January 6, 2022

"[W]intertime beach outings are a quintessential example of uitwaaien (OUT-vwy-ehn), a Dutch word that translates literally as 'out blowing' but is perhaps better understood as 'to walk in the wind.'"

"Typically used as a noun, it describes the act of undertaking some sort of outdoor physical activity in windy conditions. Wind, as local wisdom goes, refreshes and recalibrates you.... The Dutch have harnessed the wind as a power source for centuries; windmills have long been so intrinsic to society there that they’re practically a national symbol..... Like all lifestyles, uitwaaien has its casual partakers and more extreme devotees. Wim Hof, the Dutch health expert... says: 'We have a physical body, but it is like a radio: It receives and sends signals. And the carrier is the wind. The wind is able to change our biochemistry in the depth of our bodies for the better.... The wind offers the gas exchange between the outside and the inside of our selves. How do we regulate that? By doing the breathing, by letting the wind come into our bodies. That is a foundation of health."

From "Forget hygge, it’s time for uitwaaien" (WaPo).

Last night, Spotify suggested that I listen to a track that was 8 hours of the sound of wind — supposedly good white noise for sleeping. So this Dutch concept intrigues me. But I've been avoiding going out when the wind is high, especially in the winter, when it's not just about getting clobbered by detached tree parts, but it's driving the "feels like" temperature down below zero. 

I wrote about Wim Hof once before — in a 2019 post that ended, "Like the unfortunate couple who ate raw marmot organs and died of the plague and Willie Nelson inhaling/scarfing down marijuana, there's a thing that can be done and a human mind to imagine that it could work. It could work and it could cause a lot of damage, so... do it!" Read that whole post to see what sorts of things Hof does. 

I guess Hof formulates his ideas in Dutch. The English translation — "The wind offers the gas exchange between the outside and the inside of our selves... letting the wind come into our bodies" — sounds rather... farty.

ADDED: In France, you can walk in the wind indoors:

36 comments:

rhhardin said...

My first Doberman believed in wind spirit. In particular curtains that moved in the wind.

rhhardin said...

You don't see any Dutch mills run by solar panels. Maybe some future Van Gogh could paint some in.

rcocean said...

there's nothing better than a walk on the seashore with a warm wind on a partly cloudy Autumn day.

Falling asleep to the wind sounds interesting, but I've found the artificle sound of rain or surf better. The only problem is when the recording feels neccessary to put in the seagulls or foghorn.

gspencer said...

Which bests translate into "being out on one's mind."

rcocean said...

Gough man Gough

n.n said...

The polar bears are back in town and they're hungry.

rcocean said...

Which bests translate into "being out on one's mind."

The dutch word for that is "vanBiden".

Clyde said...

Frisian is the probably closest related language to English, with Dutch not too far behind. I've seen sentences in Dutch that looked kind of like badly misspelled English with some German-looking words thrown in. Not surprising when you consider their proximity to the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who invaded Britain.

Achilles said...

There is research showing that if you listen to a sound while learning something, replaying that sound while you are sleeping helps you retain that information.

Most of the effects of neuroplasticity are resolved at night so any transfer of knowledge from working memory to more permanent forms of memory happens then.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

OT: right now - A creepy black helicopter and a creepy black plane are flying around Boulder Colorado.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

I flipped em off thru the window. Then they circled around and flew right over my home. I'm not even kidding.
Test runs for Potemkin Joe.

Achilles said...

Can Of Cheese for Hunter said...

OT: right now - A creepy black helicopter and a creepy black plane are flying around Boulder Colorado.

Helicopters don't have enough air time to be used for recon. They aren't going to just fly around for nefarious purposes. 99% of the time you see a helicopter someone is logging flight time training. Their use on missions is very specific and limited time wise.

They wont use a black plane for anything creepy either. Most likely circling an airport.

They wont use planes for anything like that. They have the GSM/CDMA network and your phone transmits GPS data constantly. They don't need to watch you from the sky. Your phone is reporting on you approximately 15 times per second.

Howard said...

April, you sound like a coked up Henry Hill towards the end of Goodfellas.

Oh Yea said...

OT: right now - A creepy black helicopter and a creepy black plane are flying around Boulder Colorado.

I recommend that you download an app like Flightradar24. You can use it to identify aircraft flying overhead. You can also use it to see its flight path. I identified a small plane flying repeatedly over my house last summer and you could see by its path it was doing an area survey of the area.

MadisonMan said...

WaPo is very interested in what people in the Netherlands -- land of Zwarte Piet -- do.

Howard said...

My wife was into some bad Australian hospital procedural. It seemed half the patients Were suffering from a "bit of wind"

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Achilles
I'm merely reporting on their creepiness. and LOUD. oh so loud.
Don't worry - I didn't run for the tin foil hat.
I generally have a lot of respect for military aircraft.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne aka Doug Emhoff's Pimp Hand said...

Clyde said...

Frisian is the probably closest related language to English, with Dutch not too far behind. I've seen sentences in Dutch that looked kind of like badly misspelled English with some German-looking words thrown in.

Spent a week in Amsterdam many years ago. After a while you kind of get to the point you can translate simple Dutch, but then you'll hit a complex word that makes you realize that it's its own language and not some variant of English.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Oh Yea
Thanks.. that is interesting.
Biden is supposed to visit the democrats of colorado tomorrow and tour the burn area.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

I think I invented the word "farty".
Circa sometime in the infancy of the internet - in a chat room with a small group of people that included, at least in terms of pop-in, the writer of Mrs. Maisel. (she stole my stuff)

reference: Nena's "99 luftballoons" - a song I detest from the 80's that reminds me of
"farty circus music"

I just wanted to clear the air.

effinayright said...

Mimes. Ugh.

I loved it when "Bloom County"'s Opus dealt with an irritating street mime using a slab of deli meat.

Headline: "Olive Loaf Vigilante Strikes Again."

effinayright said...

I once responded to a Twitter challenge to drop the first letter of a movie title to produce a different theme.

Mine was "One with the Wind". A Pepperoni Addict's Struggle for Social Acceptance."

Scot said...

Where I come from, they call it "get outside & blow the stink off". I recommend it.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Average monthly temperature ranges in the Netherlands are around 34-54 F. Seldom snow. Compare that to where I live in NH with average monthly temps of 20-74. And don't get me started on the extremes, as I am sure you know from Wisconsin. NW Europeans wax rhapsodic about how much they just love weather(!) - I think the English are the worst - but they have these mild climates that allow that sort of kidding themselves. I love wind in chilly weather with no precipitation, too. I don't see why it's worth having a culture phenomenon about it.

Josephbleau said...

"I think I invented the word "farty"."

Please, remember Jody the Grinder?
Farty Marty had a party, all de cats was there,
Farty Marty lit up the party, all the cats went out for air.

Gregory Tuck, Jody the Grinder, such a heavy heavy weight in the hard rock comedy field.

Ann Althouse said...

“Farty” is in the OED, going back to 1965:

“Resembling or suggestive of a fart, esp. in sound or smell. Also: prone to breaking wind.

1965 M. Shadbolt Among Cinders xxv. 250 On all the tables there were farty little candles stuck in brown bottles.
1973 D. Leitch God stand up for Bastards xiv. 224 This bloated plastic bag, which had all the aesthetic appeal of a giant contraceptive, emitted a squelching, farty noise.
1983 New Society 21 July 101/3 It [sc. mud] stinks, a fishy, farty smell of methane and rotted fish.
1994 B. A. Staples Parallel Time v. 63 The odors that seemed to drift up from the river were worse than farty; they were evil.
2016 Sportsman (Austral.) (Nexis) 16 July 41 Brussels sprouts are delicious, texturally interesting if cooked the right way, full of good stuff that makes you healthy (and yes, a bit farty).”

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Oh good. I didn't invent the word like I thought. I can finally rid my thoughts of that incorrect idea. Thank you, Ann.

MikeDC said...

Weirdly, there's a Dutch word, gezeilig that means exactly the same thing as hygge. Anyway, I have don't know about the pseudo-science stuff that guy is going on about, but I've walked along the boardwalk of the North Sea when it's 50-60 degrees and windy, and my idiot kids have even gone in the water.

So... this sort of thing does happen. All of my Flemmish family are pretty outdoorsy

Rollo said...

From "Forget hygge, it’s time for uitwaaien" (WaPo).

How stupid and slavish does one have to be to take instructions like that seriously?

Kassaar said...

/ˈœy̯t.ʋaːi̯.ə(n)/

"(idiomatic) to go out in windy weather, particularly into nature or a park, as a means of refreshing oneself and clearing one's mind" (wiktionary.org)

A pretty good definition. To hear it pronounced correctly, look it up at the Wiktionary site.

Charlotte C said...

Here in South Africa, we use the term wegwaai (blown away) to describe trying to do any outdoor activity during the summer months when the Cape Doctor blows daily.

I’ve lived here all my life, and it’s only in the last few years that the wind has stopped causing me disquiet, which is perplexing considering that the high levels of violent crime here have not had a similar impact.

Charlotte C said...

Blogger Clyde said...

Frisian is the probably closest related language to English, with Dutch not too far behind.

Afrikaans, being a daughter language of Dutch could be even closer to English. Have a look at this poem, which can be read word for word in either language with almost identical meaning.

My pen is my wonderland.
Word water in my hand.
In my pen is wonder ink.
Stories sing. Stories sink.

My stories loop.
My Stories stop.
My pen is my wonder mop.
Drink letters.
Drink my ink.

My pen is blind.
My stories blink.

https://alluringcreations.co.za/wp/poem-can-read-english-afrikaans/

Quaestor said...

I may be one o the six or seven humans on the planet who enjoyed The Silent Movie, however, that Marcel Marceau bit was my least favorite joke in the entire picture. My innate loathing of dumbshow may be more to blame than Mel Brooks' shotgun approach to comedy.

A mime is an amusing thing to waste, particularly with copious quantities of 5.56mm.

BJK said...

But I've been avoiding going out when the wind is high, especially in the winter, when it's not just about getting clobbered by detached tree parts, but it's driving the "feels like" temperature down below zero.

As someone who remembers walking to class in Madison during the winter, I don't blame anyone with the capacity to stay out of the windchill.

ElPresidenteCastro said...

The most interesting part of this scene gets cut off. Marcel speaks the only word in Silent Movie, "No!"

Unknown said...

Waaien means that the wind is blowing all the time. She removes (takes out ) dirt and dust from your mind.
There is no bad weather, online bad clothes