zondag 15 oktober 2017

Sunday Stamps: 'K' is for krant and kasteel

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is the letter 'k'.

Inspired by Violet's post of today, I thought to share the Dutch word for 'newspaper', illustrated by stamps from Mexico, Russia and the Netherlands. In Dutch we name the newspaper 'krant'.
As far as I know, in several languages words for 'newspaper' contain some part meaning news, or time, or day, and so. For example in the German word 'Zeitung', Zeit means time. Or the French 'journal', jour = day, and in the Spanish 'periódico', 'period' has to do with time also. And 'newspaper' of course contains the word 'news'. See more translations of the word 'newspaper' via Wikipedia. The Dutch word 'krant' appears to have nothing to do with day (dag), time (tijd) or paper (papier). However, it origins from the French word 'courant' which means current, commonly, present, and the old word (plural) 'couranten' meant 'current notifications'.

I found a few stamps showing newspapers. I don't know most of these newspapers so I cannot tell which signature they have or on what 'level of quality' they are.
For example, Dutch most well-known newspaper was 'wrong' in WW2 and nowadays brings news in a sensational, not always fair way. Despite of that, and to my surprise, it alas is the best selling newspaper in the Netherlands.

Kranten (plural of krant) have been pictured on stamps from Mexico:



From Russia:



From the Netherlands:



(A newspaper and a cup of coffee to my opinion is a very pleasant combination :-) )



In contrary to the above-mentioned best selling newspaper, the 'Parool' was 'right' in WW2. It has been founded in 1940 and helped positively in the Dutch resistance against the Nazis.

The stamps above and below have been issued in 1985, 40 years after WW2 has ended.



A newspaper which is considered being of good quality (though not selling as much as the first-mentioned newspaper), is the NRC Handelsblad. When I was a child this newspaper published stories of Ollie B. Bommel and Tom Poes every day. A kind of comics, that is, pictures above and printed text below.
In 1996 the following stamp sheet was issued. I immediately had to think of the NRC newspaper. And first I thought to not post this sheet here, but then I noticed the selvage on the left, and the text, which starts saying: 'Spring had come and mister Bommel was sitting under the blooming pear tree, reading his newspaper.'



After reading the newspaper, before putting in it the recycling bin, you can make all kinds of nice things of it:



It might be clear that I have a strong preference of some of the Dutch newspapers to some other newspaper. Do you have strong opinions on the different newspapers issued in your countries?


An other word starting with the letter 'k', and probably immediately understood by all of you, is 'kasteel'.
In 2017, the Europe stamps theme is 'castles', and I am so lucky to have received some of these stamps.

From Turkey, Belarus, Russia, Estonia, and of course one of the two Dutch castle stamps:



From Greece:



From Spain, with a funny postmark:



From Spain, with a modest postmark - thus showing more of the stamp:



From Serbia:



And the other of the two Dutch stamps:



By the way, thanks to Eva, recently a postcard arrived which happens to show an other Spanish castle, the Almodovar Castle:



Worth a stamp, too, don't you think so?!

Find more stamps on the letter 'k' at and via today's Sunday Stamps!

10 opmerkingen:

  1. My job is delivering newspapers, and I am often surprised at people who will denounce a paper without even reading it, based on conjecture.
    And, yes, a coffee and a newspaper is a must for me!
    I hadn't seen any of the EUROPA castle stamps, so thank you for showing these.

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    Reacties
    1. Thank you for your comment (and inspiration :-) )!

      Concerning conjecture (= prejustice?), the best-sold but to my opinion worst Dutch newspaper, I've read several times n the past years, to see if I really have to denounce it. Some articles are good, but most of the time I am annoyed by the way things are writtten, exaggerated, or about things I think they belong more in a gossip magazine than in a serious daily newspaper. In other words, I think I try to do my best to give that specific newspaper a chance, but each time I'm disappointed, and indeed when people give a free copy away on the streets, most of the time I say a friendly 'no'.

      But I can understand that it is frustrating when you deliver a newspaper and it is denounced without clear eason.

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  2. In Spain, they issue stamps for the 100th anniversary of newspapers; but most of the designs have been rather dull. I like also the coffee + newspapers combination, but, these days, I read the news mostly on the Internet newspapers. And, more than preferences, there are some Spanish newspapers that I just can't bear (especially after the recents events).

    The castles make an excellent subject for stamps, in my opinion. By the way... have you recently got a postcard with a castle I visited? I hope so!

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    Reacties
    1. Oops, I forgot to post the postcard! I received it two weeks ago already, and had scanned it and planned to add it to this blog post. But while posting all stamps, it became later and later, and I just forgot. I just added your beautiful postcard :-)

      And yes, concerning newspapers, and selective news sharing, I understand you very well. Had to think of you a lot in the past weeks. Also Dutch newspapers write about it. Some good, some badly.
      I was wondering if I should sent you some Dutch articles by email. Please let me know (via email or snailmail) if you'd appreciate to receive some.

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  3. I'm enjoying the europa castle stamps. One could plan an interesting trip with themes a guide. Although I read newspapers online nothing beats one in the hand.

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  4. Sorry that should have been - them as a guide. I'd be no good as a newspaper proof reader!

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    1. Sure it would be a nice trip, visiting all Europe2017 castles :-)
      I must confess that I'm reading most of the news via the internet. However I have a 'Saturday' subscription (to an other newspaper, volkskrant.nl) toenjoy the paper weekend edition in the weekends (it has a lot of background information, on the news but also science, culture etc), and through weekdays I have online access. Which makes me confess that it takes the while week to find time to complete reading the Saturday newspaper :-)

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    2. *whole week, not while week :-)
      I think you and I are good newspaper proof readers (we both saw our mis-typings soon), under the condition that we get a paper proof and a pen to correct :-)

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  5. The castle stamps captivated me too. I believe that we could spend years visiting these and many others that appear on stamps from different countries.

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