Erik Hofman writes: > > Please excuse me for my mistakable posting. It was not my intention to > > attack anyone personally. > > No problem. I can handle it (I won't even think about the number of > jokes about the Dutch in the USA (and Germany?) ...)
There are still a lot left of Dutch jokes over from the 17th century, when England and the Netherlands were rival colonial powers: Dutch defense (surrendering) Dutch treat (making the other person pay a share) Dutch uncle (not your uncle) Dutch concert (a lot of noise) Dutch courage (liquor) and so on, where "Dutch" usually means that the following word has an opposite sense. All of these except for "Dutch treat" are now very rare, and no one really thinks of "Dutch treat" as an insult any more. In Ottawa, we'll be beginning our annual tulip festival in a few weeks: http://www.tulipfestival.ca/ Every year, the Dutch government sends over millions of tulip bulbs, and our National Capital Commission plants them all around our parks and canals. It's an annual gift from the Dutch government to thank Canada for sheltering part of the Dutch royal family during WW II (Princess Margriet was born a few minutes' walk from my house) and for helping to liberate the Netherlands at the end of the war. The result of all this is that we're not all that inclined to make Dutch jokes. All the best, David -- David Megginson, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.megginson.com/ _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
