The Ephemerist

and Cromheecke liked it !

If you’ve been an Ephemerist regular for a while, you probably will remember my run-in with Quechup a while ago. If not, just have a look at the posts - it’s OK, I can handle it now; Quechup and I have not run into each other since.

However, I can’t help but pass on this nice little ditty, which proves that our favorite fiendish excuse for a social site is still knee-deep in its own blood-red goo. BrainMortgage tells how he got an apology from Quechup for sending the wrong newsletter. He quotes :

“Ooops… First of all a big, big apology for sending the February newsletter more than once and for sending the 2007 newsletter! This was due to an admin error at Quechup, needless to say those responsible will be making the tea for the next month. We hope it didn’t cause too much inconvenience and promise it won’t happen again.”

and than adds that he, indeed, did receive that apology twice. That’s two times.

Please apologize me for smirking…

(image, by the way, courtesy Masterblog - I thought it was remarkably appropriate)

Saint-John’s Church in Edinburgh takes a stance on China, Tibet and the Olympics. It’s time for the world to follow that example…

(thanks, Joe)

“I’m dreaming of a white… Easter ?!”

Happy Easter !

1918-2008.

(image courtesy Confessions Of A Bookplate Junkie)

It came to mind that most of you probably have never been to Het Besloten Land, doubtlessly one of the best comic stores in Belgium (Matt Madden even calls it “one of those mythically great European comics shops I’ve been hearing about for years”).

On the inside it’s just filled to the brim with nothing but good comics, but the outside is really unique. Belgian cartoonist Johan De Moor, son of Hergé right-hand man Bob De Moor, painted the complete shop front from top to bottom, and inside and out, in his own, surrealist style.

And since it’s a lazy Sunday, here are some pictures. I hope they’ll convince you to come over.

Read the rest of this entry »

My son did a painting. Indulge me.

… stayed at a friend’s flat in Bethnal Green, walked through Pollard Street daily on our way to the tube and left the day before this arrived. Aargh ! Thanks, Wooster Collective, for disturbing my innocent bliss !

Oh, and could this be true ?

Yes, I’m a belgian ! No, we haven’t had a government for almost four months. And yes, it would seem that some people would like to bury Belgium, not praise it. But still, I’d like it to continue, at least for my time. Here’s why (from the Sidney Morning Herald with a tip of the hat to soon-to-be-expat Hans D.

With its two halves unable to agree on the formation of a new government, Belgium stands on the verge of disintegration. So should Belgium continue to exist? The answer is yes. Here’s why.The first reason is linguistic. If Belgium does break up, two new nationalities will be born: Flemish and Walloon. Belgian chocolates will become “Flemish chocolates”, and Belgian beer cafes will give way to “Walloon beer cafes”. Belgium owes it to the world to prevent us from having to use either of these unspeakably silly adjectives on anything like a semi-regular basis.

There is a reason no business has ever succeeded with the word “Walloon” in its title, and it is the word “Walloon”, the Oompa-Loompa of national adjectives. To inflict a word like that on the world would be intolerably cruel.

The second reason is historical. Belgium, as many of you will know, was established in 1830 for two reasons: to host the main international conflicts of the 20th century; and to provide a viable, long-term basis for Belgian jokes.

After World War I, Polish jokes briefly threatened to overtake Belgian jokes in popularity, but at Yalta, where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met in 1945 to negotiate the division of postwar international comedy, it was decided that Belgian jokes would go to the West, while Polish jokes were left to the Soviet Union.

If Belgium were to cease to exist, this would create a potentially fatal vacuum at the heart of Western comedy. “Did you hear the one about the Walloon ..?” just doesn’t have the right ring.

The final reason is sexual-culinary. America was built on a noble ideal: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Belgium was founded on a far punchier plea: “Give me your bureaucrats.” But when people complain that Brussels is “stuffed with bureaucrats”, what they really mean is that everyone who lives there gets to knock off at 5pm every day and spend the rest of the night gorging on wheat beer, mussels and chips. That doesn’t sound like anything to be ashamed of to me.

Belgium long ago abandoned all hope of being a presence on the world stage and gave itself over to the pleasures of alcohol, chocolate, sex and seafood. To this day, it remains a nation untouched by nutrition. These are ideas worth fighting for.

In its almost total lack of ambition, in its unrelenting sense of existential dread, in its drunkenness and in its gluttony, Belgium is the most inspiring of nations. If the Belgians have tired of being Belgian, it is up to us to take their place. If Belgium will not be Belgium, it is up to Australia to be Belgium.