Before 1848 there was a legal distinction between stad and non-stad parts of the country, but the word no longer has any legal significance. About 220 places were granted stadsrechten (‘city rights’) and are still so called for historical and traditional reasons, though the word is also used for large urban areas that never obtained such rights.
Because of this, in the Netherlands, no distinction is made between city and town; both translate as stad.
A hamlet (gehucht) usually has fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, a village (dorp) ranges from 1,000 up to 25,000 inhabitants, and a place above 25,000 can call itself either village or city, mostly depending on historic reasons or size of the place.
As an example, The Hague never gained city rights, but because of its size – more than half a million inhabitants – it is regarded as a city. Staverden, with only 40 inhabitants, would be a hamlet, but because of its city rights it may call itself a city.
For statistical purposes, the Netherlands has three sorts of cities:
kleine stad (small city): 50,000–99,999 inhabitants
middelgrote stad (medium-sized city): 100,000–249,999 inhabitants
grote stad (large city): 250,000 or more
Only Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht are regarded as a grote stad.
Cool, that would be a sight to see. Redheads are super interesting to me. Probably the rarity and the color. Or it could be that I used to have a favorite red hat when I was 6 but lost it
On a more serious note, I was in this tiny town in Netherlands during the early days of the Ukrainian war. I got shook because I started hearing explosions around 2am. I thought shit was popping off. Turns out it was just some kids launching fireworks. Apparently it’s a big problem there. I laughed at first. Then I got jealous that it was considered a serious problem.
Some years ago there was a story about a pair of twin sisters in Britain, one black and the other white and a redhead. They carried their birth certificates with them for the benefit of nitwits who couldn’t believe that they were sisters.
*(Not my actual cousin, but that’s close enough to what they look like for demonstrative purposes without doxxing anybody.)
Furthermore, I am currently a redhead, due to my habit of using henna regularly.
That said:
None of any that in any way negates my initial comment about the peculiar predilection of certain folks of a certain caste, when it comes to being fixated on superficial genetic traits.
very cool. maybe the actual number is higher than 2%? now i’m even more curious. with my cousins basically everybody in baltimore knew where they were at any given time.
was not the quote, but was the intent behind the post. unsure how else i could have conveyed the intent behind my words after the fact, directly editing them seemed like a copout. i know nothing.
