Dutch is a very guttural language. The names of the days of the week end with  “dag” wth the "g" pronounced a bit like the "ch" in  “loch” in Scots English. After reciting all seven days I had to wipe off my computer monitor. No wonder the country allows smoking of marijuana. It's the only way they can tolerate talking to each other. ... I see that my Dutch phrase book has been updated. It includes handy phrases like, "Where are the prostitutes?" and "What can I get for 30 euros?" ...  Actually, I'd think the worst thing about going to the Red Light district would be to run into someone you know who works there. It would be an awkward conversation. "What are the hours like?" "Is there a good career path?" "Do you get overtime?" ... It's funny. Despite the country's liberal tendencies, working to learn some Dutch via Rosetta Stone makes it clear that people are pretty picky about using formal or informal versions of the word "you" with them. ... The economy is so bad in Greece that the country has taken out another mortgage on the Parthenon. ... Listened to a brief interview with two members of the Village People last week. They are still touring, but they are getting old enough they have trouble stretching enough to form the letters. "uuh Y uhh, ow M, OMG that hurts C ....uh uh, uh, ah, forget it." ... Egyptologists have announced the discovery of a new tomb and an inscription that appears to be the first reference to TV host Larry King. The hieroglyphs translate as "Old man of many, many wives."  Actually, King and his seventh wife are parting company. If he marries again, PBS will run the "Eight Wives of Larry King" along with "The Eight Wives of Henry the Eighth", a King of a different sort. Larry is scheduled to receive the Mickey Rooney Lifetime Achievement award.

After rebooting my browser, router and computer to resolve a Wi-Fi problem, I commented how nice it would be if rebooting would help my daughter’s performance. ... With small Butler University having come close to winning the national college basketball championship, Indiana University, whose own program has fallen on hard times, is considering a hostile takeover of Butler. It would fire the I.U. team and sell off most of Butler's assets to support the program. Read more...