Honderden pelgrims geëvacueerd uit ondergelopen Lourdes!
Water meer dan een meter hoog. I know!
The grotto at Lourdes flooded. Even the town. Story here.
I wonder if it has ever happened before - since the sanctuary was established I mean? I never thought of the possibility of floods to intrude upon the place. I love Lourdes - some people complain it is too commercial, but it doesn't bother me. I hope the shrine recovers soon.
Just think, some day everything will be destroyed, wiped away - the sacred and profane. Imagine Venice sinking. St. Peter's collapsing into rubble. Las Vegas erupting in a volcano. NYC washed away in a mammoth tsunami. Something to think about over donuts and coffee, huh?
*I just borrowed the 'Signs' title from Spirit Daily.
Here's a thought: If the church allowed dykes, this might not have happened. What?
When I went to Lourdes I noticed that it was emphasized that the water was a sign of the renewal of our Baptism. Yes, I believe it is a two-by-four- to-the-head sign in this Year of Faith for all Christians to be renwed in the graces of our Baptisms. I think it's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteWhy all the Dutch? :)
ReplyDeleteSeveral reason my Mecurial sunshine, 1)I think Dutch is funny 2) I pretend to speak it making weird sounds like, gerta-gerta hog da meerta beerga 3) I think it looks funny in print too 4)I like to pretend I can speak and read other laguages such as Nazi, and Polka, etc. 5) I just came across an article in Dutch. 6) It works with the dike theme, Holland has a lot of them.
Delete"geëvacueerd"
DeleteTell me that's not funny.
It is ... especially if you know the "g" is pronounced like "KKHHH", a real back of the throat sound.
DeleteTo me, Dutch *sounds* like an Englishman trying to speak German out of his a** and not doing a very good job, and *looks* like the pseudo-English gibberish of the Swedish Chef.
it almost sounds like a double past tense of the German "evakuiert"
DeleteI think Dutch retains a ge- prefix on particples of -ieren verbs, unlike German.
DeleteServus, have you ever tried to read Dutch using your knowledge of German and English? It's pretty funny sometimes. You just have to know the correspondences.
e.g. "onderlopen" is obviously cognate to "unterlaufen", though they mean very different things now.
Once upon a time, okay, it was the Spring of my freshman year in college, at UND, in Grand Forks, which borders the Red River of the North, which flows North, a classmate came in looking very, very sleepy. Someone mentioned she looked tired, and she replied that she'd been on Dike patrol the night before.
ReplyDeleteThe dumb blonde in the class asked if there was a lesbian problem in her neighborhood.
The student who had been on dike patrol owned a house in the neighborhood closest to the river, thus in most danger of flooding.
Nan - that is the funniest story I ever heard!
DeleteHaven't you gotten the Rosetta Stone DVD's for Polka and Nazi? They say all you have to do is put the DVD's under your pillow at night and you'll learn; be careful though, if you put both the Polka and Nazi DVD under your pillow at the same time, you risk learning a little-known dialect, Polka Nazi.
ReplyDeleteDykes....First time in weeks I laughed out loud.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Is Polka Nazi like goose stepping
ReplyDeleteROFL!
ReplyDeletepml, can you imagine goose-stepping to a polka beat? Me neither; walz, yes.
ReplyDeleteWell grab my boots ... I guess there might be a connection ... who knew....
ReplyDeleteThe spirit of the polka - Charles Henry Knox book
... It was early observed that the military men made remarkably rapid progress in the Polka but the reason has hitherto been unknown the explanation of the phenomenon however is this that an important portion of the elements of the art of war as taught in the British army consists of learning to stand with military steadiness upon one leg and indeed it is not impossible that the Polka may supersede the goose step in the due development of the military strength of the country A curious instance of its insidious spread in the ranks of the British army having occurred in the circumstance of the lady of an officer in a garrison not very far from London having taken her maid up to town on the occasion ...
THE CANON OF THE POLKA I At the concluding note of the bar before begin throw back your left foot If there such a thing as a pewter Mercury or a Cupid in any of the gardens in your you may practise standing in the the figure is in the being able to stand goose on one leg being an important and essential faculty to those who aspire to be ..."
That last paragraph is confusing; they mention a bar, but I don't see any discussion of the Beer Barrel Polka!
ReplyDelete... surely it will be found further down in the Polka Canon....
ReplyDeleteA lot of ignorant remarks regarding the Dutch language here.
ReplyDeleteAngela