50% Synthetics

Persil used to advertise with the slogan ‘Washes Whiter’ and now advertises with ‘Dirt is Good’. In his book on semiotics Chandler notes that in so doing they have turned the role of nature from evil to good. It is not unlikely we’ll see a future washing powder commercial with the slogan ‘Washes Dirty’.

Wishful thinking

Some people have to visit every church they see. The nicest superstitions can be found inside: oil drops on foreheads, tiny strings of rope around wrists, shiny bronze toes, altars full of wish candles etcetera. Apparently Niels Bohr once said: “I have been told that it also works if you don’t believe in it”. I’d like to add, that a good clergyman can tell what the wish was for. I find it comforting to know, that he will dispose of all the wishes.

Content

 
We had a friend over from Qatar. His girlfriend wants to be a model. I don’t know how it happened, but we came to talk about form and content, when our friend suddenly said: “Well… about form and content… it was only last night when my form was your content.”

Wings

I was with my brother in the city of Eindhoven where he showed me how they spend their weekends. Next month they will host the Dutch Design Week. The first year students of Graphic Design were asked about their favourite super power. One of them was smart enough to want to be able to grant everybody else’s wishes, the rest only wanted to fly.

Power Animal

This man has pasted two wasp stickers on the front of his bike. The wasp must be his power animal. My friend and me were eating croissants on a medieval looking square. The friend asked the waitress to leave the used jam cups on the table.
“For the wasps,” he said.