Jaap van Praag the art dealer sold a Van Meegeren in the 1950s. Newspaper fodder, even back then. 
Papa, Mama, Judithje & Fat Pete (the overweight pincher). 
PERMANENT HOTEL GUESTS that's what the future husband of Jake's sister became when the teen's mother decided she no longer wanted to run a household after her divorce from her son's father. Conveniently located on the Dam square the quality hotel is steps away from the BEEHIVE and HEMA department stores. 
When I worked for Metz & Co in the late 1970's, the buyers' office was located under the eves, or rather, under that slate roof, on the floor where you now find the café-restaurant.
The letters M E T Z are situated atop the Gerrit Rietveld Cupola. It was outside this cupola that I presented Doctorandus P his book with antique postcards. I was dressed and groomed to look like Santa. I don't think Drs. P liked Santa much, he didn't even look me in the eye. 
In the late 1970's I worked for Metz & Co for about a year and a half. I was the assistant to Cok de Rooy, the buyer of gift articles and kitchen utensils. Our office was under the eves, or rather, that slate roof. From our room stairs led to the tower. This was after Gerrit Rietveld had added the cupola. These days a café restaurant is housed where our offices were. 
From the time I was about ten until my father died, two days short of his 71th birthday, and I thirteen + 4 months, we watched many a movie together.
Too bad Tablet's 100 greatest starts with the latest. But in due time we'll get to the earlier ones. I'll be checking in.
TABLET: "100 Greatest Jewish Films: Schindler’s List is astoundingly stupid, Inglourious Basterds is cartoonishly potent, and more in our list of the greatest Jewish movies of all time..." 
I've got my own stories about traif cookies. Just last year I had an allergic (or truth be told "intolerance" reaction to Anna cookies. Upon reading the ingredients I discovered they "may contain shrimp". My father would have said "God punishes immediately".Unhealthy cookie alright
Marjorie Ingalls: "Unholy Wafers: At first Oreos were an unkosher, forbidden temptation. Then they became just another unhealthy cookie." 
BELGIUM DURING WWII
Yes, that's part of the background story. Jake was born in Antwerp, his parents traveled back and forth between that city and Amsterdam (where all of Jake's siblings would be born) and some of his relatives survived the Holocaust because they were in hiding with brave "Belges".
Simon Kuper: "In October 1940, the Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi began publishing a comic strip about Tintin in the children’s supplement of the pro-Nazi newspaper Le Soir." 
Yo Yo Ma plays the cellist of Sarajevo. 
ANOTHER FAMILY'S DIAMOND STORY Another continent but pretty much the same rules. The only big, big difference is that the author of the book didn't get to wear her father's merchandize while growing up, while I was my father's mannequin ... | Listen to the Interview with the author on Tablet Magazine's VOXTABLET | For generations, Alicia Oltuski’s family has traded diamonds. In Precious Objects: A Story of Diamonds, Family, and a Way of Life, she examines her family’s history—and the diamond district’s.
BORN INTO A DIAMOND WORKERS FAMILY Jake was a nearly lifelong member of the ANDB Even when he became a professional painter, he now and then referred to his old skills and craft. |
The first successful general strike held by Amsterdam diamond workers in 1894 led to the founding of a trade union, known as the ANDB. (General... 
STAGE DESIGN - Nita was interested in the Opera Hoffmann's Erzahlungen, but Jake couldn't listen to the language of Germs.
HAVE A CIGAR but only if the sales at Mak van Waay grant such a luxury, Jake decided.
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Long ago, Sunday afternoon noshing with my friend Sophie at Sal Meijer's sandwich shop on the Nieuwmarkt (later and now at Scheldestraat 45). "Cut out" roll (the doughy part removed) with "pekelvlees" (salty coldcut, kind of like pastrami, but better, better, better), another with "Osseworst" smoked beef sausage, and for dessert a ginger bolus. Sipping hot tea from a glass, you could refill yourself at the large samovar. Each time I go to Amsterdam, I go to Sal Meijer's. Now I'm going to look into baking those pastries myself. 
The BBC's Culture Show visited an art therapy session to discover how drawing, sculpting and painting is helping veterans manage the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Via Art Therapy ★★★★★ 
SWIMMING PIGS?
That makes me think of Guy Clark's song:
TORNADO TIME IN TEXAS
"...well when pigs fly,no I mean really fly
Not long after we arrived at Allardsoog in the spring of 1963, my father handed the neighboring cattle farmer a list of animals he wanted for our farm. On the top of the list a milk goat for my mom, at the bottom a sow. The goat we got right away, for the sow we had to wait. When she arrived she was pregnant and on Liberations Day 1965 my mom, who had been a delivery nurse stood by as the sow delivered eleven piglets. I played in their pen (not the pig sty) and watched them grow up. When they outgrew the pen, they were suddenly gone, sold of course, with their mom.
Thanks to Catherine for sharing these photos, she writes: "42 Pictures Of Pigs Swimming: These pigs really love the water. My new life goal is to go swimming with them..." Via Cathryn Wellner 
The luxury of Liberty's fabrics, both the cotton and silks, so lovely. As the assistant to the buyer of gift articles at Metz & Co I got to know all of the items that were made of the materials. How well I know the print that surrounds the text on the website!
The history of Liberty London department store on Regent Street in central London. 
Formerly nothing but a small fisherman's village, Zandvoort as a sea shore attraction came into being in 1828. The first "hard" road lead to the first hotel 'Groot Badhuis' (Grand Bath House).
In 1881 the village counted six hotels and one guest house, in 1907 nine hotels, 23 guest houses and 111 rental villas.
Until 1906 Zandvoort was a destination for aristocrats and other wealthy visitors, who often brought their own personel. Once a tram connection with Haarlem was a fact, commoners started making daytrips to the beach town, the start of mass tourism.
In 1942 the Nazis demolished many of the developments created by Jewish Germans in order to create the Atlanik-Wall, the defense against the allied forces. 
What does this have to do with my novels' back ground story? A narrow line divides us all, no matter where we are. And on top of that William Deresiewicz presents a tidy piece of literary criticism.
The American Scholar: "Exile, ethnicity, and the search for the perfect futon..." 
OORLOGSMUZIEK OF MUZIEK VAN DE TWEEDE WERELDOORLOG
Westerborkserenade, Voorwaards stormsoldaat, accordeonspel in Birkenau en Auschwitz. En ondermeer een schrijnende documentaire over Flora Schrijver. 
IN ANNE FRANK'S WORDS - MY PARENTS' WORLD
Sorry, only in Dutch, but the images speak for themselves. Move the cursor from 1933 to 1945 and stop at videos or photo sequences. 
An exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art searches for the Jewish roots of Rembrandt’s Jesus and revisits the Dutch master’s misunderstood relationship with Judaism... 
BOEKESTEYN IS WHERE Jeannette, the mother of one of my main characters spent her summers over a 100 years ago. Yes, I'm writing historical fiction, about the post WWII era in the Netherlands | 1948-1955 | 1955-1969 and beyond. When does historical fiction start, how far back do we go?
JAKE PAINTS FOR LIFE In 1953, the Dutch were again confronted with the power of the sea, Artists among whom Jake donate paintings to benefit survivors of the flood.
In between Confucius and Oprah there was Jeannette, a French governess who in 1910, at the ripe age of 36 bore her husband Hendrik a boy, the first of six children, another boy, a girl, a boy and two more girls. She taught her offspring compassion and kindness by example and still they made their own decisions in life...
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