October 30, 2013

Famous Dutch game show invites nudists to audition

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 3:55 pm

A few years back, we had going to church naked and naked fitness, and now it’s time for a naked game show on television, with words and balls.

The Dutch game show Lingo, based on an American game show, has been a household viewing staple for decades. It features guessing words of a certain length and unscrambling longer words. Winning a round entitles you to pick balls with numbers to be checked off a bingo card, hence the name.

Lingo is auditioning nudists for a special naked version of the television program. First thing the producers make clear is that participants won’t be chosen based on what they look like, which in TV land has to be partially untrue. And the popular game show host Lucille Werner says she will join in by taking it all off. The show is scheduled to air on May 2014.

Back in 2011 this episode of Lingo went viral, as a smart guy used the word ‘cumshot’ and everyone had a good laugh.

(Link: www.nieuws.nl, Photo of the first Philips colour TV from 1964 by Philips, used with permission)

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October 17, 2013

Kids to learn about alcohol by setting up a booze shack

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:14 pm

An elementary school in the Achterhoek, a region to the East that extends into Germany, has decided to teach kids in grades 5 and 6 (the oldest kids) the evils of boozing it up in an illegal booze shack (in Dutch, ‘zuipkeet’), which usually attracts underaged drinkers.

However, the school’s plan is to do this by letting the kids set up a drink shack to find out what it is like in order to tell them about group drinking and fire safety. The school claims that the goal is not to show kids how to set up shop, but to teach them how bad drinking is if ever they do set up shop because then they’ll do it safely.

According to the media and public opinion, rural areas apparently have booze shacks, which are at least partially responsible for teenagers learning the fine art of binge drinking. I’ve never seen one, but I’m sure they are more real than unicorns.

Yes, we get that kids should learn about responsible drinking or the effects alcohol has on their growing bodies and all that, but I wonder whether parents will be thrilled about this method.

(Links: www.nieuws.nl, www.omroepgelderland.nl)

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September 5, 2013

Guilt-ridden thief brings back part of his loot

Filed under: Food & Drink,General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 1:07 pm

Thieves are not necessarily the sharpest pencils in the pencil case, but this thief, caught on camera, is slow and a bit daft.

He apparently stole a big television, but came back an hour later and put it back properly, plugging in the cables and all, which took him an hour, according to the restaurant manager.

He also stole two laptops and three bottles of whiskey, which he kept, you know, like a proper thief should.

Nobody knows yet why he brought the telly back. My guesses are:
1. He couldn’t get the drugs or other illegal things for it.
2. He couldn’t sell it.
3. He watched the match and was done with it afterwards.

(Link: www.waarmaarraar.nl, Photo of Whiskey bottles by rickerbh, some rights reserved)

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August 16, 2013

Fax machine dies and pony crusher rides again

Filed under: Animals,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:18 am

We found the slowest summer news item of 2013: ‘The town of Uitgeest [North Holland] is ‘limiting’ its communication with citizens’, the Dutch title reads. What gives? The town hall of Uitgeest has cancelled its fax number after an employee discovered that the fax machine had broken down last month. Since many people don’t use faxes anymore and the town can’t be bothered to buy a new fax machine if even possible, faxing time is over in Uitgeest.

Amusingly enough I talked to a reporter from RTV Noord Holland about this and asked him why they thought this was newsworthy. He laughed and told me that the guy who wrote the story lives in Uitgeest. Then I talked to him about some news they broke this summer about a woman (a firefighter no less) making disturbing videos sitting on ponies to crush them. Apparently, she’s back horseback riding after having spent some time in jail. She claimed to have made the films for money during a bad patch.

The Dutch word ‘ponypletter’ (‘pony crusher’) and ‘ponyplet’ (to pony crush’) was coined by my source and could possibly be on the list for a Dutch word award despite its connotation.

(Link: www.rtvnh.nl, Photo of Dead fax machine by shalf, some rights reserved)

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August 3, 2013

Dutch comedian fined for smoking on live television

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 8:31 am

Dutch television chain VPRO was fined 600 euro last Sunday for letting heavy smoker and comedian Hans Teeuwen smoke during an interview. The VPRO hosts a summer filler chat show called ‘Zomergasten’ (summer guests) that features long, in-depth interviews with celebrities.

If the VPRO lets someone smoke again and gets caught, the fine could go up to a maximum of 4500 euro.

What if someone smokes during a play or a while making a movie? And as I write this, the media is still figuring out who will get the fine, the studio owner or someone of the VPRO.

All I know about Hans Teeuwen is that he dared perform in English

(Link: nos.nl. Photo: screen capture of VPRO’s programme.)

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July 29, 2013

Dutch postal worker burned mail

Filed under: General,Weird by Branko Collin @ 11:39 am

A 26-year-old woman from Swalmen, Limburg has been burning the mail she was supposed to deliver in her short-lived career as a postal worker.

Apparently she said she did not feel like delivering all that mail, though Spitsnieuws doesn’t mention who she told this to.

The woman had been a postal worker for two weeks. Post.nl fired her and reported her to the police. The company also sent the victims a letter informing telling them what happened.

Former state monopolist Post.nl has been replacing well-trained, well-paid postal workers with hard to employ people with little or no experience who are willing to work — or not work, as the case may be — for little money.

See also: Dutch postal strike ends after reaching an agreement

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June 28, 2013

Uselessly small parking spaces pop up in The Hague

Filed under: Automobiles,Nature,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:15 am

Parking in The Hague neighbourhood of Oud-Leyenburg is apparently a problem, which is why the city is working on it by creating some 500 parking spots. However in the Soesterbergstraat, construction workers worked some magic to get a round a tree that they didn’t have permission to move and have created a few completely useless ‘parking spots’.

On my street, Smart brand cars, which are very small, park quite creatively as well. Even Smarts wouldn’t fit in the wee spots The Hague has created. Smurf parking only?

(Link: www.omroepwest.nl)

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June 13, 2013

Unemployed street cleaner sweeps to keep benefits

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:28 pm

Harry, 53, lost his job as a street cleaner in The Hague due to budget cuts. Harry now gets benefits while he looks for another job. To keep his benefits, Harry has to work as a street cleaner (he has the experience, right?), but for 400 euro less a month. Keeping Harry on the streets sweeping means the government gets the exact same work done, but pays Harry less, so Harry went to the media with this one.

Usually a re-integration into the labour market job is to help people find a new job, so how does this work then? If Harry was learning some new skills in order to get a new job, it wouldn’t have made the papers.

(Link: www.ad.nl, Photo of Broom on wet floor by Shyb, some rights reserved)

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May 22, 2013

Spending the night in revamped trams and trains

Filed under: Automobiles,Aviation,Design,Music,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:02 pm

Named after a house that is in turn named after the Prince album Controversy, the Controversy Tram Inn in Hoogwoud, North Holland features overnight stays for the entire family in city trams and railcars converted into five rooms. As well, there are all kinds of other vehicles strewn throughout their farm estate.

Frank and Irma Appel have restored a four-berth train carriage and four themed tram bedrooms in either end of two city centre tram railcars that used to run on the streets of Amsterdam and Germany. You can’t help but join in the lifestyle that Frank and Irma have created! They themselves sleep inside a London Double Decker bus, installed in the living room, and their kitchen and breakfast area is a converted French van. Their house is decorated with cars, and motor paraphernalia.

You can’t miss the house, it has a Mig fighter plane right outside.

(Links: www.controversy.nl, www.unusualhotelsoftheworld.com, Photo: Controversy Inn)

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May 3, 2013

Ex professor Diederik Stapel now pitches corporate Dunglish

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:02 pm

Dutch business magazine Quote has unveiled that the ‘professor’ who brought us piles of fake scientific research has become a language consultant. The nutty professor had a sales pitch on his website that has since been pulled, pitching him as, “being available as an opinionated consultant, motivator, coach, brand and identity language consultant, speaker, etc.”, and a whole bunch of other jargon-filled functions that show how narcissistic he really is, how crappy his Dutch is and how full of crap he still is.

He no longer has a Ph.D. as he was stripped of his title in 2011, but of course he has the right to go into business for himself. He has called his business Pile Consult. My comment is fair game for ridicule as he chose an English language name, not a Dutch one.

Just in case some of you don’t get it, Stapel, his last name, means Pile, as in a pile of things. Unfortunately, ‘pile’, or better yet ‘piles’ also refers to haemorrhoids. ‘Consultancy’ would also make more sense, but hey, we are dealing with a nut job. His ‘research’ was surely more akin to diarrhoea.

(Links: nederl.blogspot.nl, www.quotenet.nl)

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