Holland's dark side

[Goodwatch]

As a Dutchman I want to mention a few things that I don’t like about us.

The first thing is the inability to get in and out general transport modes. I absolutely hate this. Train stops at the platform. There’re already a bunch of travelers waiting. As soon as the doors open, the ones on the platform hurl themselves inside like vultures, with no regard for the ones trying to get out. Often I have to fight myself out. From young to old (very disappointing, this lack of good manners) everyone engages in this act. Queuing up? Never heard of this. The same at your local bakery or butcher’s. Those housewives are like sharks and always try to get ahead in line. If I have a day off I always do the shopping and thus have become battle hardened and scarred. Just watch your place in line and say in a firm voice that it is your turn. Failing to do this, you’re never get served. And the attendants are no help either, they never keep track on things. Duh.

The second thing is the way older people (not all, to be fair) perceive hospitality. Don’t call unexpectedly, that’s not liked much. There’s never an extra place at the table, in my youth I was kept waiting in the front room while my friend ate the table! While having coffee you may take one cookie from the tin and after that it’ll return into the cupboard. Anne is of Indonesian descent and the hospitality in her family is incredible. Like with Italian families. You know: mangare, mangare. You have to eat and drink. I was stationed in Lebanon during my Army days and there hospitality reaches dizzy heights. You are invited into the homes of complete strangers to have tea and sweets. And to have a meal in the evening, all seated on the ground at low tables.

The third thing is the prejudgment and small minded attitude in the small Reformed Christian villages. The Dutch Bible Belt so to speak. Very stifling and backward. Life stopped their in 1950. Claptrap and rumor. This is not typical for my country but the ‘go happy’ attitude with free sex and drugs (yeah, sure) only exists in the major cities.

[Rockrolex]

Sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, Frans, but the Dutch do not have a monopoly on rudeness.

I see the same inconsiderateness on our DC Metro system. While waiting for a train yesterday, I saw a young woman and a slightly older man stand right at the door so that when it opened (and you could see a large group of people were waiting to exit), they just barged in against the exiting crowd, slamming into people as they went. They were either tourists from Middle America or perhaps they were Dutch.

And then there are our drivers. Changing lanes indiscriminately at high speed and cutting off other drivers merely to advance an additional car length is our national sport.

We all have our crosses to bear so to speak

What about the rest of the world? How are you all faring?

[Goodwatch]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

Sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, Frans, but the Dutch do not have a monopoly on rudeness.

I see the same inconsiderateness on our DC Metro system. While waiting for a train yesterday, I saw a young woman and a slightly older man stand right at the door so that when it opened (and you could see a large group of people were waiting to exit), they just barged in against the exiting crowd, slamming into people as they went. They were either tourists from Middle America or perhaps they were Dutch.

And then there are our drivers. Changing lanes indiscriminately at high speed and cutting off other drivers merely to advance an additional car length is our national sport.

We all have our crosses to bear so to speak

What about the rest of the world? How are you all faring?

I knew you would understand. As a reward I'll treat you to some lawyer jokes:

Q: How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Three. One to climb the ladder, one to shake it, and one to sue the ladder company.

Q: What did the lawyer name his daughter?
A: Sue.

Q: What do you call 25 skydiving lawyers?
A: Skeet.

Q: What do you call a lawyer gone bad?
A: Senator.

Q: What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 50 ?
A: Your honor.

Q: What do you throw to a drowning lawyer?
A: His partners.

Q: What does a lawyer use for birth control?
A: His personality.

Q: What happens when you cross a pig with a lawyer?
A: Nothing. There are some things a pig won't do.

Q: What's the difference between a lawyer and a vulture?
A: The lawyer gets frequent flyer miles.

Q: What's another difference between a lawyer and a vulture?
A: Removable wing tips.

Q: Why does California have the most lawyers in the country while New Jersey has the most toxic waste sites?
A: New Jersey got first choice.

[Rockrolex]

Q. What do you call a Dutchie who tells bad lawyer jokes?

A. Frans Hens.

[Goodwatch]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

Q. What do you call a Dutchie who tells bad lawyer jokes?

A. Frans Hens.

Q. Who is a good sport?
A. Ed!

[Rockrolex]

Originally Posted by Goodwatch

Q. Who is a good sport?
A. Ed!

[Southern Jessie]

"I saw a young woman and a slightly older man stand right at the door so that when it opened (and you could see a large group of people were waiting to exit), they just barged in against the exiting crowd, slamming into people as they went."

Ed, this is one of my pet hates, and it happened to me once on one of the trains home. Now I am prepared though - I stand myself right near the door and as soon as it opens it is me who goes through them like a knife through butter (normally accompanied by a few expletives just for good measure!)

[Rockrolex]

Originally Posted by Southern Jessie

"I saw a young woman and a slightly older man stand right at the door so that when it opened (and you could see a large group of people were waiting to exit), they just barged in against the exiting crowd, slamming into people as they went."

Ed, this is one of my pet hates, and it happened to me once on one of the trains home. Now I am prepared though - I stand myself right near the door and as soon as it opens it is me who goes through them like a knife through butter (normally accompanied by a few expletives just for good measure!)

Good on you, Shane. As my stepdad used to say: "The best defense is a good offense."' It's being proactive that will get you out the door.

[Goodwatch]

Originally Posted by Southern Jessie

"I saw a young woman and a slightly older man stand right at the door so that when it opened (and you could see a large group of people were waiting to exit), they just barged in against the exiting crowd, slamming into people as they went."

Ed, this is one of my pet hates, and it happened to me once on one of the trains home. Now I am prepared though - I stand myself right near the door and as soon as it opens it is me who goes through them like a knife through butter (normally accompanied by a few expletives just for good measure!)

Right on! I always exclaim in a very loud voice: "May I PLEASE leave?"

[Southern Jessie]

Right on! I always exclaim in a very loud voice: "May I PLEASE leave?"

Errr......I normally say something like "Can I get off the train first you ******* dopey ******-****** ugly ******** mutant ***** of ****!!"

:)

[mailman]

I must say that where I live people and drivers are generally polite. The only time I see the flip side of this is when I'm delivering mail on a route other than my own. If I see a stranger walking on the sidewalk and we pas, I'll always say hello with a smile. Guys always always respond back and sometimes even make small talk. With females on the other hand, it's a crap shoot. Sometimes they'll offer a polite hello back,and sometimes they'll give a look like I'm trying to hit on them. It's to those that I feel like saying "Get over yourself, I'm just being friendly'.

[Rockrolex]

Originally Posted by mailman

I must say that where I live people and drivers are generally polite. The only time I see the flip side of this is when I'm delivering mail on a route other than my own. If I see a stranger walking on the sidewalk and we pas, I'll always say hello with a smile. Guys always always respond back and sometimes even make small talk. With females on the other hand, it's a crap shoot. Sometimes they'll offer a polite hello back,and sometimes they'll give a look like I'm trying to hit on them. It's to those that I feel like saying "Get over yourself, I'm just being friendly'.

Haven't we come to a sad state of affairs when a woman is afraid to say hello to a man on the street for fear that he's going to attack her. Now THAT's the really dark side of this country.

[Otis]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

Haven't we come to a sad state of affairs when a woman is afraid to say hello to a man on the street for fear that he's going to attack her. Now THAT's the really dark side of this country.

It's starting to get that way isn't it? A real shame I think. It's something that I notice a bit when I'm out with friends. If a random guy approaches the girls in the group, it immediately puts them on the defensive. Instead of the reaction being something like "ooh look, somebody new talking to me etc etc" you can see them thinking "oh no, what does he want, what's he going to do?". I guess it's due to the number of drink spikings and so on that sadly occur all too often. There's nothing wrong with being cautious, but I think it's just sad that you can't approach and be friendly to a girl across the room without being labelled as a stalker, weirdo, sleazebag and social rapist.

[mailman]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

Haven't we come to a sad state of affairs when a woman is afraid to say hello to a man on the street for fear that he's going to attack her. Now THAT's the really dark side of this country.

Yes Ed, it's very sad when just offering a polite hello, things get taken out of context.

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

Haven't we come to a sad state of affairs when a woman is afraid to say hello to a man on the street for fear that he's going to attack her. Now THAT's the really dark side of this country.

That's the best thing about where I live. Make eye contact with a pretty girl, give her a big smile and at least 8 times out of 10 she will smile right back at you. Trust me on this one, guys....do it quite often....(when Zemina's not around!!)

[C.J.]

We live in a little beach town outside of Atlantic City. In the winter, the population is very small and pretty much everyone knows each other. In the summer, the population grows four times with all of the out of towner's that have summer houses here. In the winter, everyone says, at the very least, hello and usually a little small talk follows. In the summer, the shoobies (out-of-towner's) pretty much ignore everyone. If you say hi, they'll give you an inquisitive look and a quick nod at best.

In the City it's a completely different world. Nobody will even look make eye contact. The only time they will look at you is after you've passed them. They'll look back to make sure you're not sneaking up on them.

[mailman]

Originally Posted by C.J.

We live in a little beach town outside of Atlantic City. In the winter, the population is very small and pretty much everyone knows each other. In the summer, the population grows four times with all of the out of towner's that have summer houses here. In the winter, everyone says, at the very least, hello and usually a little small talk follows. In the summer, the shoobies (out-of-towner's) pretty much ignore everyone. If you say hi, they'll give you an inquisitive look and a quick nod at best.

In the City it's a completely different world. Nobody will even look make eye contact. The only time they will look at you is after you've passed them. They'll look back to make sure you're not sneaking up on them.

Maybe that's because of the "Family" down there.

[Otis]

Originally Posted by C.J.

We live in a little beach town outside of Atlantic City. In the winter, the population is very small and pretty much everyone knows each other. In the summer, the population grows four times with all of the out of towner's that have summer houses here. In the winter, everyone says, at the very least, hello and usually a little small talk follows. In the summer, the shoobies (out-of-towner's) pretty much ignore everyone. If you say hi, they'll give you an inquisitive look and a quick nod at best.

In the City it's a completely different world. Nobody will even look make eye contact. The only time they will look at you is after you've passed them. They'll look back to make sure you're not sneaking up on them.

Sounds like you live in a great little town Craig!
At least your neighbours and the people that live there are friendly. IMO they are the ones that matter, and the tourists just help the economy!
BTW....'shoobies' can't say I've heard that word before, but I like it!

[C.J.]

Originally Posted by Otis

Sounds like you live in a great little town Craig!
At least your neighbours and the people that live there are friendly. IMO they are the ones that matter, and the tourists just help the economy!
BTW....'shoobies' can't say I've heard that word before, but I like it!

Yeah I love the town I live in We always called the out of towners shoobies and I never knew why. I finally found out where it came from. The locals grew up on the beach here. We'd bring a beach chair or towel, surfboard and maybe a bottle of water or something, but that was all. the out of towners would always have what looked like a small city set up around where they sit and in the old days, they would bring their lunches with them in a shoe box. When they would go in the water, you would see their shoe boxes with their towels and the seagulls would be tearing their shoe boxes apart to get to the food. So the shoe box tourists got the name shoobies. Nowadays, they leave the shoe boxes behind and unfortunately, their driving skills

[C.J.]

Originally Posted by mailman

Maybe that's because of the "Family" down there.

What? What do you mean? I have no idea what you're talking about