IT’S A PUCK ADVENT CALENDAR!!!
This December we’ll be posting a brand new sketch every day straight to Christmas, so…
VOTE EVERY DAY TO CATCH ‘EM ALL!!!
As for this comic…
What everyone was really waiting for: Dutch humor.
I suppose there are some people who will not have the cultural knowledge necessary to find ANY of this comprehensible. But to put it simply, the Dutch Reformed Church is a rather austere Protestant movement that is somewhat prominent around my neck of the woods. They don’t forbid technology like some groups of the Amish or the Mennonites, but they tend to be very serious Calvinists who smile upon diligent labor and frown upon all sorts of fun. There are, to be fair, multiple wings of the Dutch Reformed movement, some far more conservative than others. Around here, though, they all tend to be very stern, very disapproving types that marry young and marry Dutch.
Also note that not all Dutchmen are Dutch Reformed. Some are Dutch Catholic – a.k.a. ‘the fun Dutch’.
Ewww…salted licorice…!!!
It’s a real thing. It’s nightmarish.
It truly is. It’s not even SOFT black licorice – the Dutch made it into a hard candy.
Salmiakki. I was introduced to it by my hostdaughter, Lotta, from Finland. I love it and regard it as the best of all possible candies.
Seriously…
If that is the best candy to you, what’s the worst?
barf flavored Jelly Belly jelly beans.
Followed closely by gummi bears.
Gummi Bears are divine ursine gifts from the heavens. And I won’t tolerate you sullying their good name!
All hard candies are an open invitation to cracked teeth.
And very sticky candies will pull your fillings right out. Or even worse, a crown.
No thankee.
Ok. What is salted licorice?
He asks before looking online.
Chewy licorice candy coated with ammonium chloride. You either love it or hate it, there is no middle ground, no acquired taste, no nothing on the subject.
I disagree, middle ground is possible, but is a razors edge. I’m generally not a fan of licorice, salted or otherwise, but every once in a while I get a craving. Usually have a piece or two, craving is gone, and I have a barely touched bag to get rid of.
Good and Plenty is a decent cure for a licorice craving.
ONE Good And Plenty tastes good … maybe it’s the crunch and the shock of the strong flavor … and it’s also plenty. No need to eat the whole box.
Agreed.
https://www.tasteatlas.com/salmiakki
INCONCEIVABLE
Thanks to a medicine I had to take as a child, I’ve always assumed licorice was the worst taste possible.
Thanks for correcting me.
Just put some salt on that bad boy. Then you’ll know true terror.
Then there’s lutefish, which is cod soaked in lye. I’d actually like to try that. Just to find out if my supposition the first person to try it was beyond desperate, or if it’s better than it sounds . . . and looks . . . and smells . . . .
I used to make fun of lutefisk, like everyone else.
Then a Norwegian friend made some for me on one of their holidays where it’s apparently the traditional food to server.
To my shame, I liked it.
Worst I can imagine is rakfisk. I came across it in a book. Raw fish salted and placed in a sealed barrel with a weight on top. The salt forms a brine and the fish is stored at just under 5C for 2 to 3 MONTHS in order to soften. Then it is eaten without cooking.
Hakarl. An Icelandic delicacy of fermented and aged raw Greenland shark. It had to be fermented because the flesh is otherwise poisonous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl
I love how all the ‘acquired taste’ foods of the world are the obvious products of people doing anything they possibly can to not starve to death. Then, centuries later, it’s looked on as a dish of national pride.
Sounds like garum
People have been rotting fish in barrels and pots then eating/drinking the resulting sludge since the dawn of time. Kinda makes sense when you consider the limited shelf life of fish.
Ceased to exist in 2004. Suddenly the ones I knew styled themselves Christian Reformed Church..
I am not the expert. But there is a group of them who go by ‘Christian Reformed’ who are subtly different from the ones who actively label themselves ‘Dutch Reformed’, and there are splinter groups within each that purport to hold up the true morals of the Dutch, and yeah. Protestantism is complicated.
Bloody splitters
Sal ammoniac means “welding flux” to me
Good stuff. Don’t drink it.
Don’t know about your neck of the woods, but over here you have the “hervormden” and “gereformeerden”. Confusingly, both of those phrases would translate to reformed. However, the “hervormden” aren’t anywhere near as fanatical as the “gereformeerden”. I would say they’re far less so than the catholics (which – to be honest – *I* would never describe as ‘fun’).
Ain’t religion fun… (no, it isn’t).
It’s SO complicated, and it’s that specific kind of complicated that is baffling and utterly meaningless to any outsider.
And as for the fun factor, I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder. And probably a regionally variable thing.
Well, sorry, but I’m Swedish and I love licorice! The real thing, not the tasteless ropes crap they sell in most stores in the US and Canada. The real erodes-the-roof-of-your-mouth stuff. And salted licorice is… an acquired taste, for sure, but once you get it, you get it. It’s fantastic! And by the way, licorice is a FLAVOR, not a SHAPE!! Red ropes and red Twizzlers are NOT licorice!! If it ain’t black and tarry, it ain’t licorice.
Real talk: I like licorice. (And my spell check is currently driving me insane because it says ‘licorice’ isn’t a word.) but I don’t LOVE licorice, and I really think it’s something you need to be fully born into to appreciate.
Licorice smothered in rich dark chocolate, aka chocolate or licorice “bullets”. Now that’s my poison, yum.
I’ll eat it if no one else will. That’s my relationship with all things licorice: no one else eats it, and I feel bad to waste it, so I eat it.
Loving Licorice is a lot like Loving Liverwurst.
If you really, really love licorice OR liverwurst, there’s a good chance you’re over 80.
Hey, now. Speaking on behalf of the Dutch:
… Salted licorice is delicious. ^^;
Also, some of the reformed church buildings have a certain stark elegance I admire.
Salted licorice is obviously delicious to someone. Just not me.
And the various ‘reformed’ denominations do have one thing going for them: they live up to their austere Calvinist teachings. In life and in architecture. It’s admirable, in a sense.
I think Teddy Roosevelt was Dutch Reformed. So there’s hope.
Knowing what I know about Teddy Roosevelt, I’m not sure what I should hope for.
Carry spare pairs (plural) of extra glasses? And probably make sure at least one of them is in a case that can take a bullet.
I think Teddy has speeches so long, that one of them stopped a slug as well.
He kept on talking for anothr hour.
LOL
Teddy Roosevelt was amazing.
Even had a bear named after him 🙂
Hannah’s last name wouldn’t rhyme with the word “bin”, would it?
Being Dutch, they MUST grow tulips in the greenhouses too.
Drive around Ancaster/Flamborough and you will see approximately 37 “Reformed” churches per square kilometer…
For the record, I enjoy GOOD black licorice. And all things anise (star anise, fennell seeds (was the street named after the vegetable?), fennel bulbs, fennell fronds, etc)…
Hannah’s last name is Van Beek. And as I’m not Dutch, I’m not even going to try to pronounce it. But yeah, The predominance if the rural reformed Dutch in this area is … really something. Tulips are likely involved, yes.
Tulips = Bitcoin
It’s a little more complicated than that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL5-YbvmYLE&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5DNT-GPewi0mut_y6GM6HTc
Still pretty accurate, though.
I did say it’s only a BIT more complicated.
Van Beek can be pronounced like “Van Bake”. Sometimes.
I’m sure you’re heard of “Vyn’s Flowers” and the like from that area…
The double ‘e’ is a sound that just isn’t in English. I know it to hear it. But I can’t say it.
Dutch isn’t an orthography I know. In general, you have to actively undo the Great Vowel Shift, but with Dutch, it’s more complicated.
The idea that Catholics are considered more fun than Dutch is really scary.
Catholics do the sin and feel bad later. Hardline protestants feel bad beforehand then proceed to be virtuous, AND loudly disapprove of all the sinners in the room enjoying themselves.
In my humble experience, there are very few Catholics that follow the teachings in any serious manner.
Especially the Politicans who call them Catholic just to gain the votes of those who follow the faith as poorly as the politicans themselves do.
Often their actions make me wonder if they really believe in Judgement Day at all.
Speaking as an ex-Catholic … I agree that a great many of them are culturally Catholic, not religiously Catholic. It provides an identity and often a group of friends, with the handy escape hatch of Confession.
If you think too hard about the Garden of Eden and the Doctrine of Original Sin and so forth, it all unravels, so it’s best to leave that stuff up to the uniformed priesthood.
I’m.. definitely glad to be a heathen, then. I thought salted caramel was a bridge too far, I shudder to think what other abominations against the palate have been committed by the righteous.
Now.. Dutch milled cocoa powder on the other hand.. that’s a good ingredient.
Agreed. The Dutch have done some wonderful things. The salted licorice just isn’t one of those things.
Yay festive stripey Emily.
Little bit o’ Christmas cheer.
Chirstianity has a lot of corners.
Some of them sharp.
Oh yeah.
Charity, Generosity, Goodwill towards men ….
Definitely out of tune with 2022 🙁
Salted licorice? I makes me think of when I was about 5 my parents tried to persuade me that what they called “hoarhound drops” were the best candy ever. They were like crystalized black licorice – tar disguised as candy. I like a little anise in baked goods or even a coffee drink but as a candy? My tongue tells me it’s poison!
I suppose it may have something to do with detecting a particular molecule or suite of molecules. I’m fine with brussels sprouts and like that, so it’s not just a question of strong flavors.
There may be some evolutionary value in a variety of flavor preferences, or it may just be a vehicle for increased humor possibilities. On the evidence, evolution is driving us to greater and greater levels of odd humor.
I know that with some licorice, the compounds are legit toxic and eating too much of it over time can seriously shorten your life. So for the people who don’t like it, that’s probably their body telling them something.
Have a Splendid Solstice everyone !
(I was trying for an Aawesome Alliteration. Splendid does not quite achieve it, though.)
Spectacular?
THAT’S IT !
I want a good fruitcake so badly.
My wife sometimes makes homemade ones. She didn’t this year. I’m sad.
Good Fruitcakes are Heaven.
Bad ones are Heck.
(not even worth calling them hell)
Awwwwww! It’s so good!
Was Hannah blind from birth?
Just wondering.
Either way it is a difficult cross to bear.
Yes. Blind from birth, I think.
Sad.
I know someone like that.
I is impossible to describe many things to them.
Now Hannah does have some limited vision. She can see shapes and colors when things are held up close to her eyes. So that’s something.
That is indeed a blessing.
The best candy in the entire planet earth is MAPLE SUGAR CANDY !
(closely followed by white almond bark)
Maple Sugar Candy transports you … briefly … into heaven.
So I’m not entirely sure that it is from this planet.
It’s one of the few foodstuffs that actually palpably hurts your teeth when you bite into it.
You must be eating the variety that is adulterated with Cane Suger. Yuck.
Nope. I’m Canadian, dude. You don’t think we take our maple sugar seriously?!?
my comment from 7:31 is awaiting moderation.
who knew you cannot say !^%$)*&>?@!!!
I WANT:
Baked Alaska
Indian Pudding – HOT with vanilla Ice Cream
But do I want Cratchet Plum Pudding ?
Dunno
Is Hannah wearing a :
“Raspberry Beret; the kind you find in a second-hand store” ?
Nah, it’s a pink beret, though there is a certain resonance there.
Oh man, I am so pleased to see the Avatars return 🙂
Is it possible Hannah simply suffers from Cataracts, and her Religion forbids the surgery that would correct this ?
I’m going to be charitable and guess no, there’s something beyond that. But I know that thinking is a thing in certain religious circles. Let’s assume that’s not the case here, though, just because it’s too dark.
Here is something awful about cataracts.
Opthamologists cannot usually inspect the retina behind them properly.
So correctable retina issues go undiagnosed.
Until it is too late.
I don’t know whether to be offended or not, since I am Dutch or rather Canadian Reformed. All I can say is…
Hey, don’t diss the salted licorice, that stuff is amazing! Then again, it is an acquired taste that Dutch-blooded people seem to have…
We do but jest – poison in jest. And yeah, that salted licorice stuff… I can actually see how someone could like it. I can get a piece down. It’s not the worst thing in the world. But I think you need to be raised with it, though. And Dutch genetics really helps.
Dutch Reformed. Ouch.
(The sheer number of people I grew up with who were either CR or Dutch Reformed is staggering.)
Ouch indeed.