the corner office

Some Googling prompted by last post, unearthed some odd stuff.

First, Franklin W Dixon, author of the Hardy Boys books, was just a pen name for a crowd of authors known as the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Details here. I didn't know that. I feel strangely cheated.

Second, searching Amazon for Little Nicholas books, I came across a German translation: Der Kleine Nick Und Seine Band. There's a certain Teutonic charm to that title but I can't quite articulate why. It reminded me of an old South African TV series, and shock of all bloomin' horrors, you can now actually buy Trompie en die Boksombende on DVD. In fact, if you click around from here, SABC has a few old chestnuts available: Haas Das se Nuuskas, Heidi, Liewe Heksie... even Shaka Zulu. I suspect that none of these will have aged too well.