De Ranke Ranks #1!

Got to visit my first Belgian brewery yesterday, De Ranke, in the western part of the country. Though running an extremely tiny business (50,000 gallons per year, which may sound like a lot, but in this business it's microscopic; Sam Adams, by comparison, churns out 2 million barrels annually. By definition, a U.S. microbrewery must produce at least 450,000 gallons each year), head brewer Nino Bacelle takes brewing extremely seriously and is, with very good reason, very proud of his products. Using no filtration whatsoever or pasteurization, the beer is as pure a product as is humanly possible. Nino studied brewing sciences at a school in Ghent for three years before formally getting into the brewing business.
What sets De Ranke apart is traditional methodology and ingredients, plus a very strong emphasis on hops, which is what makes beer bitter and tasty. While American monsters like Bud and Coors wave a hop pellet or two over a huge brewing vat, De Ranke pours the small hops flowers (they use only flowers; no pellets or liquid extracts, thank you very much) in by the pound. They use 6 different types of hops, all locally produced (this I did not know). Their top seller (and my favorite) is XX Bitter which, when first created in 1996, held the claim as Bitterest Beer in Belgium. In the meanwhile a couple of posers have come up with even more bitter brews, but they lack the balance and complexity found in Nino's product.
Surprisingly, 3/4 of all their products are bound for export to countries as far-flung as the U.S., Japan, India, and Finland. Even more amazing, there is apparently a liquor store in Crofton, only a few miles from our real "home," that stocks XX Bitter, one of only a couple in all of MD.
By the way, should you be looking for a great book on Belgian brews, Nino personally recommends only one: Good Beer Guide to Belgium, by Tim Webb. Check out the reviews on Amazon; you'll see what he means.
All this talk, talk, talk; boy, I'm feeling thirsty right about now...

No New Government? No New Key! (it's a pun)

As Belgium quietly became the Cleveland Cavaliers of western Europe, one politician has come up with a unique idea of how to force the issue: no government; no sex. No really. No joke.
Awhile back, Belgium broke the European record for longest time without an in-place, elected, functioning government. In just a week, they will even surpass the 3rd World record, topping Iraq's magic number of 249 days. But all records were meant to be broken. Just ask Cleveland. Just ask Brussels.
To say that it's ludicrous that the "Capital of Europe," has gone nearly a year without a real government is the height of understatement. Belgium actually spent its entire 6-month stint holding the European Union presidency without a true government. No former East Bloc country can even come close to claiming the same.
Enter Madame Temmerman, a socialist senator from the northern (Flemish) part of the country. Since nothing else has worked (pleas from the king, men growing their beards in protest, bikers blocking the downtown streets, to name just a few of the more memorable), she's come up with a novel approach: until a real government is formed, the partners of all of Belgium's feuding politicians should withhold...well, you know. That's right: a sex strike. No government; no gratification.
I'm not sure whether it's germane, but it just so happens that Ms. Temmerman bears a striking resemblance to the lead singer of Led Zeppelin. Her spouse was not available for comment.
Another female politician, upon hearing of the Temmerman Terms, was quoted as saying (I'm not making this up, as Dave Barry would say), "I do not want to take part in a sex strike. Politicians are not there to strike. Politicians are there to arouse the country."
Right about now, I think the Belgian people would kill for some arousal.

I Say Tomato; You Say...Banana

Living in a country with two languages (French and Dutch; German doesn't really count, only making up about 2% of the Belgian population), you obviously encounter different words for nearly everything. But the one area where you could hope to find some commonality might be in place names. I mean, Paris is Paris; London has to be London, right? Wrong.
There are "three degrees of separation" when it comes to place names, French vs. Dutch. The first category is where the names are so nearly identical that you have to wonder why, just this once, the two language groups can't find some common ground and agree on something, anything. "Tell you what, we'll use your spelling for Paris if we can use mine for Brussels. Deal?" No deal. Examples (French, then Dutch): Bruxelles/Brussel; Hal/Halle; Ypres/Iepres; Dixmude/Diksmuide; Ostende/Oostende. Can't we all just get along? Nope.
The second category includes those that are fairly close: Louvain/Leuven; Tongres/Tongeren; Anvers/Antwerpen; Gand/Gent.
Finally, there are the crazy ones that make you ask yourself just who's in charge around here. Examples: Leau/Zoutleeuw; Mons/Bergen; Braine l'Alleud/Eigenbrakel; and, my personal favorite: Montaigu/Scherpenheuvel.
There are actually hundreds of towns with just a single name, either French or Dutch. It must be sad to live there, knowing that your home town is so boring or meaningless that the two groups can't even find it in themselves to argue about its name...

The Rome of the North

Yup, that's what they call Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. I guarantee you it's not because of similarities in winter temperatures - I just returned from a week there and the high was 29 degrees.
No, it's because of the number of churches. And you know what? I don't think it's much of an exaggeration. You can't walk a block without stumbling onto yet another Jesuit, Catholic, Orthodox, or whatever kind of church (even one single Lutheran one). As for the architecture of the churches, it's definitely eclectic, running from Gothic to classical Greek.

Dubbing Movies...On the Cheap

Just returned from a business trip to Vilnius, Lithuania, which, in essence, is a long way from everywhere. That's not to say it wasn't pretty (and very cold) - it was. But it didn't take long to realize this is not a western European country. Just take TV in the hotel room for instance. As is usual, there were several U.S. shows, all dubbed into Lithuanian.
It's an interesting dynamic: the national choice to dub or not to dub. A few of the northern European nations leave almost all films and shows in the original language, adding their own subtitles. And, by no coincidence at all, the average spoken English in these nations is just about 5% better than our own. But most, to include Belgium, France, and Germany, instead choose to dub voices over the original. In Germany, they've truly turned this into an art form. Besides high-quality sound and timing, the same man "plays" Jimmy Stewart, for example, by dubbing every role he ever appeared in. The same is true for nearly every major U.S. movie star. So, when a German hears that particular person on, say, a TV talk show, he immediately says, "Hey, that's Jimmy Stewart!"
In Lithuania (and most other former East Bloc countries, as I understand it), things are quite different. I guess it's a question of cost. What they do is use a single (it's always a male) voice for all the parts - to include the female ones! As if that's not odd enough, a friend of mine (no, really) tells me that they do this same thing even in porno movies. Now that would be worth the price of admission!

The Not-So-Long and Winding Road

Tough geography question here:
Quick - what's the most famous crosswalk in the world?
Say what? What sort of a question is that, you ask.
But if I give you a single-word clue, you'll have it instantly.
The clue: Beatles.
Now you guessed it: the famous crosswalk on Abbey Road, just in front of the studio where the Beatles did most of their later recordings.
Today's it the most famous and photographed set of "zebra stripes" in the world. Oh, what a pain it must be to live and drive in this area, constantly having to watch out for stupid tourists (present company excluded) ever so slowly walking across the street, always from west to east, never paying enough attention to oncoming cars...which are always coming from the wrong direction! All just to get their photo taken, in some vain attempt to look and/or feel like the Fab Four. The small white building in the background, by the way, is the actual recording studio.
I sure am glad I'm not that much of a stupid tourist to ever do such a trite, silly thing...

Pardners, Y'all Say "Howdy" to Ol' One Eye!

I'm sure that won't end up his "real" name, but for now it seems fitting. This is Lucie's early birthday present - a new cat number three. This one is a real miracle story. Hit by a car back in November, his jaw was smashed and his right eye was hanging exposed, out of the socket. The first vet at the animal shelter suggested putting him to sleep, but another said he'd give it a try, to make all the necessary "mends." The jaw was re-set and wired shut to heal; the eyeball put back where it belongs. Now the jaw has mended so he can eat normally and the eye, which once looked flat-out gross (reminding me of that scene from the The Birds), now is merely cloudy. He may never see out of it again, but at least it's not an "eye sore."
So today he came home with us, as an early present for Lucie, who fell in love with him the moment she saw him at the shelter. It's got to be quite an improvement for the poor little guy, after having spent the past 2 months in a tiny cage...
The toughest part will be choosing a suitable name. The contest is now open - submit your suggestions within the next week when we'll make a final decision!