NAME THEM ALL PETER!

The weather today is beautiful.  If it were about 30 degrees warmer, I'd even say it was perfect.  To celebrate, Isaac is skipping his "formal" morning school session and we are going on an impromptu field trip to the park and library.  Naturally accompanied by sandwiches.

I like going to the library for several reasons:

1) Librarians = free babysitters (little do they know).

2) The pleo dinosaur on the librarian's desk.  
    This toy will never cease to amuse me.

3) The pink couch in the children's section.  Perfect for accidental naps.

4) The librarians never threaten to break my legs when I take my coffee inside.  This can't be said for most American librarians.  

5) Last but not least, the name swaps.  For whatever reason (it escapes me entirely), Danish publishers decided it was necessary to change the original names of books, movies, characters, etc. to something completely different (and as far as I can tell, without rhyme or reason).  To name a few:

Curious George is Peter Pedal.

Winnie the Pooh is Peter Plys.  

Apparently they really love the name Peter in this country.  Either that or some Danish person (who, incidentally, looks remarkably like the little animated sketch from Hyperbole And A Half) thought she'd pull a little prank and one thing led to another - as it so often does - ending with her screaming: NAME THEM ALL PETER!

Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Rip, Rap, and Rup, respectively.
Can't say I prefer one over the other in this case.

Calvin and Hobbes are Steen and Stoffer.  

This one bugs me, to be perfectly honest (and not only because it sounds like a line of freezer meals).  Calvin and Hobbes were named after the well-renowned theologian and philosopher of the same names on purpose.  It adds to the irony of the strip.  (You don't believe me?  Check out this illustration.)  I'm sorry, but having Calvin be the namesake of a dutch genre painter and Hobbes a Canadian politician is not ironic.  I doubt Watterson would approve of this.  

... That being said, he also doesn't approve of his illustrations being plastered on commercial paraphernalia and they disregard this in Denmark as well. (You can get the postcard, mug, and t-shirt here.)

(Unrelated: Don't miss this illustration of Calvin and Hobbes grown up.  It's adorable.  And yes I am the equivalent of a Trekkie in regards to this comic strip.  I own all of them and have read them several times.)

Ahem.  Finally, they also change adult movie titles to phrases with completely different meanings.  Dan In Real Life is Min Brors Kæreste, which means My Brother's Girlfriend.  Which, of course, conjures up an entirely different idea concerning the premise of the film.  

... So you can see why a fieldtrip to the library is such a huge success.  Can't wait to see what I discover today.