What a catch

Read a story in Reuters.com the other day from one of the nations
I have written about on several occasions, The Netherlands, but
this one was actually NOT risque or morally questionable....for a
change! A 13 year old boy was fishing just off the coast of the
Dutch town of Zierikzee when he felt a heavy tug on his line. Alas,
it wasn't a big fish, but a scuba diver who had been swimming
close to shore. The unlucky diver got hooked in his lower lip; a
doctor was able to remove the hook safely. I found this story rather
amusing as I had run across a similar story while living overseas
several years ago. A scuba diver in the Mediterranean Sea suffered
a similar fate, becoming the catch of the day for an erstwhile fisher-
man. The story became the butt of several jokes, but I bet that
scuba diver wasn't laughing!

Dutch Driver

Read a great story on the Reuters website about another odd
event in one of my fave countries (for their unconventional
antics anyway!), The Netherlands. During a random traffic
checkpoint set up by police in Amsterdam, an 84 year old
man was pulled over. Police discovered that not only was his
car uninsured, but that he had been driving without a driver's
license for 67 years! Apparently the man had never gotten a
speeding ticket, nor had been in an accident, hence why his
flaunting of the law had never been discovered. The octoge-
narian promised police that he would get rid of his car (which
had also never been inspected!). No word if he was headed to
the Dutch DMV to finally get his driver's license, more than 6
decades after he first got behind the wheel!

The Dutch.....again!

This was a story I meant to bring to y'all sooner, but with all the goings
on at the restaurant, it got put to the backburner. But no more - and
here it is, another story from that hotbed of scandal - The Netherlands!
Yes, our good friends the Dutch just keep vindicating my belief that they
are by far the most liberal folks in Europe. According to CNN, an
Amsterdam judge recently ruled that peep shows are a form of theater
and that club owners are therefore entitled to a hefty tax break. Fans
of Madonna, such as myself, should be familiar with peep shows; the
video for her 1986 song 'Open Your Heart' featured the Material Girl
performing in a peep show as an exotic dancer in front of clientele in
various booths. (she would get more scandalous as the 80's closed and
the 90's entered.) But I digress. The judge justified his decision with the
following statement: "Admitting customers to peep shows is equivalent
to admitting them to a theater performance. The erotic character of the
performance does not diminish that." Because of this decision, owners
of peep show 'theaters' could receive thousands of tax Euros back. Gee,
so nice to know that in Holland, strippers have the same stature as
actors who partake in a play by Shakespeare, O'Neill, or Chekhov!

The Dutch are at it again

I have never been to The Netherlands, and know only a couple of
people who have. It appears to be a fairly attractive country, with
a bit of history as well. But as I have reported in this blog previously,
the Dutch folk are a bit on the liberal side - a statue dedicated to
prostitutes being a prime example of this. Now they have taken
open-mindedness to another level. A gym in the town of Heteren,
starting March 4th, will begin offering training sessions for nudists.
Every Sunday morning, nudist gym members will be allowed to, as
the CNN headline to the story stated, "get buff in the buff." Well
alrighty then! Gym manager Patrick de Man said that the Sunday
sessions were introduced due to popular demand but that "anyone
who shows up just to ogle will thrown out." Furthermore, staff
members will remain clothed and will pay special attention to
hygiene, making sure the au natural clients use towels or disposable
covers on bikes and other fitness machines. Nude gym sessions -
what's next, special times for nudists to grocery shop in the buff?
OOPS, I probably just gave some Dutchman an idea!