The Unusual Suspects

It's somehow appropriate that today's Blip was taken out at the City of Bears.

This could be a scene out of my currently vivid dream-nightmares.  Except here neither the cat nor the bears are talking.  Not sure what exactly is going on in my head but it's turning me into an overly sensitive, sleep-deprived idiot.

The original German word for Nightmare* is (der) Albtraum, which, according to my scanty etymological research, came from the old German words for an Elf - ein Alb and Traum - dream.  Elves were supposed to be responsible for dreams and an Albtraum came about because an Elf was sitting on your chest.  So, sleep badly, blame Legolas.

However nowadays lots of people pronounce it Alp-traum** and it was accepted by Duden as OK to be spelled that way too.  Language changes.

* You could also use Albdruck (Elf-pressure), or the very old Nachtmahr (which looks so like Nightmare)
**Surely a dream about a large mountain.