German Peanuts tidbits

The AAUGH Blog has readers in a surprising range of places, as an email from Chris in Germany serves to remind me. He weighs in on the German Love is a Book with Seven Seals title, which we had previously discussed here and here, suggesting that the “book with seven seals” idiom is akin to something in America being compared to “a closed book”. He also says

It is a very popular expression in the German language, because the Seven was of great importance in German law and German customs: You needed seven witnesses, there were seven electoral princes, seven alderman and so on. There is also the expression seine sieben Sachen packen (to grasp or pack your seven things).

Apparently over in Germany, the baseball strips are translated so that they seem more like they’re about soccer than baseball. And the mentions of “root beer” are translated as Kräuterbier (herbal beer), suggesting that it’s an actual alcoholic drink being consumed, rather than sweet soda pop.

Thanks for the information, Chris!

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