The city of Venlo will get a clinic specifically to cure nail biters from their destructive habit, reports daily De Volkskrant (Dutch). A treatment at the so-called O Centrum (Onychophagia Centre) takes two hours. The clinic started last month, and opens its doors officially in September. “Patients” will get to wear a type of mouth guard, the Preventor, that, er, should prevent them from biting their nails.
August 6, 2007
Hospital for nailbiters
Tags: Nailbiting, therapy
August 3, 2007
Astronaut Kuipers gets a planetoid named after him
After spending nine days in the International Space Station (ISS) in 2004, Dutch astronaut André Kuipers now has a planetoïd named after him by the International Astronomical Union. The small planet revolves around the sun between the planets Mars and Jupiter. It was discovered by a Leiden astronomer couple, the late C.J. van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld on photos that were taken by Dutch astronomer Tom Gehrelsde in the US. The Leiden astronomers had discovered more than 1,000 planetoïds.
(Link: Kennislink)
August 2, 2007
Journalist fined for insulting Queen Beatrix
Are you a journalist and bored with the lack of exciting news this summer? Then you too should try and insult the Queen!
A 17-year-old journalist of Spunk magazine was caught together with her cameraman for – you guessed it – insulting the Queen. She was wearing a T-shirt that read “The Queen is a whore” (in Dutch of course). To make her point she also had a T-shirt that read “All moslims are goat fuckers”, which refers to a comment made by the late Theo van Gogh to prove that freedom of speech was an issue in the Netherlands, especially with Moslims.
The journalist and cameraman asked passers-by which text was more insulting and while interviewing people, were fined and their T-shirts and film were confiscated. They were also jailed for three hours. And then they made the news.
(Link: rtl.nl)
Tags: Queen Beatrix, Theo van Gogh
August 1, 2007
Homeless man fined for insulting Dutch Queen
After 38 years of nothingness, someone has again been fined for insulting the Queen. This week a homeless Surinamese man from Amsterdam was fined EUR 400 for insulting the Queen and a policeman. Experts are surprised the Queen needs to be protected from vagrants and blame the fine on the current Dutch government obsession with “norms and values”. The man yelled, “I hate your Queen. The Queen of the Netherlands is a whore.” Then, he went on to describe the sexual acts he would do to the Queen. “She’d like that.”
The last time someone was nailed for insulting the Queen was in 1969 when artist Bernhard Willem Holtrop drew a picture of Queen Juliana as a prostitute with a sign above her head that read “5,2 million gulders”. The idea was to protest against the high price of the Royal family. The insult cost Holtrop 200 guilders.
Ironically, famous Dutch white folk have also insulted the Queen as of late in front of large audiences and were never fined. Comedian Hans Teeuwen pretended to have sex with Beatrix on stage and writer Youp van ’t Hek wrote that, “the Dutch audience would be shocked if Willem-Alexander (regent prince) and Beatrix were caught doing it at the monument on the Dam (in Amsterdam)”.
(Link: Trouw)
July 30, 2007
24 oranges at the Tour finish line!
While the doping scandals rage on, the show must go on – and it did. Just watching these guys whiz by is enough to make you forget everything and enjoy the colourful peloton being cheered on by all those people in downtown Paris.
It’s slightly OT, but our very own Orangemaster was at the finish line of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées in the pressbox taking pictures and filming! Here is a sample.
A huge thanks to Philippe and Jean Michel, two French radio announcers who made this possible and made me remember what the Tour is really about – cycling.
Oh, and for the Dutch fans, everybody thought it was great to see the rest of the Rabobank team race and not abandon the race for one “bad guy”. In my press guide of the Tour, former cyclist Bernard Hinault was quoted as saying, “every year, I say the same thing: they (Rabobank) have a solid, homogenous team that can score on the straights and in the mountains.”
Daniele Bennati crossing the finish line, winning the Champs-Élysées stage.
“La voix du Tour” (The voice of the Tour) since 1974, Daniel Mangeas, very friendly and took a few minutes to chat.
Britain’s David Millar, leader of the Saunier Duval-Prodir team giving an interview minutes after the race.
Tags: Champs-Élysées, doping, scandal, Tour de France
July 29, 2007
Zone 5300: more of same
![[cover]](https://www.24oranges.nl/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/zone_5300-14_2-cover.jpg)
The summer edition of Dutch “comics, culture & curiosa” mag Zone 5300 has been out for a while, but I have been a bit busy and haven’t been able to discuss the issue here before. Loads of the house comics are presented in this issue (you know, Beach Man, Maaike, Boerke, and even an Hibou). The boys from Lamelos (translation: Lemmego) have a mister Doodiehead and his friend Cheesehead guard a diamond from criminal hedgehogs (pleonasm, or an all too necessary amplification of the truth?).
Illustration by Lamelos.
Among the rare guest strips are the (autobiographic?) Love Story by Wittek, and Voodoo Koedoe (which rhymes in Dutch), in which Joshua Peeters gets in touch with his inner wigger. “Come on Dorothy, let me tell you about the missionary position.”
Illustration by Joshua Peeters.
Furthermore, an article exploring the use of corpses in art, and the usual barrage of book, music and film reviews. In Fool’s Gold, Milan Hulsing and Frits Jonker ask what happened to Die Sprechende Türkin, an early 19th century speech synthesizer built as half an android (the top half, of course), so if you know the answer, don’t hesitate to mail them.
Tags: Fool's Gold, rare comics, Zone 5300
July 27, 2007
Tour de France bad business for Dutch bakers
The firing of Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen has caused cake problems. As sponsor, the Rabobank had promised every employee in the country ‘yellow jersey’ cake after they would win the Tour, which seemed pretty likely at the time. Since the party is so not going to happen, neither is the big order for the Dutch pastry company in Haarlem overseeing the order. Lucky for them, all those Dutch bakeries were planning on starting their cakes this weekend, so it’s not a complete disaster.
(Link: zibb)
Tags: baking, Haarlem, Michael Rasmussen
July 26, 2007
Man ‘rapes’ sheep, but did the sheep suffer?
In the fields of Haaksbergen, Overijssel the police arrested a man ‘raping’ a sheep because the sheep’s owner, who must have seen it happen, filed a complaint. Sex with animals in the Netherlands is only punishable by law if there is proof the animal suffered and the police need to investigate the matter further.
So if the police conclude the animal did not suffer, it can’t be called rape. But what was it? It surely wasn’t consentual. What about ‘abusing’ someone else’s property? Yes, animals are property here last time I checked. Any thoughts, people?
This is not the first time that sex with animals has made it on 24 oranges. The law hasn’t changed since the last time we posted about it.
(Link: rtl.nl)
Tags: bestiality, sheep
July 25, 2007
Wild pig season opens in Epe
Today the town of Epe, Gelderland has declared open hunting season on wild pigs. Apparently, the boars cause problems inside and outside of town, wrecking gardens and wandering downtown at night, catching drivers off guard. Solution? Shoot them on the edge of town, because they will reproduce. When they make it in town, they will be shot at with a gun used for fireworks. Thursday the real shooting will get underway by people hired to do so.
Is it just me or will local restaurants with culinary insight want to get in on this?
(Link: blik op nieuws)
July 24, 2007
Follow detour signs, not your GPS
The city of Roermond, Limburg has placed six warning signs telling lorry drivers to follow the detour signs and not their navigation system. Foreign lorry drivers regularly get their vehicles stuck trusting their navigation system, which does not tell them which streets are closed off due to road works on the A73, N280-Oost and N293. These symbols were chosen so that foreigners can understand them. The word ‘attentie’ looks like the English ‘attention’ and the Italian ‘attenzione’. The word ‘omleiding’ (‘detour’) is also used because that is what it says on the actual detour signs.
And so the city has to wait and see if it actually works.
(Link: De Limburger, Gemeente Roermond)
Tags: cultural differences, GPS, language, Roermond