Ok, the death of Walter Cronkite is not an obvious Curious Orange story.
But he was great. Really great. So I was reading about him… and I saw this quote in an AP article:
Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title “anchorman” was first applied, and he became so identified in that role that his name became the term for it in other languages. (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; in Holland, they are Cronkiters.)
I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard the term here before (usually we call them “tv-presentators” or something like that)… but it sounds pretty good. And I think I’m going to introduce it into my (still rather small) Dutch vocabulary. And if I have to explain it a couple times, well, that’s ok. Because it’s Walter Cronkite, and it can’t hurt to talk about Walter Cronkite!
So. Not only is he worth blogging about because he was really, really great… but, for Curious Orange at least, because he was so great that he affected the Dutch language.
Read the full article here.
**ADDED Aug 7**
So. Just heard that all that stuff about Cronkite being the first “anchorman” and his name being used as the term for anchorman in Sweden and Holland is completely wrong - it was lifted from various writings, including his own memoir!
The best/worst part about this story for me personally? Apparently somebody called Radio Netherlands to fact-check this story - so, while I was thinking this was a funny Dutch connection and posting it here on the blog, somebody at my own organization was saying it wasn’t true! Ahh, the miracles of internal (lack-of) communication.
Read more from the Associated Press here.
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