Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM - Dude, your days of lighting up a joint in a Netherlands coffee shop are numbered. Dutch authorities just plain got fed up with wrecked tourists. As of Jan. 1, a new law redefined marijuana-selling coffee shops in southern Netherlands (Limburg and Zeeland, for example) as private clubs, limited to 2,000 legal Dutch adults who are, quite literally, card-carrying potheads. In January 2013, the same will apply to Amsterdam and the rest of the country. This law wasn't passed lightly.

Here, as promised last week, is the second and final part of my sport on the fact-finding mission I took to the Netherlands to increase international understanding, a cause that - as the great humanitarian Florence Nightingale so often pointed out as she toiled among the sick and wounded - is tax-deductible if you write about it. My topic today is Amsterdam, which is the largest city in the Netherlands, unless it is not (somebody should look...

While I was in Amsterdam last year, I discovered Sandwichshop Sal-Meijer, which had just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Amsterdam food critic Johannes van Dam, who can make or break a restaurant, awarded the unassuming kosher deli, best known for its fish cakes, corned beef, pastrami, and half-and-half (corned beef and sliced liver) sandwiches a "9-plus," accompanied by a glowing review. Not only is the menu considered the best Jewish fare in the country; this pared-down version of a New York deli - decidedly more Flatbush Avenue than Seventh Avenue - is called the second shul, or synagogue, where in 1945, survivors of World War II would come every day in hopes of seeing friends who also had survived.

Since its founding a quarter-century ago, Nederlands Dans Theater II has been called various names: Springplunk, because it served as a springboard for its dancers into the main body of Nederlands Dans Theater; Aspirans, because the dancers aspired to the main company; and even Juniors, because it has been for those under 21. But now, the well-respected, ballet-based company - which will debut in the area tonight at the Annenberg Center for...

Amsterdam probably offers a tourist more variety than other European city, from hashish and hookers to Rembrandt and Rubens. City fathers don't dwell on Amsterdam's sinful reputation, but they're making a big deal of its cultural attributes. This is Amsterdam's year to be "Cultural Capital of Europe," as designated by the European Community. (Berlin and Paris will be honored in 1988 and 1989.) All year, Amsterdam will be aflutter with ballet, opera, musicals and special exhibitions at the pre-eminent Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum and Van Gogh Museum.

We had just begun our tour of the Vincent van Gogh Museum, a delight of ochres, oranges and burnt sienna amid a frenzy of brushstrokes, when a little voice mused: "I think van Gogh doesn't know how to draw sunflowers so well. I want to go. " It was a statement of fact with no room for negotiation. Everybody's a critic - even a kid who's 3 years old. I had thought this would be an opportunity to expose Rohan to some fine masterpieces. Wrong! We raced through the rest of the bright, modern galleries, Dad agreeing to tackle the cranky critic so Mom could enjoy those poorly rendered sunflowers.

The symptom of a good concert at Amsterdam's venerable Concertgebouw, which has been one of the world's greatest halls since it opened in 1888, is not a standing ovation. "They do that for everybody," explained one veteran Dutch concertgoer as the audience rose at the end of the Philadelphia Orchestra's performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 1 on Sunday. One theory claims the concert hall's seats were so uncomfortable until recently that standing ovations were prompted by the audience's simple desire to stand.

AMSTERDAM - TNT Express NV, the express package delivery company, has posted falling profits in the third quarter that reflect weak margins in its European business and losses at its operations in high-growth emerging markets. Net profit fell to (euro) 5 million ($7 million) from (euro) 14 million in the same period a year ago, while revenues rose 1.3 percent to (euro) 1.78 billion. Figures from last year were presented as if the company were already separated from the former Dutch state postal company, PostNL.

Spring break - a phrase synonymous with let the good times roll - is almost upon us. The folks at ShermansTravel.com have come up with this list of the Best Spring Break Destinations to Party. 1. Amsterdam 2. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 3. Gulf Coast 4. Jackson Hole, Wyo. 5. Koh Phangan, Thailand 6. Lake Havasu, Ariz. 7. Miami 8. Montreal 9. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 10. San Diego

Maybe Koy Detmer will have a little competition for that third quarterback spot, after all. Last week, the Eagles signed former Notre Dame starter and Berwick (Pa.) High star Ron Powlus and promptly sent him to Amsterdam, of NFL Europe. Powlus, undrafted out of college, spent the 1998 preseason with the Tennessee Titans and the last two weeks of that season on the St. Louis Rams' practice squad. He was in the Detroit Lions' training camp last year, but was cut. Detmer probably has little to worry about.

Egypt's military: No hand in vote CAIRO - The head of Egypt's armed forces Saturday rejected accusations that the military is throwing its weight behind a candidate in next month's presidential elections a day after thousands of people demonstrated against the ruling generals. The statement came from Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who leads the military council that has ruled Egypt since Hosni Mubarak's ouster last year. Protesters have accused the generals of trying to manipulate the May presidential vote.

Spring break - a phrase synonymous with let the good times roll - is almost upon us. The folks at ShermansTravel.com have come up with this list of the Best Spring Break Destinations to Party. 1. Amsterdam 2. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 3. Gulf Coast 4. Jackson Hole, Wyo. 5. Koh Phangan, Thailand 6. Lake Havasu, Ariz. 7. Miami 8. Montreal 9. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 10. San Diego

AMSTERDAM - Dude, your days of lighting up a joint in a Netherlands coffee shop are numbered. Dutch authorities just plain got fed up with wrecked tourists. As of Jan. 1, a new law redefined marijuana-selling coffee shops in southern Netherlands (Limburg and Zeeland, for example) as private clubs, limited to 2,000 legal Dutch adults who are, quite literally, card-carrying potheads. In January 2013, the same will apply to Amsterdam and the rest of the country. This law wasn't passed lightly.

Once heralded as the greatest British actor of his generation, Nicol Williamson was also a legend for stormy onstage behavior that included calling off a performance of Hamlet mid-speech because he was too tired to go on. "I'll pay for the seats," he later recalled telling the audience in 1969, "but I won't shortchange you by not giving my best. " And then he walked off. He made his name as the faltering attorney in John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence in the mid-1960s in London, rode the role to a Tony Award nomination on Broadway, and re-created the part in the 1968 film.

AMSTERDAM - TNT Express NV, the express package delivery company, has posted falling profits in the third quarter that reflect weak margins in its European business and losses at its operations in high-growth emerging markets. Net profit fell to (euro) 5 million ($7 million) from (euro) 14 million in the same period a year ago, while revenues rose 1.3 percent to (euro) 1.78 billion. Figures from last year were presented as if the company were already separated from the former Dutch state postal company, PostNL.

AMSTERDAM - Royal Philips Electronics NV, the world's largest lighting maker, said Monday it will slash 4,500 jobs after third quarter earnings fell sharply, hurt by a strong euro, weaker margins and more losses at its television division, which it intends to sell. Net profit was (euro) 74 million ($102 million) from (euro) 524 million in the same period a year ago, the company said. Revenues declined 1.3 percent to (euro) 5.39 billion. Philips said sales would have risen 6 percent if not for the strong euro.

'W e are tolerant, but we have our limits," says a city official. Somehow 17th-century Amsterdam sounds oddly familiar, especially when it comes to immigrants, religious broad-mindedness, interfaith romances, and radical new ideas. And so this play by David Ives, New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656 at Lantern Theater, launches an absorbing, 2½-hour theological debate. The Portuguese Jews had fled persecution and found refuge in Holland, but their safety came at a price: obedience and silence.