More Than Just Waffles?

I’m fairly new to “ye olde blogosphere” – so we’re still in the baby steps of drumming up traffic to this site. Primarily, it’s been through word of mouth, and every day has seen steady growth in readership, so for that, and your continued support – I thank you.

At the very bottom of this page, you’ll see a logo for something called “Sitemeter.” What is it? It’s a tool that tracks the number of visitors to this site, the length of each stay, how many different articles are clicked on – things like that. It also tells me where my readers are coming from, be it through clicking links on my Twitter updates, via a mention on another blog, through an internet search, etc. – and it also lets me know what city your computer is in.

While most of my readership is coming from the United States and Canada, apparently I have one frequent visitor to this site (I’m assuming it’s the same one) from all the way in Belgium. I’m not sure why or how he or she stumbled across Mass Confusion, but I’m happy to have made an overseas fan.

By way of saying thanks for the repeat business, I wanted to tailor one of my posts to possibly broaden my growing Flemish fan base, but sadly, I know very little about the European country. In fact, I made a list… though I’m not sure how accurate it is. Hopefully, the mystery person will be able to set the record straight.

10 Things I Think I Know about Belgium

1. Hey, Star Trek fans… one of the languages spoken in Belgium is called Picard. I assume it is greatly enunciated and very proper sounding.

2. Belgium’s high school dropout rate is ZERO. Why? Because it’s illegal for students to quit school before they reach the age of 18. Forget "scared straight" - it's a "scared smart" program.

3. That Mercator guy – the one who invented the map that brainwashed all American students into thinking Greenland is like twenty times the size of Africa? He’s Belgian.

4. The band “K’s Choice” is from Belgium. This is one of my favorite songs of all-time:

5. Belgium has a version of Mardi Gras with creepy mask-wearing, orange-throwing “clowns” called Gilles walking around trying to ward off evil spirits. Sort of like Philadelphia's "Mummers" - but without the beer guts.

6. Apparently, Belgian women know how to play tennis. Kim Clijsters and Justin Henin (no longer hyphenated with a Hardenne) have both won lots of matches, several against the Williams sisters, so they must have meant something.

7. French fries, as we know them in the USA, are actually from Belgium – not France. So, are Belgian waffles actually from France? I wonder...

8. James Ensor was a famous painter from Belgium. I actually only know this because of this “They Might Be Giants” song:

9. American soccer player Oguchi Onyewu played for Standard Liege, a team in Belgium, for the past five seasons. They've been League Champions for the last two. Coincidence? I think not.

10. The only man-made structure visible from the moon is not the Great Wall of China, but rather, the Belgian motorway system – due not to its size, but because of its incredibly bright lights.

So, to all you Belgians out there… "Dank u wel" for reading. Spread the word.