Saturday morning.  As a kid I remember watching CBS’ Cartooniverse.  Here in eastern Holland’s Achterhoek region, things are different.
We begin with stripping night clothing from kids (and adults) to begin the many loads of clothes washing. Regardless of season, when driving on Saturday morning down the streets of any Dutch village, every second story window […]

When you think European castles, England’s manor homes, France’s Chateaus or Germany’s baronial hilltop estates come first to mind. Rarely does one think of Holland, nor would it make the first cut on most castle shopping lists. Yet in Gelderland Province’s Zutphen County sits a tightly woven system of castles, open lands, forests and farms […]

Lochem, was the town John Denver meant to write about in his lyric.
Instead, having never been there, (unlike modern dance creator Isadora Duncan and R&B legend Arthur “Sweet Soul Music” Conley who both lived near this town) he picked on a slice of middle-America when writing “Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio is like being nowhere […]

He was the butcher in the Dutch country town of Laren.  As days became years and years decades, he served customers and dreamed of finding something else to do with his life.  When he and his wife sold their shop, he faced a dilemma. I’m too young to retire, what should I do with the […]

What I would give to just once hear the ESPN SportsCenter duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh theme here in eastern Holland’s Achterhoek region. Living in Europe means the death of the sports I grew up loving.
While America was intrigued and beguiled by outstanding performances on the Salt Lake City speed-skating oval, unless you live in Wisconsin or […]

This reprise article appeared in 2001 in Het Fiancieel Dagblad English Edition in Amsterdam
I’ll fight you for my pair.  Nothing is easier to slip on to take out the trash, bring in the mail or wander around in the garden.  They provide a surprisingly comfortable fit yet are a bulky enough reminder to remove when […]

Yes, in the movie his Mom is shot by the hunter, but the real life creator and the last of Disney’s Nine Old Men died last week. Ollie Johnston, passed away at the age of 95. His creations are legend, and his book The Illusion of Life is considered an animator’s bible.