Dank U Sinterklaasje!

The mean old network Grinches have blocked high quality YouTube versions of "The Miracle On 34th Street," an old TV staple around this time of year. I did find my favorite scene of the movie--it's the scene when a young Susie (Natalie Wood) overhears Kris Kringle (Edmund Gween) speaking Dutch to a young orphaned girl from Rotterdam. Susie had been skeptical up to that point, but this scene convinced her of his authenticity.  Gween won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor that year (1947).

The scene is rarely translated (at least when I've seen it, but I haven't seen it lately).

Kris: Hello! I'm glad you came.
Dutch Girl: Oh, you are Santa Claus!
Kris: But of course!
Dutch Girl: I knew, I knew for sure that you would understand!
Kris: Of course, just tell me what you would like to have from Sinterklaus.
Dutch Girl: Nothing, I already have a lot--I only want to be with this nice lady.
Kris: Will you sing a song for me? 

The video rudely cuts off here, but here's the rest, and a translation of the lyrics:

Sinterklaas kapoentje, 

Gooi wat in mijn schoentje, 

Gooi wat in mijn laarsje, 

Dank u, Sinterklaasje. 

Christmas capon,*

Throw something in my shoe,

Throw something in my boot,

Thank you, Sinterklaas.

link

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*The use of capon is interesting:  According to the Wiki:

In one way or another is the name of Klaas Capon transferred to Christmas capon. That a bishop celibate and no sexual life is like a capon, will have contributed to the association, but more important is probably that "shoe" rhymes with capon.

A Thermometer of Perturbation

The physics of radiation and understanding the nature of the atom did not consume every scientific imagination at the dawn of the 20th century. Other scientists were busy trying to connect life processes down to the chemical level, rather than trying to build physics up to meet chemistry. The space between physics and biology has always been chemistry's domain.

Other scientists were trying to benefit all of physical science and one prachtig example was  J. H. van 't Hoff*, winner of the very first Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901.  Van 't Hoff's prize citation reads "for his work on the laws of chemical dynamics and also osmotic pressure." What van 't Hoff did was to apply mathematical prowess to chemical equilibria, showing how balances shift when heated.

Van 't Hoff's eponymous equation relates an equilibrium ratio, K, to absolute temperature, showing how chemical reactions shift according to temperature. The law holds for chemistry, physics, biology, geology, meteorology—the whole broad swath—anywhere heat affects chemical balance. In a sense, van 't Hoff quantified Le Chatelier's qualitative principle.

A youthful van 't Hoff also made the visionary proposal that tetrahedral carbon existed and that right and left-handed stereoisomers explained observed optical activity, but he thought it wise to exclude such controversy from his PhD dissertation. Watch this video here: link
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*Note the elision of van 't which in Dutch means van het. In German, van het corresponds to von das. Dutch melded the three Germanic genders der, die, and das into just two: de and het.

Forget Natalie Wood...

If this scene doesn't lump your throat, you shouldn't be allowed to celebrate Christmas!

Poppycock!

What's a "poop" deck? How did it get its name? asked Carol Herman in a comment back here.

Etymology has long been a hobby of mine so I looked up the origin of the term in the trusty online OED of Etymology:

"stern deck of a ship," c.1400, from M.Fr. poupe "stern of a ship," from It. poppa, from L. puppis "poop, stern," of uncertain origin. Poop deck attested by 1779. link

I found this word origin quite unsatisfying if not incomplete. I recalled a discussion once with my Dutch father-in-law. We were chatting about ships and he translated poop deck as something that resonated with poop deck but which I promptly forgot.

*looks up term*

The Dutch term for "poop deck" is kak dek. Now isn't that strange--the Dutch slang term for feces is kak* which seems to suggest that the "poop" in poop deck should have a more vulgar origin than let on by the OED.
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* cf. the origin of the term "poppycock" 1865, probably from Du. dialect pappekak, from M.Du. pappe "soft dung" (see pap) + kak "dung," from L. cacare "to excrete." link

How the Dutch tongue avoids the same-sex marriage controversy

The Netherlands were of course one of the first European countries to recognize same-sex marriage rights but to my knowledge, no one there has ever made a serious move towards corresponding same-sex marriage rites. Long before the Dutch government recognized same-sex marriages, they distinguished between marriages recognized by the state and marriages recognized by the church. Linguistically, it's kind of a rights vs rites distinction. The Dutch words are burgerlijk huwelijk for civil marriage and kerkelijk huwelijk for church marriage.

It's important to recognize that those terms predate the acceptance of same-sex marriage in that country by decades.  When the time came to broaden the meaning of burgerlijk huwelijk to include same-sex couples, there was no corresponding need to broaden the meaning of kerkelijk huwelijk.  I am unsure what religious freedom the Dutch people enjoy, but judging from the protections granted to Muslims I'd guess that they're pretty broad.

The linguistic situation in this country is more nuanced.  Claimants for the word "marriage" to cover same-sex unions are insensitive to other's rites while claimants to the word "marriage" to exclude same-sex unions are insensitive to other's rights. I'm not sure there is any easy way to resolve this.