Dutch and D-town

I recently changed my blog site over to Dutch as a primary language. There was a time when I pretty proficiently read formal Dutch, made pretty solid attempts at Dutch email, frequented a Dutch 'hyves' (social networking site) account and even floundered around with some pronunciation. Well, truth be told, I feel like I'm always getting stupider in my logical attempt to short-circuit needless work and effort. Somewhere along the way, I found out that Yahoo Babel did a pretty bang-up job of translating things so I stopped using a dictionary and stopped using my head. I'm not sure how much switching this back over has really done for me yet, but it's nice to use my head a little every day to renew those old mental connections formed between strange excessive usage of misplaced vowels and the common meanings that over 16 million people successfully associate them with.

Of course, that's really just a prelude to the other topic on my mind this morning. With the Final Four in Detroit in 2009, the great town economically and emotionally rallied around the home boys, my very own MSU Spartans. And while I'll be the first to admit that it's not always a great place to be, there are some really nice things about Detroit that commonly get neglected by those who jump on the hating wagon, like Glenn Beck so mistakenly did.

And here's what people had to say about Glenn Beck:



Two very good friends of mine live in Detroit. Young professionals, they embody the hope that accompanies the town and the potential that it has to capture the old, progressive vibe it used to have. Just like Chrysler mentions in their ad, this is a town that bounces back and not just like a brief rebound. We're talking about the oldest city in the Midwest, the French fort when Ohio was just a bunch of trees (similar to the UP now). Regardless of circumstances or even mismanagement by government officials (something Michigan is all too familiar with), this town finds a way to keep on, and you have to love that about it. If you walk the streets like Amanda and I did back in September, you can feel a town that is trying to bounce back once again. Nobody said it was easy, but they're doing it or at least trying.




And this is Hockeytown, the city with the best team on ice, this side of the great pond. Don't every forget it. There's nothing quite like playoff season in a crowded, dirty bar, watching the Wings duke it out.