Congratulations Wilfried!

It is with no small amount of pride that we remind our readers that Wilfried Decoo, one of our permabloggers, has been voted Best Blogger of 2005 and that one of his posts has been voted the Best Blog of 2005 (here). Wilfried brings to each of his posts his gentle personality and his erudition. But the most important thing he brings is his memory and his ability to write about those vignettes of memory in a way that reaches us all. They are thought-provoking without being critical in the negative sense. They are moving without being saccharine.

Thanks, Wilfried, and congratulations.

23 comments for “Congratulations Wilfried!

  1. Here, here! Félicitations! Jim really has crystallized what is great about Wilfrieds posts:

    They are thought-provoking without being critical in the negative sense. They are moving without being saccharine.

  2. With all Wilfried’s touching anecdotes about his years of service in the church, he strikes me as a Belgian Thomas S. Monson.

  3. Well deserved. I know others have suggested this too, but I want to add my voice in urging Wilfried to collect his stories in a book.

  4. Oh, very clever way to get around our obscenity filter, Ronan.

    And congratulations, Wilfried. You deserve it.

  5. I’m embarrassed, my friends! OK, perhaps a little trite to say so. But truly, there are so many bloggers who deserve this award as much or even more than I do. People who have been blogging for a much longer time or are more frequent in posting. Plus, I especially want to congratulate the two Lisa’s from fmh – fmhLisa as runner-up for best blogger and LisaB’s Why I Believe as runner-up for best post. I’m sure I had some extra Belgians overseas vote for me to tip the balance, so please consider it at least a tie.

    Also a word of appreciation for the people in my memories. I wouldn’t be able to tell anything without them, so I give credit to those unsung heroes in the trenches of the mission field. Perhaps I should say anti-heroes for I have always tried to avoid certain types of tales. The message is not in the happy-ending but in the happening.

    Thanks again to all those who honored me with their votes.

  6. I enjoy Wilfried’s posts and his gentle comments through the threads. One of my first comments in the ‘nacle was about inter-racial dating and his kind, brief response let me exhale — it was OK to step in! I keep returning to “The Flute” for the lumpy throat it continues to cause.

  7. Thank you for your wonderful posts, Wilfried. And congratulations on a well deserved (and very graciously accepted) honor.

  8. Ronan (#4): petit amuse-gueul? petite amuse-bouche? I’m anything but a Flemish speaker, but the things that I could find used the French. I’m not sure how to convert the French for nibble, grignoter, into a diminutive noun, but that would be the most accurate translation, I think. Of course, the best person to settle this linguistic conundrum would be Wilfried.

  9. Bill, unfortunately, Green Giant, the company, doesn’t translate “niblet.” They just use their invented term “niblet.” Of course, that may say something about trying to translate “niblet” into French or Flemish.

  10. Well… in Dutch (Flemish) it could be “een hapje” en in French “une bouchée”. A number of variants exist though, depending on the degree of succulence to be added… We could move to “een knabbeltje” and to “des craquelins”. Your amuse-gueule definitely becomes delectable, Jim.

  11. Adam, true, “niblet” is a term for kernel, but it has connotations of succulence and delectability that “grain” doesn’t have. In addition, I’m reasonably sure that “niblet” is a word invented for the company’s advertising and not an English term otherwise. Of course, it is such a good invention that, in spite of whatever trademarks on are it, it may well have moved into ordinary usage.

    Wilfried, thanks for the other options. I like the term amuse gueule in itself, but I don’t think it is a good translation of “niblet” because it seems–to me–too sophisticated a term for “niblet.” Both knabbeltje and des craquelins (and, of course, the other possibilities that you suggest) seem like great possibilities.

    Ronan: Perhaps you should substitute knabbeltje for “niblet” on Wilfried’s T-shirt.

  12. You are gracious and kind. Overseas voters or not, you deserve the Niblets. I voted for you myself. And I second the book request.

  13. Congratulations Wilfried, you totally deserved it. (Which isn’t to say I’m not totally jealous). You have a wonderful gift. I’m so glad you share it with us.

  14. Thanks, Lisa and Lisa. That is indeed very kind.

    Struggling with work and time I don’t have a chance to follow all the sites of the Bloggernacle, but be assured my wife keeps me daily informed of what’s on at fmh. She’d never miss that one!

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