We love our waitstaff on the ship. Karolina and Raoul. K is very pretty and very professional and R is a wild man — he’s almost always singing. I heard him explaining to another table how it is that he is always happy. “I wake up in the morning and look into the bathroom mirror and point at the person in there and say: ‘You are happy!’ (Pause.) Then he answers me: ‘Oh, no you’re not!!’” And he roared with laughter.
So there’s the secret, Chatterheads.
Today we are in Zeeland, a maritime province. Have you heard about the flood of February 1, 1953? It was a Dutch 9/11. The North Sea exploded in a violent storm, overwhelming the dikes. 375,000 acres of land were ruined along with many villages. 1,836 lives were lost, including the life of one baby born during the storm. We visited a museum built starkly in the shape of a caisson that commemorates the losses. (Caissons used in the D-Day invasion were donated by the U.S. for use in the recovery/repair effort.)
This monument situated outside the museum indicates via its waves how high the water reached.
This statue stands in the town we visited afterwards. It’s a woman protecting her child from the sea.
In the puzzle today, for the clue “Goofball” the answer was BUFFOON. JT commented: Cluing buffoon as “goofball” doesn’t seem quite right; to me “buffoon” suggests a certain amount of foolishness or stupidity.
What?
For the clue “Parmesan shelfmate” the answer was ASIAGO. Rex’s guest blogger Malaika wrote: I don’t know why this struck me as such odd phrasing. I think it’s because “shelf” made me think of a shelf in a regular grocery store aisle, but parm would be in the refrigerator section? In my grocery store, the cheeses are in like a round sort of island that you can access on all sides.
She included this photo she captioned “Cheese Island.”
Wouldn’t you love to be shipwrecked on Cheese Island (chipwrecked?) with a case of Triscuits?
Unrelatedly, another commenter referred to Malaika as “Malaria,” either on purpose or via a typo — either way it’s good. Wait — isn’t that the name of Trump’s wife?
Roger Warman, of the Dull Men’s Club (UK), asks: Do any other dull types find 
as an answer to a text message irritating? Or am I alone ? …
Here are the dullest of 82 comments:
Rick Bedford: We’re all alone Roger. And then we die.
Clare Lorraine Payne: It’s irritating yes. It shows the replyer (made up word sorry) can’t be bothered to use words like, yes I agree or yes thank you.
Rosie Dawson Barker: I find it rude. To me it means “whatever.”
Chris Hughes: Passive aggressive reply. Makes me cross.
Mandy Fullerton: No, it’s not. It just tells the correspondent that you agree and have nothing more to add.
Colin Lambert: No it does the job. What do you want, a sonnet ?
Shaun Gisbey: Is emoji shaming a thing now?
[My position: Are these folks nuts? I use a thumbs up all the time in texts (and in person). It’s affirmative — it tells the other person that you agree with him. How is that aggressive?]
Hrrrrrrmph.
The Wellington Files 