The word Corona will always have a bad aftertaste

On television, in newspapers and on all kinds of websites, reports, reports, reflections, columns and other ways rightly pay a lot of attention to that damned Coronavirus crisis. I'm slowly starting to hate the word corona.

Even if the crisis were to be averted now, the word would continue to reverberate for a long time, usually in a negative sense. I hardly need to add that people who have lost a loved one to the coronavirus will experience a bad taste for the rest of their lives when the word is used.

And that is a pity, because the word corona occurs in countless other indications and meanings, which are not negative, on the contrary, can even have a very positive sound. I'll name a few!

The Corona cigar

I emailed a good friend of mine here in Pattaya earlier this week asking how he was doing. He wrote back, I quote:

“It has only been a few months since hearing the word Corona awakened beautiful memories. The pleasant smell of a beautiful cigar, not too big, not too small, not too thin, preferably from Hajenius, just the cigar I needed to finish a meeting in an hour without looking at my watch. Now Corona sounds completely different”

Corona cigar (photo Wikipedia Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0)

The Coronastraat in Culemborg

His cigar may well have come from Culemborg, once a stronghold of cigar makers. Where in the past 300 cigar makers were at work, there are now only a few. There is still one factory that still produces quality hand-rolled cigars. That decline meant that buildings were demolished and houses were built. It is therefore not surprising that there is a Tabakstraat and a Coronastraat in Culemborg.

The Coronastraat, a quiet street with houses that sometimes change owners. Normally not a problem, but now with the crisis a house in that street seemed hardly sellable. “Who would live in a street with a name like that?” If you do it ′′ you're beautiful the cigar ′′ Nothing turned out to be less true, because many candidates reported for a house for sale in the Coronastraat, who could make an offer. The house eventually sold for 15% above the asking price.

Other Corona Streets

I once went looking for other streets with the name Corona (I “stay at home”, so I have all the time to surf the internet). In Groningen, in the beautiful Paddepoel district, there is also a Coronastraat and coincidentally there are also houses for sale there . Whether the selling party will be as lucky as the one in Culemborg is unknown to me. I also found the name Corona on streets in New York, Denver and Paramaribo. I've looked them all up on Google, but can't report any specifics. It could well be that there are blog readers who have fond memories of a Corona street somewhere in the world.

This also applies to cities and neighborhoods that bear the name Corona. I found 7 in the United States and an old Mayan city in Guatemala also bears the name Corona.

Toyota Corona (Photo Wikipedia Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

The Toyota Corona

The Corona was a model of Toyota, which was produced for more than 30 years until 2001. On the internet I found a Belgian offer of a Corona station wagon from 1976, which was for sale for € 8.800. Maybe you have had one yourself and can tell beautiful memories about it.

Photo: Wikipedia

Corona beer from Mexico

Of course I have to mention the Corona beer from Mexico, which is sold in 180 countries around the world. I don't think it's a special beer, but it is trendy (and therefore expensive), but no better than, for example, the San Miguel Light, which is popular here in Thailand. Characteristic for the Corona beer (and also for San Miguel Light) is that it comes with a slice of lemon. People push that disc into the beer to “increase the taste”, but the origin of that disc is something completely different. It was originally intended, after the crown cap was removed, to rid the head and the mouth of the bottle of viruses and other nuisances. Did you know that?

The production of Corona beer in the 11 Mexican breweries has recently been temporarily halted due to the Coronavirus crisis.

Corona Hotel and Corona bar

In The Hague there is a Corona Hotel and here in Pattaya we have a Corona Hotel and a Corona Bar. I don't know them, but there are details on Facebook. There are probably blog readers who have stayed in the Corona Hotel or had a beer in the Corona Bar. Beautiful memories? Let us know.

Finally

As said before, the word corona is used in many other indications, look up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona for an overview.

On the Internet I also found a page where T-shirts were offered with all kinds of corona crisis related themes. That goes too far and in my opinion shows little respect. Who's going to walk around in a T-shirt like that?