On Vacation until January 2

I'm going to take a blog vacation until January 2. I'm burned out and need a vacation from everything right now.

As a random aside, the critical Dutch phrase of the week is "praten over koetjes en kalfjes." This phrase is the Dutch equivalent of "shoot the breeze" or "shoot the $#!+," and literally means "to chat about little cows and little calves."

The Dutch word "koetje" is the diminutive form of "koe," or cow. The same is true of "kalfje" and "kalf." Diminutive words signify a smaller or more intimate form of a regular word, and in most languages these words have a common suffix. Common examples in English are doggy, baggy, piglet and duckling. The Dutch use the diminutive form extensively. I think Dutch speakers obsess over 'j'-based sounds such as je, pronounced "juh," much as Americans love the sounds of "eh" and "er".