Komkommertijd

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Komkommertijd is a Dutch word, literally meaning "cucumber time". It is in reference to the lull of news stories that occurs during the summer vacation period - that the news is as thin and watery as a cucumber. Another explanation is that it is the period of the year when every successive day there is a story in the paper about another longest cucumber - including a picture with the owner, of course.

Other languages have similar terms for the sparse summer period: French has the dull season la morte-saison, English has the silly season, big gooseberry time and even the august doldrums. Swedish has the news drought nyhetstorka, in Norwegian and Danish it's called agurktid, and German has the summer hole Sommerloch, or Saure-Gurken-Zeit.

Komkommertijd is also the name of a vegan all you can eat buffet in Ghent, Belgium.