The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53646   Message #828863
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
18-Nov-02 - 06:12 AM
Thread Name: BS: What have the Dutch ever done for us?
Subject: RE: BS: What have the Dutch ever done for us?
Charles II (who had had a few run-ins with the Dutch authorities when he was in exile) used to refer to them as "stinking butterboxes", and, as insults go, I've always felt that is rather an endearing one.

As for "Sabot Age...Sabotage!!!"The term sabotage actually comes , I understand, from the alleged practice of using wooden or iron edged sabots for damaging machinery in an industrial dipute - the same idea as putting "a spanner in the works". But they'd have been French sabots rather than Dutch.