Netherlandish Proverbs

In the 16th century, Dutch Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted a village scene filled with people doing nonsensical things. They are each illustrating an old Dutch saying, adage, or proverb. The painting has been called The Blue Cloak or The Folly of the World, but its actual title is Netherlandish Proverbs. It's slightly reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, but much less creepy.

The precise number of proverbs that Netherlandish Proverbs contains is somewhat uncertain because modern scholarly interpretations vary, and in some case, more than one proverb might be assigned to the same component in the painting. Critics have identified approximately 112 identifiable proverbs and idioms in the scene, although Bruegel may have included others which cannot be determined because they have either disappeared from usage or the language had changed.

Bruegel has hidden his proverbs in the characters as well as in the buildings and in the landscape in highly imaginative ways. At the center of the painting is a woman placing a blue cloak (hence the painting’s original title) over her husband, indicating that she is cuckolding him. The man biting into the wooden pillar is a hypocrite. The man who’s filling a pond after his calf drowned is one who takes action after a disaster. The person who spills his porridge, will never be able to spoon it all back into the bowl. The two men defecating out of the same hole indicates they are inseparable companions.

Proverb: “To be a pillar-biter”
Meaning: To be a religious hypocrite

Proverb: “Never believe someone who carries fire in one hand and water in the other”
Meaning: To be two-faced and to stir up trouble

Read about Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his curious painting at Amusing Planet, where you'll find several individual proverbs. You can also check out an interactive map of the painting, where you can hover over a scene and read its proverb. -via Strange Company  


Comments (0)

Can't speak for the UFT, but the NEA's employees are actually unionized at each level, and negotiate accordingly, exactly because we do want to model this. The NEA is the largest teachers' union in the nation.
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The main purpose of any organization is the same as any animal, survival. It is not in the interest of the organization to support activities which weaken its power or compete on its mission. Even when an organization builds a lifespan into its mission statement, the people that make up that organization often fail to adhere to that ideal. Why purposefully make your job irrelevant? Better to invent new reasons for continued existence.

I worked for an organization that was created in the 1950s that initially had a 3-year study mission.
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Alex,

I have never commented on this sight. I come here for fun, but I do notice that you only and often post anti-union pieces. I checked the link you have to the New York Post, a Rupert Murdoch owned publication which states that what you have posted is only an accusation. Nothing has been proven.

Unions, like any organization do make mistakes, but it would be nice if you posted stories about unions fighting when people have been unfairly fired, working for decent wages, and generally improving people's lives.

But perhaps this is a politically conservative web site and I didn't know it. Do other people know your hatred of unions and working people? Do others know that you pass off Newscorp and Fox biased Murdoch news? Do your advertisers know it? I will not look at this site any more and I plan to tell others of your bias.
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@Jason

To me, the Neatorama post seems to be a very fair piece on unions. It is an article defending a groups right to unionize. The guy wanted to form a union, was fired for his idea, and the article is making it known to all.
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@Jason

Not all of us carry the same politics and will find some articles neat. Others won't. Big deal. There's no need to sling accusations of hatred or thinly veiled attacks through advertisers. Unless, of course, you wanted to shut Alex up, which seems to be your intent.
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I love when people stomp their feet. I imagine their teeny tiny minds rattling around their big empty skulls.

CYA Jason, no one cares if you stay or leave. The interwebby is a very big place, and your presence or absence is not even a rounding error on the webstats.
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Another person screaming persecution and blaming Alex... how quaint. Take the information anyway you want with whatever source it's from, and understand that chances are there is going to be a bias somewhere. Don’t shoot the messenger if you have a gripe, but instead yell at the guy that wrote the original article if you don’t agree with it.
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Sounds iffy, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Is it ironic that a "veteran writer for the United Federation of Teachers" who's paid $100K/yr uses "whoever" and not "whomever" as the direct object?
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I believe that Jason's response to all such criticism would be well-considered and deeply thought out. He would analyze the arguments made for and against his position and reply to his opponents, "LALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
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