sunlore wrote:Hey Linus, I've been meaning to tell you, I really like your very Dutch surname! What's the history?
"van Pelt" is not my real name. My name is Banghart, which is German, although I'm told it might be ethnically German and linguistically French. I have no Dutch ancestry, as far as I'm aware - my mix is 1/2 German, 1/4 Irish, 1/8 Scots, and 1/8 English. My time spent in the Netherlands is limited to a few hours in the Amsterdam airport, and my knowledge of your language is little more than "Ik sprek geen Nederlands."
Linus van Pelt is a character in the greatest comic strip of all time, "Peanuts", by Charles Schulz. My given name is Linus, and I suspect I was named, at least in part, after Linus van Pelt (in larger part, after Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling). Also, Linus is probably my favorite character in the strip, and certainly the one with whom I most closely identify. So when it came time to choose a web pseudonym, it was a natural choice.
So, yeah, I'm not Dutch, but I like the Dutch! They have a saying, in the region just west of where I am: "If y'ain't Dutch, y'ain't much!" Pretty silly, but maybe it will amuse you!
Why do you make it so scary to post here.