I'm ill and I'm - to sing a very familiar song - very busy on top of that, so I'm gonna just announce the word of the week and leave it at that for today.
First the round-up of all of this week's winners...
Monday: vrijetijdsnotaris
Tuesday: douane-unie
Wednesday: hypo-allergene poes
Thursday: crisisbedrijven
Friday: woonextremist
Saturday: borstenreportage
And the winner is... crisisbedrijven !
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Saturday Search.
Ok, I didn't get to put much effort into the search for the Word of today, but I found one nonetheless, with thanks to the Metro: "borstenreportage". A 'reportage' means a news article or news report, and 'borsten' means breasts. This has to do with the American 'nipplegate' (Janet Jackson) and the Dutch 'boobsgate' (Georgina Verbaan, the question of wether 'they' are 'real' or not occupied the minds of many of my countrymen for a sad, long time..) and now a new similar event: a soap-actress got a boobjob, from a reportedly already rather pleasant size to D-cup, and this was paid for by a radio DJ who told her he'd pick up the bill if she had the logo of the radio station tattood on her body somewhere as well, which she agreed to.
Yeah.. folks, not only is it sad that these things make it into the news, it's also three completely unrelated and unsimilar items, except that they have 'something' to do with celebrities' breasts. I really don't think we need this word. Begone, Useless Label !
Will return at some time tomorrow with the definitive pick of the Word of the Week :)
Yeah.. folks, not only is it sad that these things make it into the news, it's also three completely unrelated and unsimilar items, except that they have 'something' to do with celebrities' breasts. I really don't think we need this word. Begone, Useless Label !
Will return at some time tomorrow with the definitive pick of the Word of the Week :)
Friday, January 28, 2005
Crayyy-zee.
Yet another busy day, ughhh... I need some sleep, man. And there's not a single day this weekend that I'll get to REALLY sleep in ! I suppose today wasn't half bad though, because I got to go gift shopping for the two (female) friends that are celebrating their birthday in my house tomorrow night, and I got to do that efficiently, meaning: with a girl (shopping for females with female company is always easier, they can help you pick out women-friendly presents and steer clear from the terrible ones, no matter how awesome they might seem to YOU). The girlfriend of one of my best friends, who was also at a loss what to get 'em. That was cool, she's always friendly and fun to hang out with and we actually did - miraculously - manage to find some half-decent presents that'll do the trick methinks.
Course, after that, I had to hurry to get all the other things done I needed to do, and I'm currently still doing them. Brrrr. I could do with a little rest. Honestly.
Anyway, on to the word of the day, because I haven't forgotten about what I pledged... thank you Volkskrant, who wrote about problematic tenants. Every municupality has 'em, apparently, and they're constantly causing ruckus. Needless to say the article first has to lable these people 'woonextremisten' (woon means to live somewhere, and we all know all too well by now what extremists are), and then asks the question: where should housing agencies relocate these people to ? So the idea is suggested that there should be special 'asshole houses', 'hufterhuizen'. These two gems, in ONE alinea, in the same article ! Can you believe it ?? Wow.. and it's hard to choose between these two as well.
I'm gonna go with 'woonextremisten', since the proposed solution is a new concept and will probably be discussed a lot. So it needs a name and yes, I suppose it *will* be called that as the unofficial name in casual conversation. However, when are we ever gonna talk about 'woonextremisten', and more importantly, isn't that word just way too confusing ? How can you live somewhere *extremely* ?! "Yeah, I live here, but lemme tell ya, my wife lives here EXTREMELY."
*rolls his eyes*
So the winner of today: 'woonextremist' !!
Course, after that, I had to hurry to get all the other things done I needed to do, and I'm currently still doing them. Brrrr. I could do with a little rest. Honestly.
Anyway, on to the word of the day, because I haven't forgotten about what I pledged... thank you Volkskrant, who wrote about problematic tenants. Every municupality has 'em, apparently, and they're constantly causing ruckus. Needless to say the article first has to lable these people 'woonextremisten' (woon means to live somewhere, and we all know all too well by now what extremists are), and then asks the question: where should housing agencies relocate these people to ? So the idea is suggested that there should be special 'asshole houses', 'hufterhuizen'. These two gems, in ONE alinea, in the same article ! Can you believe it ?? Wow.. and it's hard to choose between these two as well.
I'm gonna go with 'woonextremisten', since the proposed solution is a new concept and will probably be discussed a lot. So it needs a name and yes, I suppose it *will* be called that as the unofficial name in casual conversation. However, when are we ever gonna talk about 'woonextremisten', and more importantly, isn't that word just way too confusing ? How can you live somewhere *extremely* ?! "Yeah, I live here, but lemme tell ya, my wife lives here EXTREMELY."
*rolls his eyes*
So the winner of today: 'woonextremist' !!
Thursday, January 27, 2005
No, no, no, no.
Two nominees already, and both just got me shaking my head. Come on, journalist folk, be reasonable (agreed that some journalists simply can't seem to, but try, at least)... do we need the word 'Nintendospelcomputer' ? Why can't you just say 'Nintendo game console' or some other combination of loose words ?
And when you write an article about one fifth of all small and middle sized companies in the Netherlands being in seperate financial crises, why on earth are you introducing the word 'crisisbedrijven' (crisis companies) there ? I mean, the way that word is built, you'd either expect that such a company *produces* crises, or produces something *against* crises, but not that they *are* in crisis. This word is just wrong, wrong, wrong - it will lead to misunderstandings if it enters commonly spoken Dutch, which will cause discussions that use terms that both speakers are using differently, it will make foreigners who are trying to integrate pull out more of their hairs in frustration, it's WRONG.
I'm keeping an eye on you all, and if I spot any more of such abborations today, I'm nominating it here rightaway. Consider yourselves warned.
And when you write an article about one fifth of all small and middle sized companies in the Netherlands being in seperate financial crises, why on earth are you introducing the word 'crisisbedrijven' (crisis companies) there ? I mean, the way that word is built, you'd either expect that such a company *produces* crises, or produces something *against* crises, but not that they *are* in crisis. This word is just wrong, wrong, wrong - it will lead to misunderstandings if it enters commonly spoken Dutch, which will cause discussions that use terms that both speakers are using differently, it will make foreigners who are trying to integrate pull out more of their hairs in frustration, it's WRONG.
I'm keeping an eye on you all, and if I spot any more of such abborations today, I'm nominating it here rightaway. Consider yourselves warned.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Some Words on Wednesday
Incredibly busy day so I don't have long here. Good things are happening and I'll update someday soon, but for now I can only leave you with the word of the day:
Hypo-allergene poes. Yes, these are two words. But really, when the government is having a sincere debate about wether or not genetic manipulation of pets would be allowed, and the argument that if you can create a cat whose hairs won't cause allergic reactions, they'd see the added value for the public's health in that and actually approve of it, but in many other cases they consider it a bad thing, and this poor imaginary kitty is labeled 'hypo-allergene poes' when it doesn't even exist yet, how can I *not* nominate this ???
More tomorrow, I'm sure.
Hypo-allergene poes. Yes, these are two words. But really, when the government is having a sincere debate about wether or not genetic manipulation of pets would be allowed, and the argument that if you can create a cat whose hairs won't cause allergic reactions, they'd see the added value for the public's health in that and actually approve of it, but in many other cases they consider it a bad thing, and this poor imaginary kitty is labeled 'hypo-allergene poes' when it doesn't even exist yet, how can I *not* nominate this ???
More tomorrow, I'm sure.
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