What me, ignorant?

I’m out early for summer Fridays (wohoot!), and I’m spending the next twenty minutes educating myself so I don’t betray my miraculously dismal knowledge of European geography and politics to Brian’s Dutch cousin who will be visiting this weekend. I’m still not clear on the difference between Holland and The Netherlands. I retain a very sad tendency to pause before I say “Dutch” if I really mean “Danish” and vice versa. What are they teaching kids in schools these days?

If any of you get a chance to meet Lena this weekend—you should, she’s lovely—please join me in not asking about Amsterdam’s red-light district and if you can really smoke weed in public. Instead, talk about windmills and wooden shoes! (Every foreign country is just a caricature of itself, right? Right?)

Late.

Note: This picture is actually in Holland, Michigan.