BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?

Subject: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 06:26 AM

Belgium is a low-lying country full of low, lying people
(Sellar and Yeatman, And now all this)

Most famous Belgians pass themselves off as French, so even they don't have a very high opinion of the place! They don't even have negative epithets, like "French leave", "Dutch courage", "Persian parliament".

Maybe we should take pity on them, and invent some new epithets: "Belgian window-sills", "Belgian road signs" ... any suggestions?

Steve

P.S. They do make smashing chocolate, though.

P.P.S. They did put the Kybosh on the Kaiser, didn't they? But what have they done recently?

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Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Micca
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 06:30 AM

Gave us some good 9bears..Kriek, Framboise, Grimbergen, Palm(to keep you calm), Trappiste....

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 06:40 AM

Beer, Beer and Tin Tin

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: GUEST,MarkS
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 06:46 AM

Stella Artois

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 08:09 AM

Somewhere to have a scrap with the French

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 09:26 AM

No, that was the Germans, Skipjack! Ah well, it was a long time ago, I suppose!

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: MMario
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 09:28 AM

WAFFLES!!

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 09:43 AM

Well, there was the Congo colony under King Leopold, but maybe we should try to forget that.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Kim C
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 09:56 AM

CHOCOLATE

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: HuwG
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 11:02 AM

Jacques Brel, Georges Simenon ...

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Schantieman
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 11:45 AM

Chocolate
Eddie Mercks
Chocolate
Hercule Poirot
Chocolate

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: C-flat
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 11:54 AM

Django Rheinhardt.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Gareth
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 11:58 AM

Waterloo ????

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Dead Horse
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 12:53 PM

A place to get rid of any left over currency when returning from the rest of Europe (the Belgies accept anything)
Gareth, Waterloo is a tiny village just outside Eton College, surely you knew THAT battle was actually fought on their playing fields?

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 01:05 PM

Ha! I knew this would happen. What is it about Belgium anyway? No other place on Earth carries the stamp of utter boredom that has somehow landed on what is, after all, an inoffensive and harmless (well, almost...forgot about the Congo) nation of people.

It's strange.

I wonder when we will get around to rating Lichtenstein?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 02:09 PM

HetBrabants Volsorkest - pictures and sound links.

Rubens;and Brueghel (Jan and Pieter the Elder and Younger).

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 02:19 PM

You could argue easily that McGrath's artists come from Belgium but Roy Lichtenstein surly doesn't.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Ed.
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 02:20 PM

Chips with mayonnaise

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: GUEST,Mingulay (the boat not the island)
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 02:48 PM

Ordinary beer (Stella etc), good beer (Hoogarden Grand Cru, Hummel etc) and nosebleed beer (12% trappist, ask Les Sullivan about that
one). Chocolate, Passendale cheese and THE SMURFS!

Altogether now Blue is the colour.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Schantieman
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 02:48 PM

Right.

Apart from:
putting the kybosh on the Kaiser
making brilliant chocolate
making beers (or possibly bears) which I've always found undrinkable
Tin-Tin
waffles
The Belgian Congo :-(
Chocolate
Jaques Brels (who?)
Georges Simenon
Eddie Mercks
Hercule Poirot
Django Reinhardt
providing somewhere finally to defeat Napoleon
getting rid of your spare currency
Chocolate
HetBrabant Volsokest (who?)
Breughel (pere et fils)
chips with mayonnaise (or worse still, salad cream)
and chocolate

...what have the Belgians ever done for us?

;)

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Mr Red
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 02:57 PM

Django Rheinhardt. Yea
Breughel (pere et fils) quelle l'oncle? or was it frere?

AND what about the tapestries of the Flemish Weavers .
The Hugonauts came to Britain from france via the Waloon country. A friend of mine still proudly bears the name Goillau - and traces his lineage from there - written some good songs together we did.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: mooman
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 03:32 PM

Preventing me inflicting myself on some other poor nation?

moo

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Just Amy
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 03:32 PM

John Claude Van Dam! and MMario's Waffles

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 03:45 PM

Brussels Sprouts

Belgians who become famous tend to be thought of as French or maybe Dutch. Like Canadians tend to be assumed to be from the USA. And New Zealanders are taken to be Australian.

It seems a fairly general rule thta that kind of thing happens to when you are stuck next to a bigger neighbour and share the same language. The exception is when it comes to the British Isles, and more especially Ireland.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: bazza
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 03:54 PM

The belgians have invented some strange pastimes like keeping a pipefull of tobacco alight the longest and how many times your caged bird sings in a fixed period but the best one was putting a cow in a small paddock dividing with a grid system then betting where the cow has a crap.Sad or what

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 04:03 PM

Think they'll ever stick that one on the telly? Maybe if they did it with horses the Royal Family could get involved in the sport. Princess Anne could extend her range from Dressage to Message.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Dead Horse
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 04:47 PM

No. I can't see our Royals crapping in a paddock on TV.
They did get pretty close with that Jerks Sans Front Ears thingy, though.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 04:53 PM

That is truly incredible, bazza. Are you serious? It sounds even more tedious than watching bowling on TV or sitting through "I Love Lucy" reruns.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: mooman
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 05:22 PM

Yup! ...bazza's post is true....it was on a Jeremy Clarkson TV programme about Belgium and Holland!

P.S. Belgium came out better on that occasion!

moo

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 05:29 PM

You've clearly never been to a cricket match, Little Hawk. (I mean a real cricket match, not this version where they all wear coloured pyjamas and try to hype it up.)

Talking of which, there is a Belgian Cricket Federation. Perhaps for when the cow pat contest gets a bit too exciting for comfort.

(And that site has links to all kinds of other places where they play cricket. Including Afghanistan, Argentina and Israel. Notice a common factor? Real life maybe gets a bit too exciting in those places at times...)

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: RolyH
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 05:49 PM

I'm reminded of the Monty Python 'Belgian Insult' sketch where the viewers were invited to think up their worst insult for the Belgians.

In second place 'The Phlegms!'

But in first place and this weeks winner 'Dirty Rotten Belgian Bastards!'

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Just Amy
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 05:53 PM

They play cricket in India & Sri Lanka too. Almost any British Commonwealth nation of the 19th & 20th centuries.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 06:16 PM

Well I suppose if you stretch a point Israel, and even Afghanistran for a brief period, were in the British Empire, more or less. But not Belgium or Argentina (leaving aside those embarassing islands.)

And the Canadians seem to have resisted the game. I'd have thought they might have taken to Ice Cricket, but the only place they seem to play that is in Switzerland.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 07:05 PM

So if Belgium gave us chips and mayo.....which country gave us chips and cheese??...(melted is my personal favourite!)

Belgium.......chocolate,beer,chocolate,beer.......I like Belgium!!

Cat

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 07:16 PM

Well, if any of you (apart from Boat Mingulay, who knows exactly what I'm talking about)had been on one of the Flanders Field trips, you'd have a pretty good idea. A giant hop for mankind in Poperinghe (home of the National Hop Museum and Hommel beer), for a start. And Jacques Rykebosch. And chocolate, and more chocolate...

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 11:26 PM

I saw an Indian movie about a cricket game that was absolutely fascinating. I'm serious. It was a great movie, and I learned a lot about cricket.

I had no idea that the Belgians were in some way responsible for chocolate, BTW...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 04:46 AM

They've taken a few slow horses off our hands.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 05:00 AM

I'm surprised to see Belgium credited for cow-pie checkers. It's been a Texas county-fair tradition for as long as I can remember - going back to when God won enough to buy his first pair of long pants.

They do get the credit for some very fine draft horses, although I've never seen authentication of that attribution - it may be another of those historical anomolies.

John

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 06:05 AM

gave us Mannekin Pis

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: mooman
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 07:10 AM

Yes....the Mannekin Pis, who of course as any Mudcatter knows is the model for The Little Pissant.

the saxophone
the erroneously named French fries
Rene Magritte
Paul Delvaux
the Belgian resistance
keeping the EU from inflicting itself on other European cities (except Luxembourg and Strasboug)
600 varieties of beer
hosted the last Mudcat EuroGathering
Mercator
Leo Baekeland (invented bakelite)
van Dyck (Flemish Master)
Hieronymous Bosch
George Lemaitre (originator of "Big Bang" theory)
Father Damien
Victor Horta
Audrey Hepburn
Liz Claiborne (fashion designer)

mooman (in no way pro-Belgian of course>

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: GUEST,T-boy
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 07:44 AM

I once met two Belgian concertina players, both playing MacCanns. I asked them if there were many MacCann players in Belgium. They said, "Three".

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 08:53 AM

The most boring eevr Mudcat thread "Polka concert in Belgium".

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: mooman
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 10:24 AM

Dear Greg,

I know a lot of musicians in Belgium capable of playing innumerable sets of polkas all night if necessary!

I agree the thread was possibly the most boring ever however!

moo

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Schantieman
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 01:12 PM

OK Moo - looks like what the Belgians need (heaven help us!) is a PR man.

T-boy - LOL!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:15 PM

I grant you it was a boring thread (see here). But that was perhaps partly because it didn't have anything in it about either Belgium or polkas.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:39 PM

As far as my european knowledge is concerned,Chips with mayo is a delicacy of German origin....Frites, Bratwurst and Mayo. Lovely jubbly. Not to be confused with salad cream!I lived on it in Deutchland as a kid.

And the Polka concert in Belgium was a joke.

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 02:46 PM

Of course I like to read that chips with mayo are of German origin, but I hesitate a bit to be convinced for we call them in proper German 'pommes frites' and why should we have chosen French words if that was our invention?

But as often there could be a tiny bit of truth in it (not that I knew). I'm ready to be convinced...
Perhaps, we also could reclaim Rubens from the Belgians. He was born in Germany and lived his first 11 years in Germany.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 06:30 PM

Over 300 different sorts of beer in one pub alone, and some of the finest chocolate in the world (why else do you think they wanted those territories in warm lands.....), who needs anything else?

And to be really pedantic - Hercule Poirot, although stressing that he is Belgian, was created by an English woman, so he doesn't really count as an export.

There was an item in the news last week where a new driver ran over a cyclist not long after passing her test. When she checked out who the victim was, she discovered it was the Belgian Premier.......

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: Just Amy
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 08:06 PM

I just thought I would add again - the very fine looking John Claude Van Dam!

Subject: RE: BS: What have the Belgians ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 08:41 PM

I thought chips with mayonnaise was a Dutch idea. Over here it's starting to catch on. But using Salad Cream instead, of course. Actually Salad Cream and Vinegar works quite well.