Go Oranje!

July 10, 2010
Make no mistake about it. This is a business trip. I spent the entire day in a hotel conference room doing strategic planning while the world outside got crazier and crazier over the World Cup finals. As I write this it is now nighttime, and we are in the midst of a spectacular thunderstorm. I have the TV on in the room for additional background noise, and every channel is showing something related to soccer. I have no idea what they are saying, but they keep showing guys in orange jerseys. I imagine it is like the Red Sox entering the 2004 World Series. In any event, in the name of fairness, while on my walk yesterday, I had my picture taken with a group of young Spanish guys who were bravely screaming "Second place isn't so bad!" to every Dutch cyclist (to which everyone responded with a middle finger salute...)I'll be rooting for the Oranje tomorrow night. There's lots of orange around town. First of all, there is an orange fuzzy mascot that appears in all sorts of places, including this planter on a window sill. The place where I had lunch yesterday had fairly typical orange decor for the team along with soccer balls galore. Our waitress was very patriotic and had her nails painted like the Dutch flag. Why is everything orange? It is the national color of the Netherlands and it is associated with the royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau. At various times in Dutch history, the top band of the flag that is now red has been interchangeably orange. Also, the flag of New York City uses orange as one of its colors as a nod to the flag of the United Netherlands that flew over Nieuw Amsterdam in 1625.