Penguin pool!

(Photo taken from Spiegel online)

Just how cool is this? You can swim in the pool next to a pool of penguins! I'm getting on a plane right now.

Penguin political correctness goes AWOL

(Picture from Spiegel online)

From the Spiegel weekly news quiz:

Yes Sandy the penguin became smitten with her keeper Peter Vollbracht. But the fickle creature lost interest when Vollbracht was off sick and hunted out another lover. Once Tom, a real penguin, died the slippery little trollop made a beeline again for the keeper.

Slippery little trollop! Some lonely, recently widowed penguin who after a long period of loving monogamy has returned her affections to the man she used to do charity work with is a 'slippery little trollop' for flirting with something she can never mate with? Would Der Spiegel have used such language for a male penguin? I think not. Maybe she should have thrown herself onto her penguin husband's burial pyre or lived as an outcast like Nepali widows?

Most likely this is one of Der Spiegel's very rare, yet quite funny little cultural mistranslations. Still, I'm appalled.

Nude penguins and fetish foxes

I love silly season. I also adore penguins and am therefore very concerned about poor little Ralph the penguin, who lost all his feathers and has to wear a little wetsuit to stop him getting sunburn. Fortunately all his penguin friends are still letting him join in the penguin games.

Of course over in Germany the Sommerloch, is also bustling with animal antics. The wild boars, instead of attacking churches or breaking in to hardware stores are partying on the autobahn, a fox has developed a footwear fetish ( If he was in Berlin he could attend specialist sex parties for that) and hedgehogs are becoming some sort of rescue statistic in Nord Rhine-Westphalia. Why the police are required to deal with hedgehogs is a mystery. The boars I will grant are scary porkers in desperate need of a harshly written ASBO.

Penguin papers

(Picture from Spiegel online)

When you see a man with penguins, what do you do? Call the police obviously. Only in Germany would someone be carrying the necessary papers for their penguins, whilst frolicking in a lake. Mostly I am delighted that one can take penguins out for R&R. When I'm a billionaire and can afford my Penguin wonderland, I shall take my penguins on many lovely trips to cooling lakes. And they'll be much better behaved than disgusterous jumpy dogs.