Art and Foreign Policy While Picking Up Toys

Toot Toot, bitchez

Thomas & Friends, if you don't already know, is a British children's show about talking trains, whose boss looks like a fat Will Arnett, 


 




and whose theme song features the kids from Another Brick In The Wall,  

"Tho Mas And His Frieeeeeends!"

Anyway, my son loves it.  And it's bedtime, so I'm picking up trains and dumping them into the box, which reads "Thomas Visits the Castle".  I happened to notice the 6 translations, because that's 3 more than you normally see on a product, and I notice things like that.

Thomas Visite le chateau

Thomas Visita el castillo

Thomas Besucht die Burg

Thomas Bezeokt het kasteel

Thomas Visita il castello

Thomas Visita ao castelo

French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian and Portuguese I bet- I totally didn't check and I'm only guessing after Spanish.  I don't see European languages enough to be sure.  But I sure do have that Thomas the train song stuck in my head!  And in otras idiomas... Actually only Spanish.

"To Mas Y Su Amigoooooos!"

"Tho Mas And His EuropeanUnion Frieeeeeeends!"  

The foreign languages I do see around are French, Spanish, Arabic and at least four African languages....

And since I'm on the subject, I looked some shit up real quick.  According to the US refugee admissions data, the largest refugee language in America is Iraqi.  That I did not expect, but it totally makes sense.

"Tho Mas And His Displaced Refugee Frieeeeeends!"

Meanwhile, may I present: Train Tracks On Canvas, my latest brilliant idea for storing this pain in the ass train set!

Train Track On Canvas, by Nancy Cartonio (above), with a belt attached for hanging on the wall (see top photo).