Monday, May 12, 2008

The end of the "Lille Lennart Lottery"

JenniferThe "Lille Lennart Lottery" ended last week, and I saw "Lennart" this afternoon, as she was brought round by her proud if somewhat tired looking parents. Her name is not "Lennart."

A couple weeks ago, as we headed into dates that people had bet on, Lennart (the name and the yet-to-be-born infant) once more became an item of fika gossip. It was mentioned that one baby was named Lennart in 2007, so maybe there would be two this year, then four next year, eight in 2010, as so forth. "In the future we will all be named Lennart!" said N., which produced another round of hysterical laughter.



I can't really think of any other name that I've heard produce this effect. Someday I am going to name something Lennart just so that I will be guaranteed a laugh when I tell a Swede about it.

Oh, who won the lottery? Well... "Lennart" did. She was born on May 5, of all things, the day the doctors predicted! I blame my officemate S., who sometime in April was heard to say something very close to "Only an idiot would bet on the predicted day." And in fact no one did. So "Lennart" gets the pot, a grand total of 240 SEK. To be far to S., I agreed with this sentiment, and I myself took May 4, after most of the other participants had picked days that were quite far from May 5.

An exception to that last statement was L. He came by my office last Friday and was looking rather glumly at the calendar I had posted on our door (he had chosen May 6). He stared in silence for a few moments, then said, "You know what I've learned from all this? I've learned that no one trusts science, not even scientists."

So welcome "Lennart," and by a strange coincidence, welcome also on May 5 to my newest first-cousin-once-removed. Hey, cousins, are you sure I couldn't talk you into naming her "Lennart"?

1 comment:

  1. Hi, I tried to leave a comment before, but it didn't show up. Apologies if I end up repeating myself.

    My friend's wife had a baby on her predicted due date too. Unfortunately, that was April 1st, so we weren't sure if we should believe it. For the rest of his life, that kid is going to be saying "no really, it is my birthday."

    By the way, I think you found a good use for May day (looking for communists). I was torn between dancing around a maypole and taking a ride on a sinking ship.

    Sara

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