No.324, December 2023

No. 324 - December 2023
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The Editor's Bit

Let’s start with last month’s Cover Competition! I thought it would be easy, given the location of the statues, but I was wrong. There were a lot of guesses from people I met in person, but none of them were right and the only correct answer came from over 8500km away in Texas, so the Honourable Mention goes to “Big Al” Sells. He even told me the name of the building, but I would have accepted above the Jumbo supermarket on Damrak.

To be honest, I’d never noticed them before but I don’t think I’m alone in not looking up when you walk around town. I lived here for over 20 years before I noticed the big church at the top of Spuistraat and the amazing ceiling of the Albert Heijn next to the Blarney Stone on Nieuwendijk had to be pointed out to me, to name just two.

Anyway, they caught my eye as I staggered home after Café Oporto’s Halloween party, which might explain why it was a bit blurry. I only had space for one photo from the party last month so I had to include a few more this time; they’re on page 18, but to give you a taster, here’s one of me with Jen, Liz and Brian.

There’s no Cover Competition this month; it’s the Christmas tree that suddenly appeared on Beursplein in early November! I posted an out of focus photo, taken in the rain with my cheapo phone, on Facebook so some of my friends would have had an unfair advantage.

What happened to the Dutch tradition of only putting the tree up after Sinterklaas? Is it politically correctness gone mad? OK, I’ve got no problem with the festive lights being up from October to March to cover the pagan and man-made religions that have something to celebrate, but a Christmas tree in November goes against all beliefs; shame on you De Bijenkorf!

Hang on! Ranting is usually Terry Mann’s thing but he wants everybody to smile in his column on page six this month so any of my negativity is just here to balance things up.

All of our usual stuff is here, so have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and if you see me in a bar, ask me to take a photo!