What the Dutch Did with It ‒ Holiday, by Madonna
All my life, I have been amazed how fellow Dutchmen can butcher well-known songs into the most head-scratching, mind-boggling, cringing…
Blogs
Emilie and the Freudian Slipper
It is a well-known image used to illustrate the conservative atmosphere and traditional gender roles of the 1950’s: the husband…
Henchman on the Sofa ‒ Vyacheslav Menzhinsky: Poet and Hangman
Bolsheviks and poetry are not the most likely combination. Lenin even quit playing the piano because he felt it distracted…
About ‘Green Happiness’ and Why “Grease Is the Word” was My Favourite Song This Week
This is the life of illusion Wrapped up in trouble laced with confusion What we doing here? – Frankie Valli,…
Willard Libby, Hessel de Vries, and the Poles of Saint Walburga
The revelations of an ex-libris I think all buyers of used books know about this: finding an ex-libris or other…
(A very, very late) 60(/61) Years of Eurovision: Ranking the Dutch – Part 6 (10-1): The Best
Dear Eurovision, WHAT THE HELL?! I had been planning to start off the last part of this series with an…
A Bit of Peace, a Bit of Love – Ralph Siegel: Eurovision Maniac
As the 2016 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is approaching, I sometimes feel like a last Mohican: still naïvely…
About the Dutch National Book Week and the Horrors of an Oral Examination
Yesterday marked the start of the traditional Dutch Book Week, an event to promote buying books. To start things off,…
Cats, Old Deuteronomy, …and Sugar Coated Anti-Semitism?!
I have a few confessions to make… The first one being that I’m slightly intoxicated while writing this. I know…
Borys Humeniuk: ‘The Tank of Ukrainian Literature’ in the Netherlands
The Ukrainian poet Borys Humeniuk is angry. Angry at the Dutch media. Not because his poetry was badly received, but…