Stupid Questions for Husker

The spandex thing isn't something you urban Dutch are too guilty of. There's not much point in getting all dressed up to ride just to find out that you're rattling bike has been stolen again and you'll have to go down to the thieves market and drop 25 guilders on another one.

25 GUILDERS!!!??? Are you crazy?!

"Tientje", honey, thaz all you should pay.

Actually, the market's bad nowadays. They really clamped down on it, somehow, in this town anyway.

First line Anastasia learned in Dutch: "fiets kopen?"

Actually, that wasnt quite the first. That could have been "op die fiets".

I heard one of my Moroccan colleagues say that once, young girl who "didnt fall on her mouth", as we say, and she said, "oh - op die fiets!" Which means simply, 'oh, that way', but it sounds very strange from a Moroccan girl. So, get integrated - say "op die fiets" ... and: "tientje?".

i've always walked there (well, while i was there; planes and trains have got me close enough to start walking); but now i know, eh?

by the way, how much is tientje? the dictionaries are telling me there is no such thing (but i don't believe them -- 20's my guess).

A "tientje" is a ten-guilder note. Don't really know if we now use it for a ten-euro note (which would be worth twice as much), too ...

Market price for a stolen bike (from y'r typical 5 AM junk whispering "fiets kopen" while cycling rounds around the block) would've been ten guilders; 15 only for suckers like me. But with the police clampdown (on buyers as well as sellers) the last few years the price has gone up, it's true.

We used to have all these names for money: "dubbeltje" for that tiny 10-cents coin, "stuiver" for the 5c, "kwartje" for the 25c; "piek" for the 2g50c coin, and then up into the bills with "joet", "geeltje", "meier" - now, with the Euro, all that must have changed a bit, I'd say, though I haven't really been listening out for it. I'm sure some linguist/anthropologist is researching it at this very moment ... ;-)

I drive an old Volvo with no apparent place to positon one's caffe latte or plain old soda pop. I once priced a new center gear shift cover with amenities, it was something like $1100. What is a Volvo girl to do???

Here's a mystery - how did we manage to devote so much time to the market in stolen Dutch bicycles? The day my young 'uns stick me in the nursing home I'll become an expert. Today, I'd rather know why they put the motor in the REAR of the VW?

Osso - make extensive use of the backseat with like-minded folk. It's a cure for most automobile-connected worry.

Pssssst . . . . air-cooled engine, Boss, it actually makes a good deal of sense in the original beetle . . .

Well, it's not like there's any less air in the front of the damn thing....

The point being that heat vents more efficiently when it is not "pooled" against the fire wall . . .

But, that other great piece of German auto manufacture, the Trabant, didn't have this feature! Hmmm..........











Setanta - I can see you!!!

Actually, i'm not claiming any expertise--when i lived in Carbondale, Illinois, there was an old German who ran a filling station, with a garage. He didn't sell that much gasoline, but there was always a waiting list for people to get service on their VW's. He would only work on VW's, and had a sign out front to that effect. A friend of mine had a 1965 beetle, and he used wax rhapsodic when my friend took it in. He was normally rather taciturn, but when "Beauregard" showed up for repairs, he would hold forth at length on the design genius of the beetle . . .





[size=8]I see you Mr. S . . . [/size]

Can you see me now, Mr. Stillwater?

Is it true that blondes have more fun and that only a fat man can play a trumpet?

Is the genius design of the beetle (field-level maintenance, yes indeed) irrelevant if you drive extensively in reverse?

Given the increased likelihood of a accident rendering the vehicle inoperative . . . yes . . .

I'll stick with BMW, thank you very much. 1984 325e, runs like a top. Had it up to 100MPH just this morning passing latte lovers on 101. Tata, lard asses.

Try explaining that to the fun-loving trumpet playing Laura Flynn Boyle

Is it true that only fat men can pay a strumpet?