Friday GeoQuiz- How Large is Utrecht, Holland?

Wes


Since Holland is playing Spain for the World Cup title on Sunday, we thought we'd focus our dual GeoQuiz entries (the other one is on my other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times) on the two countries involved.

For this entry, we focus on The Netherlands and the Dutch city of Utrecht. It is the fourth largest city in Holland, and the home to footballer Wesley Sneijder who has been a star player for the Dutch team. Sneijder also hails from Utrecht, which is also home to the Dom Tower (pictured above).

Utrecht is also the main rail hub of The Netherlands as well as one of Holland's leading cultural cities which like Amsterdam boasts lots of impressive canals. We presume there is good beer and cheese in Utrecht as well.

The city is also Sister Cities with the likes of Leon, Nicaragua, and Brno, Czech Rep.

One of our local bands (well, they are just down the road) The Carolina Chocolate Drops from Durham, NC, will be performing in Utrecht at The Rosa on Nov. 10. Closer to home, the band performs at Duke University in their hometown on Sept. 25. I saw them at a bluegrass fest in the rural hamlet of Eden, NC, two years and they were quite impressive!

Here is our question about Utrecht which we dedicate to ninth graders at Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, NC (near Greensboro) where a family friend is a member of the school's wrestling team:

How large is Holland's fourth largest city?

A) 275,000
B) 300,000
C) 350,000
D) 425,000

If you know the answer, I will send you a copy of "The Oak Ridge Boys' Greatest Hits" on eight-track!

SIDEBAR: We are always looking to see where people are visiting us from here on this blog. Today, we are wondering if anyone from Metz, France, or Paris, Texas, happens to stumble upon this entry. If you are from one of these towns or Utrecht, Holland, feel free to email us at tango74@aol.com

PS- The answer to last week's quiz was Slovenia.

PSA- Save PBS (So, We Don't Have Watch John Denver Specials!)

Actually, contrary to the title of this entry, there are many songs from the late folk singer John Denver (1943-1997) that I enjoy, but let's face it a PBS special with a live performance of his song during Pledge Week is about as painful was well a Lawerence Welk PBS special (irregardless if it airs during Pledge Week or not!).

Earlier in the week, my local PBS station UNC-TV, which broadcasts all over North Carolina even though it is based in Raleigh, aired one such John Denver special. We believe it was "A Song's Best Friend," but we can not verify that as we honestly changed to channel to a rerun of "Ghost Whispherer."

Amazingly enough, I saw a copy of the John Denver record "Poems, Prayers and Promises," (pictured here) which features one of his signature songs "Country Roads" for ten dollars (?!) at Duke's Antiques Mall in Lexington, Va., a few months ago.

We do happen to love PBS and UNC-TV, which aired an interesting segment about the Charlie Poole Bluegrass Festival which is taking place in Eden, NC, this weekend. The festival featured the Durham, NC-based band Carolina Chocolate Drops a few years ago right before they made it 'big' nationally.

Tonight, WUNC-TV is airing another Pledge Week special "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body" with Dr. John Amen at 9:30 p.m. This guy is apparently very popular with PBS stations because we found out that another one of his specials "Magnificent Mind at Any Age" is airing tonight at 11:00 p.m. on MPT (Maryland Public Television). So, perhaps a person living in Kannapolis, NC, can phone their sister living in Hagerstown, Md., and compare notes.

But, Amen's shows are not airing on every PBS station in America tonight as KBDI in Denver, Colo., is not going to air any of his specials tonight. However, the same station is going to air "Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart" at 7:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. (Mountain Time, of course). So, you may want to ask your brother in Aspen to tivo it for you!

SIDEBAR: Kudos to the Chicago Blackhawks for winning their first Stanley Cup since 1961 thanks to an overtime goal from Patrick Kane in overtime last night during Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers in the City of Brotherly Love. My cousin Erroll Gokbudak, who grew up in the Chicago 'burb of Skokie, Ill., is assuredly most pleased. He can now go back to watching "Antiques Roadshow" on PBS like the rest of us!