A touch of Dutch history today.
I`m on a dike here, a `dijk` as the Dutch say in their own funny language.
I know `dike` has several meanings in English. But the Dutch `dijk` is simply:
a human made dam that keeps the water out.
The worst thing that can happen to a dijk is a puncture, a hole, a leak.
You may have read the story of Hans Brinker. Most of The Netherlands lies below the
water level of the sea and the rivers. So the Dutch really need their dikes.
There are all kinds of dikes. The Eskimo have many kinds of snow,
the Dutch have many kinds of dikes. They have sea dikes and river dikes.
And there are two kinds of river dikes: inner dikes and outer dikes,
called `binnendijk` and `buitendijk` in Dutch.
The `inner dikes` keep the water from the pastures along the river in Summer.
In the Fall, when the rivers rise and the inner dikes and the pastures are flooded,
the big `outer dikes` protect the land.
Now, my human`s last name is `Binnendijk`.
When the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had occupied The Netherlands
in the early 1800`s he forced all Dutch humans to choose a family name.
Many humans were inspired by their environment.
My human`s ancestors probably had something to do with the inner river dikes.
So this is where my human got his strange name.
Now you know!