that this society has had its own share of ziektejaren...
- 'haltestopknop' (bus stop stop button). The plan itself isn't bad: to install buttons on bus stops, so that if they're poorly lit and the bus driver won't notice people waiting there, they can press the button and the bus driver gets a signal that there's more at that stop than meets the eye. Of course, passengers have been saying something like this should exist, for decades, but hey, at least they're now prototyping it. The only problem I have with this word is that the buses themselves also have buttons inside, and you could just as easily call *those* 'haltestopknop'. I'm sure a more creative word - or term ! Why does everything have to be a whole new word these days ?? - can be found to describe it better.. or am I being naive ?
- 'mee-moeders' (co-mothers ? I'm really not sure how to translate this best). Lesbian couples who have a child can have a 'real' mother (and by this I mean a biological mother, I'm not passing any judgement, mind you) but then there's another woman in that same relationship. And this is the best word they could come up with for that. 'Aww, baby just said his first word... co-mommy !'
- 'speelgevoel' (gameplay feeling/sensation). I don't know, the word just looks awkward. Speelgevoel. Even to someone who's Dutch, this must look silly. One can also debate on its meaning when used out of context. I think the word lacks a lot of clarity.
- 'grotestedencampagne' (big city campaign). One of our banks, Rabobank, has decided on more strategic presence in the bigger cities. So they're launching a marketing campaing specifically aimed at those. Well, will we ever use this word again after this campaign is out of the headlines ? Will this become a specific product marketing agencies will offer their clients ? I doubt it. This is yet another tendencious one-hit-word and I'm against it. Split it up into two or three words, like the English equivalent, please.
- 'Maagdenhuisbezetter' (Maagdenhuis occupant). I know I've nominated 'Maagdenhuisbezetters' before (just nine days ago), but come on folks, this is a student who occupied an educational building in protest to educational decisions made by the government. If this was the sixties or seventies, there would not have been created a special word for him. It'd be everyday news, a small article on one of the last pages of the newspaper. People would probably not notice it, and the ones who would, would shake their heads and think 'those students again'. Simply because it worries me how 'special' it seems to be these days when an actual protest against government policies is made, I'm nominating it. We don't need this word, we need people to think and speak up ! Enough to make it an everyday occurance - as long as the government keeps making decisions that are bad for us or that go against what we, the people want. Which, well, let's face it, will probably be forever. Damn you apathy !
- 'trajectcontrolesysteem' (section check system). It's an electronic system used to er, check something. On a section. Of the highway. This is all the meaning of the word I could get from the context. Do you now know what it is used for ? I don't.
- 'hotelachtiger' (hotel-like). A hospital in Nijmegen is prototyping a roomservice for their patients, which stems from, as they claim, the way hospitals are becoming more and more like hotels. I don't know - I think hotels still envy our hospitals for their huge waiting lists and how they can get away with all kinds of incompetence. I bet hotels are hoping they could be more hospital-like.
- 'streektaalconcerten' (local dialect concerts). Come ON !! Does this mean we now also need all kinds of concerts, like 'english language concerts', 'hard to understand words concerts', 'no words at all concerts', .... ???

I'll admit it's a tougher pick than it was the past few days. But the Word of the Day is 'Maagdenhuisbezetter' - because it was worth nominating again, and because it's the word that got the longst rant out of me today.

Sniffin' Around For Something Special.

I'm still bored with the abundant presence of uninteresting new media words. I want a winner, damnit ! I'm getting fed up with nominating words simply because there are no better candidates.

For instance, see today's lineup:

- 'antiterreurtop' (anti terrorism top). And from the same article, 'antiterreurconferentie' (anti terrorism conference). Blegh. Ever since 9/11, justabout any word has gotten an 'antiterreur'-variant. Pretty soon there will be anti terrorism badgers. Anti terrorism penguins. Anti terrorism coffee. Anti terrorism rain. Anti terrorism molecule. The way George W. loves to talk about anti terrorism, I won't be surprised if we'll see the introduction of the anti terrorism toothbrush before long. It's a worrying trend, but there's so many of those words now, that I'm starting to feel like I should just let this go. I mean, it's hopeless.
- 'Plattelandsontbijten' (having country breakfast). From an article written by a journalist who clearly lives in what we call 'de Randstad' which is basically the area that includes Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. People who live within that area tend to consider the rest of The Netherlands as completely rural and feel they're the only civilised area that can be found in this country. It's not all three-toothed hicks outside that area, folks - we too have guns, car theft, fraud, dog crap and buildings high enough to park a few airplanes in. Hate to burst your bubble, but it's true. Some of us even have electricity. And cousin Billy-Bob-Jake just learned how to read. We count, too !
But the article is all about what you can do in 'the country' that's fun for those ever-complaining yuppies from the Randstad who are 'oh so fed up with it all'. Yes. Having country breakfast, now doesn't that just sound like a hoot ? And doesn't it just sound like it's so different from any other kind of breakfast that it requires an own word ?
- 'klompensafari' (clogs safari). Here I am, having tried, on my international journeys, to explain to foreigners that Dutchmen don't all wear clogs and that they're actually kind of rare, when just last week, the fashion page announced clogs are 'coming back', and now this word. It's basically spending time in a rural, forested area of the country. If you don't get why I'm nominating this word, I doubt you ever will, so I'll just stop explaining this one now.
- 'strobalenrace' (straw bale race). We're not off the countryside yet, folks - I have no idea, even from the context of the article, what this entails exactly. I guess straw bales move really fast. Fast enough to make an exciting race. No doubt there's betting.
- 'crematieplechtigheid' (cremation ceremony). It's a very weak one, but it does not exist in the dictionary, so it qualifies. I hope people will really think 'does our language require this word' first before this moves into popular use. But I think no one is naive enough anymore to assume people will think. Period.
- 'mobielvirus' (cell phone virus). This one's actually not unfair, I mean, computervirus has an established meaning, and cell phone virii apparently will pose a threat soon. I was hesitant to nominate this, and still am. But not hesitant enough not to mention it.
- 'aanstekerverbod' (cigarette lighter ban). The USA want to ban lighters and matches from airplane luggage, to prevent terrorist attacks. The European airlines, however, think that the US should lighten up (ha ha ha, my patented early morning lame joke). For something that doesn't even exist yet, and may not come into existence, I think this is a pretty bad word to add to our total vocabulary.
- 'merkbeleving' (brand experience). This is about how people don't buy things for the brand of the product anymore, but for its actual added value. Choosing quality over a flashy image - I never thought I'd see the day, while growing up in the eighties and nineties. Since the 'brand experience' is quickly headed down the drain, I don't think we require this new word for it either.
- I was tempted to nominate 'webwinkelen' (web shopping). But let's face fact, it will survive. People will start using it. There's no stopping this one.
- Michael Jackson ! Apparently, amongst many things he is being accused of during this trial, is that he fed wine to the victim minors and called it 'Jezus-sap' (Jesus juice). I thought it was an interesting enough word to nominate. No doubt no one will ever dare use it again, especially considering who invented it.

The only real winner I can find, though, is this one: 'gijzelingsindustrie' (hostage industry). You know a country is pretty far up economic shit creek when a description of its recent history mentions that a 'hostage industry' has arisen. Which, I guess, means people are being taken hostage there round the clock, and reasonable livings are being made from all that. You don't suppose they have a hostage industry union, do you ? And what will happen when they go on strike ?
Yeah.. it's the Word of the Day. But really, folks, get me some gems. Digging for truffles is fun, but stumbling upon a nice shiney diamond once in a while keeps it worth it. Damn you lazy journalists for not trying to corrupt this language harder !

Daily Grind

Well, time for another round of 'The Word of the Day'. Let's take a look at our relatively unimaginative, inane candidates, shall we ?

- 'werkloosheidsdag', which means unemployment day. No, this is not a national holiday to celebrate the joys of unemployment (although I'm sure the sheer number of the unemployed would by now justify such a holiday), this is a word just created to state that help for the unemployed needs to already be available on their first unemployment day. The article shouts 'the government is getting desperate in their attempts to spin doctor what a mess they're making' and I have my doubts that this plan will help anything. I'm sure it'll raise taxes, though.

- 'zwangerenbutton', which means pregnancy button. It's a button women can wear in London when they are on the subway and pregnant, because research apparently shows most are too embarassed or shy to ask someone to stand up so they can have a seat. The button says 'baby on board' and it obviously is in the rather corny London subway logo colours. If I were a pregnant woman, wearing that would not make me less embarassed to ask for a seat. I'd probably stay off the subway altogether.

Other than that, it's mostly the same old crap. Completely unimaginative words, some I've already picked up before, some closely related to ones I've picked up before.. these two were pretty much all that was worth mentioning.

And because the design looks so awful and completely defeats the purpose (one of the newspapers had a picture), the Word of the Day is 'zwangerenbutton'.

Laaaaaaaaaaaaame....

I'm not happy with today's newspapers. There are several candidates in there but I'm getting the feeling I've seen them before. Or at least have nominated their 'brothers' for the same reasons. The utter lack in creativity of the journalists is very disappointing today.
Let's see what they are, ok ?

- 'kiesburgemeester' (choose mayor). This is wrong for two reasons.. first, the fact that in a year (or more, because currently the government is bickering about the time needed to prepare for this) we can choose our mayors really doesn't change too much about what a mayor is. Secondly, because it should be a 'chosen mayor', not 'choose mayor' - geez ! Wouldn't 'gekozen burgemeester' fit in the headline ? It would from where I'm standing. At least well enough to prevent this crap word.
- A lot of throwers today: 'stenengooiers' (rock throwers), 'sneeuwballengooiers' (snowballs throwers), 'ijsbalgooiers'. All of them at cars, by the way. And yes, I translated the second one literally - I've already nominated 'sneeuwbalgooiers' before, but now this new variation pops up. It's like some kind of mutating virus.
- 'tsunamiwaarschuwingsdienst' (tsunami warning agency). Do I really need to explain why I nominated this word as the Word of the Day ?
- 'waddengasboringen' part of the North sea is in between the tiny islands at the top of my country, and my country itself. That part is called 'de Waddenzee' (although it's hardly a sea in its own right). There's a lot of natural gas to be found there under the 'sea' bottom, but it's also a protected natural environment so drilling there was out of the question for a long time. Of course, with the current shortage in fossilized fuels worldwide, they sooner or later just *had* to, so now they're going to go at it. But from what I gather from the article, besides all the special precautions to make sure they don't harm the environment too much, this seems a pretty ordinary drilling. So what makes it so special that it needs its own word ?
- but the winner is 'belhel' (telephone hell). It has to do with the tax office having an information phone line which had to be 'open' for longer hours, which forced the easy decision to put cheap, uninformed people behind the buttons outside office hours. And a big red guy with horns and a pichfork. And fire. Because it's a phone hell. No, really. A phone hell, I'm telling you !

And The Winner Is...

You know the drill. Here are the Words of the Day for the past week, and then I'll pick the winner, which'll be the Word of the Week. I'm tired, too, so I won't bother with an explanation. Just accept it.

Monday: 'toekomst-mentoren'
Tuesday: 'waspoederdozenstriptekenaar'
Wednesday: 'klompconstructies'
Thursday: 'brommeldingen'
Friday: 'lasersquashen'
Saturday: 'sneeuwbalgooiers'

And the Word of the Week is... brommeldingen !

Choice Between Two Evils

Well, two likely candidates for the Word of the Day today. Both have to do with the snow - you'd think it NEVER snows in this country, the way the media and newspapers are paying attention to it this week. It's really the talk of the town that we call Holland...

The first one is 'snelwegchaos' (highway chaos). We need this word because there's an article on the front page that reports the roads are slippery due to the snow and there are lots of accidents. Not only could anyone with half a brain see this coming with days of nearly continuous snow, but do we really need a spectacular, even frightening, word like this to describe it ?

But on the next page of the newspaper I stumbled upon the word 'sneeuwbalgooiers' (snowball throwers). The cops have caught a 14-year old and a 16-year old boy who were throwing snowballs at cars along a highway. I can see my tax money's well spent - and of course, throwing a snowball is an entirely different kind of throwing than if it had been another kind of object. The difference is obviously so significant that we require a word describing people who throw a snowball.

As far as I'm concerned, the second one is the Word of the Day !
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some urgent drawings to finish.

No Need For The Paper Today.

Well, today's Word of the Day was easy, I didn't need to read any papers for it. I saw the word on posters in Tilburg, which announced that if you're really bored (and we all know many people are), you can go play 'lasersquashen' (laser raquetball). This is clearly something similar as 'disco bowling' - just the regular game, except you get a laser show to accompany it. I dunno, the balls in that game are so damn small and are moving back and forth so fast that I wouldn't want lasers distracting me. But hey, that's just me.
But 'just me' does so happen to have full control over this blog, so there you have it: it's the Word of the Day !

Hmmmmmmm

No long list today. I read this article on page two of the first newspaper I was searching, and decided to call 'brommeldingen' (humming reports) the Word of the Day because the article it was mentioned in is a beauty. I'm serious: it's like it's written by a poet, not a journalist. Below I've quoted the article, and I've put every expression and sentence I love in bold.

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Limburg onderzoekt mysterieuze 'brom'
MAASTRICHT - De provincie Limburg stelt een onderzoek in naar een mysterieuze bromtoon. Dat meldde de provincie gisteren. Honderden mensen in Zuid-Limburg tot aan Roermond toe klagen de laatste maanden over een laag gebrom, maar niemand weet waar dat vandaan komt. Het bromt niet bij iedereen; het zijn vooral 50-plussers die zeggen er last van te hebben. De meeste brommeldingen komen uit de gemeente Heerlen, die de provincie om een onderzoek vroeg.

De toon werd eind vorig jaar gezet door een inwoner van Bocholtz, die zei er constant last van te hebben. Bij het Meldpuntennetwerk Gezondheid en Milieu meldden zich vervolgens driehonderd mensen die zeiden hinder te hebben van een of andere brom. De provincie gaat nu proberen de bron van de brom op te sporen.
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I'll do my best to translate it:

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Limburg investigates mysterious 'hum'
MAASTRICHT - The province of Limburg is investigating a mysterious humming tone. The province announced this yesterday. Hundreds of people in South-Limburg, even up to Roermond, have been complaining the past months about a low humming, but no one knows where it comes from. It doesn't hum with everyone; it's mostly people past 50 who are complaining. Most of the humming reports are from the municipality Heerlen, which requested an investigation from the province.

The tone was set at the end of last year by a citizen of Bocholtz, who said to constantly suffer from this hum. At the Reporting Station-network Health and Environment threehundred other people reported being bothered by some kind of hum. The province is going to try to find the source of the hum.
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Why I love the bold sentences is mostly untranslatable, but if you take a look at the Dutch versions, you might be able to tell their poetic quality. I'm serious here: the article is a gem and belongs in a poetry book, not in a newspaper. And the word 'brommelding' is brilliant.

Snowballs !

It's finally snowing here - well, it has been snowing occasionally the past months, but it never really stayed and it didn't amount to much either. Right now there's a fairly thick layer outside the office and I've effortlessly made a few snowballs during smoke breaks to take back into the office and harrass colleagues with. Fun !

So let's see what kind of snow the newspaper journalists have been snorting today, shall we ?

- more news from the people who won't rest until the last cigarette smoker has either quit or is pushing up daisies: there's a continent-wide anti smoking campaign planned. Needless to say there's no way you can headline this article without the word 'Mega-antirookcampagne' (mega-anti-smoke-campaign), is there ? (there are also numerous appearances of the same word without the 'mega' part in the various articles, by the way.)
- and following up on the protesting students yesterday, what they are protesting against obviously also required a label: they are opposing the 'hogeronderwijsbeleid' (higher education policy).
- more protesting citizens: a lot of family doctors are protesting the health care insurance companies by simply referring every one of their patients straight to the hospital. Needless to say, mainly their patients suffer from these 'doorverwijsacties' (refer actions).
- terrorist attacks with biological weapons needed a catchier title. 'bioterrorisme'.
- advocates (or lawyers ? The context is unclear about that and so is the word) of human rights are so abundantly present that the Dutch language requires the word 'mensenrechtenadvocaten'.
- ok, I'm impatient because I want to go out and play in the snow a bit more, so I'm gonna quickly list some words here without their context that are all wrong because they're ragbags of words and as such not listed in the dictionary: 'ongrondwettigverklaring' (declaration that something is unconstitutional), 'asielzoekerscrisis' (asylum seekers crisis), 'defensieorgaan' (department within our Defense), 'levensloopbestendig' (literally translated: resistant against the course of life - here meaning 'purchased in preparation for possible future developments'), 'vuurwerkgooier' (person who threw fireworks), 'antiregerings-jeugdgroepen' (groups of youth opposing the government), 'levensliedzenders' (radio stations that play corny songs), 'breedbandconsumenten' (broadband consumers), 'internetdater' (no need for a translation) and 'donatieshow' (TV show to stimulate viewers to become organ donors).
- a special nomination for 'wietboulevard' (marijuana boulevard) since this applies to coffee shops (the Dutch meaning of the word..) spread all over the city of Maastricht, where they want to reduce their number from 18 to 6 or 7, located on two or three main locations. Can you figure out why this word was chosen to label this plan ? I can't either.
- and finally, apparently clogs are getting back into fashion - except they're not really clogs, but all different kinds of shoes and boots that just so happen to have wooden soles. I'm no expert, but I think it takes more than that to make a clog. However, these hybrids were casually called 'klompconstructies' (clog constructions) in the article, and it was too sweet to ignore.

And since I've given the fashion world far too much of a break so far, the Word of the Day is 'klompconstructies' and the journalist who coined that word should advertise for his dealer, because he's got some damn good snow on his nose.
And if you'll excuse me, I think it's time I play with some snow too.

Overloop !

My oldest and best friend Tom used to attempt to teach me how to program in Basic when we were young (age 13 or 14 or thereabouts, and yes, I realise nowadays the average three year old can outcode the likes of me in practically any computer language, but back then it was still semi-unusual to have these kinds of things as a hobby) and because my computer was a piece of crap without a harddrive and using the famous 5 1/4 inch floppies, I had to use a really light version of quickBasic, and the only one we had handy was a Dutch translated version. Every time you caused some kind of overflow it would simply say 'overflow' without additional information, but to make matters worse, the translater changed this into 'overloop'. Although technically correct ('overlopen' can mean 'overflow' and in that sense was correctly used) no one ever used, nor uses, the word 'overloop' in common language. There simply is no real noun of that verb in Dutch. Which, if you think about it, is kind of strange, considering the amounts of water my people have had to battle througout the centuries.

In any case, the word popped into my head today. Because by Jove, the newspapers are putting in a major effort to change my search for the Word of the Day from a difficult search to a difficult choice. I have a big lineup for today, and after about an hour of underlining things in the newspapers, I decided to stop and call it a day, being fairly certain that there's an absolute gem in this list somewhere.
And now I'm facing the task of serving you ALL the words I've found. It looks like it will be a strenuous task, so I am simply publishing this announcement now, and will update it with the full list later.

Just to let you all know to brace yourselves. Check back in a while.

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Update ! Here goes, wish me luck:

- first of all, I'd like to tip my hat to Peter Breedveld who coined the word 'waspoederdozenstriptekenaar' on the Stripliefhebbersforum. He's apparently planning to suggest the word to the editors of NRC, so there's a good chance it'll be in the papers tomorrow. It means 'laundry detergent box comic artist' and it refers to the 'Suske & Wiske' comics. They're big news right now in the Dutch / Belgian comics scene, because the Vandersteen Studio leader was sacked in what seems to be a very spin-doctored story of what kind of decision lead to this. Everyone's trying to guess and figure out what really happened, and Peter's word refers to the person who will be taking over the job. 'Suske & Wiske' also spawned a bunch of commercial productions, amongst which many special albums created solely as free presents with certain brands of laundry detergent in order to boost their sales. Obviously us comic snobs consider these commercial products as highly inferior even to the - IMHO - more and more unimpressive main series. In short: the word is definately not a compliment.

- From another big story illustrating our current government ass-raping the underprivileged and chucking the socialist nature of our society out the window:

* 'armoedeval' (poverty fall ? Or is it poverty trap ? I can't figure out a good translation of this word from the context, which makes the lack of clarity surrounding this word pretty evident) which is used to label the fact that in the newly proposed approach to unemployment and such, the really poor will not be stimulated to try and find work because they'll lose government support funds;
* 'rondpompstaat' (circulation pump state), which is a label attached to the current system and suggests that all the government funding put into solving unemployment and poverty is just going around in circles. It could just be me, but isn't the essence of a good economy that the money circulates ?

- 'Maagdenhuisbezetters' (Maagdenhuis occupants) -- another media hype word that will server no purpose once the students quit occupying the so called Maagdenhuis in a protest against government decisions in the field of education (you may have noticed from my reports that the government here is not making many friends amongst its citizens). Another gem from that story came from Sp!ts, who decided that 'vijfeneenhalfjaar' (five and a half years) apparently would serve a useful addition to the Dutch language as one word.
- 'internetbureau' (no translation required methinks) -- I'll admit, a weak candidate, but I assure you the word does not exist in the dictionary as one word ! Besides, 'bureau' can also mean desk (in all its meanings), so what exactly does this word mean if you see it out of context ? It's a fair nomination because it will not help making the Dutch language less confusing.
- 'ziekenhuisbacterie' (hospital bacterium) -- media-hype label surrounding the MRSA microbe which is multi-resistant, but now that the media reports it can also survive *outside* hospitals, the label really doesn't make any sense anymore. Lose it !
- From a big story about announced changes in the famous Dolfinarium:

* 'zeedierenleven' (marine animal life) -- we don't need to cram this into one word, folks.
* 'zeedierenentertainmentpark' (marine animal theme park) -- same comment, and in the Dutch version one can even argue about its meaning: are the visitors entertained because of the marine life, or is the marine life being entertained ? (A valid question, I'm beginning to realise as I continue to follow the news)

- From some stories about terrorist attacks througout the world.. I'm grouping these because they're all so damn similar:

* 'bomschoeman' (bomb shoe man) -- do I need to explain this one ? You know what qualities I'm looking for in words by now, right ?
* 'autobomaanslag' (car bomb attack) -- another very clear candidate, especially since it was a suicide attack using a car rigged with explosives. In Dutch, that would be 'zelfmoordaanslag met een auto uitgerust met explosieven'. Yes, it looks long, but don't fear change. Just say it like *that* next time. Try it. You'll feel better.
* 'bomauto' (bomb car) -- this is the beforementioned car rigged with explosives. We really needed this all-new word, didn't we ?

- 'boerenkorting' (farmer discount) -- this refers to a discount given to farmers who go to the upcoming (30 year anniversary) concert of Normaal, out of solidarity, because the band itself also consists of farmers. But as one whole word ? Couldn't we just have gone for 'korting voor boeren' (discount for farmers) ? Is there really *that* little space in the newspaper that you must compress this term ? Because from where I'm standing, there's plenty of other rubbish you could have chucked out instead.
- 'kourecord' (cold record) -- this is from a short story that in the German Alpes apparently past Sunday night was the coldest night in over a century. The word looks silly, and doesn't exist in the dictionary. Also, with global warming going on, I'm not entirely certain how many more 'cold records' we will see. It's nothing that couldn't have been said with two loose words, so I'm adding it to this list.
- I'm tempted to nominate 'extremisme' because of a column in the Metro by Kor Goutbeek who clearly explains how the meaning of this word is rapidly changing due to current events and he admirably argues to take the official meaning into account more.
- From a story about charity funds for the Third World come these words, that all look valid but do not exist in the dictionary: 'hulpgelden' (aid funds), 'armoedebestrijding' (fight against poverty), 'donorlievelingen' (donor favourites), 'prestigeobjecten' (prestige objects) and 'hulpontvangend' (aid receiving).
- From an article about a new online soap opera aimed at gay youth: 'homojongerensoap' (gay youth soap opera), 'homojongerenserie' (gay youth series), 'homojongerenstichting' (gay youth foundation) -- don't get me wrong, I'm not some gay basher, but does the gay community really require all these new words ?
- Tech words from several pages of tech news ! 'wappagina' (internet page that is WAP-enabled), 'prepaytelefoon' (prepay phone), 'smartphones' (...), 'krakersgroep' (in the context used as a group performing a DDOS-attack), 'computeraanval' (computer attack, here of course referring to the forementioned DDOS-attack), and 'snufjeshaters' (people who hate loads of extra features on equiptment).
- 'fietsvakantietouroperator' (cycle holiday tour operator).
- 'dopingperikelen' (sports narcotics vicissitudes).

Good grief.. LOOK at this list ! And there's still, no doubt, plenty of words I missed...

Ok, I now need to think about which of these will become the Word of the Day. Will update in another while again.

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Update two: I've thought it through (you kind of have to when you have to choose between thirty-one words !) and considering length, meaning, rarity, limited target audience, and my perogative as sole dictator of anything that happens on this blog, the Word of the Day is: 'waspoederdozenstriptekenaar' ! (Congratulations, Peter !)

I really hope tomorrow's newspapers will be slightly less ambitious in their attempts to expand the Dutch vocabulary.