Bad postcards of the week:

The mystery of New Year's naughty gnomes

From: The Grand Rapid Press

OK, your guess is as good as mine.
But happy new year!

  What do three gnomes, a crescent moon and money bags have to do with New Year’s Day?

I’m hoping someone knows, because we have a mystery on our hands -- several of them, actually, when you count our wonderful reader contribution this week.

Apparently while we are all glued to the television complaining about the bands on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square, a trio a rogue gnomes makes unauthorized withdrawals from the local branch of First Moon and Trust.

I stumbled across this bad postcard of three hoodlum gnomes caught in the act of swiping bags of, well, something from a crescent moon and loading them in a getaway sled.

And, in the course of their shenanigans, we are wished New Year’s greetings, which is nice.

A similar scene of mischief.

I do like the black and white checked shoes belonging to one of the gnomes, which means he is a member of a 1980s new wave band. He’s holding some sort of card with five red dots. Red dots also are on the bags.

While researching this presumed act of misbehavior, I found two similar postcards – but no answers.

Based on the other cards, the gnomes apparently can access the moon by rope or gangplank. Hello, NASA.

And a third. These guys are bus

 And, the moon has some kind of slot to place the five-dotted object – pretty handy – and icicles. And each of the bags is labeled with a 1,000. That could mean money, it could mean cookies. We just don’t know.

The cards seem to date from the early part of the 20th century, just like our peeping and cycling Santa and amorous ornaments. And, like those cards, the backs here reveal nothing other than instructions on where to write.

Somebody must know what the heck is going on here.

They're German hedgehogs. And they edit.

Reader contribution

Karen Sova of Saginaw must love a good mystery, too. She sent me two awesome postcards to share.

One appears to be made of leather and just didn’t scan well, so I apologize for not posting it.

The other is German, and I’m guessing from the 1950s. The back translates into “From the films of Gebruder Diehl and editorial hedgehog HOR ZUI"

I like the idea of editorial hedgehogs. But I’m not sure what’s going on here. I’m guessing that that lady editorial hedgehog is taking a nap in the hay, and her editor is gently reminding her that a deadline is fast approaching, and perhaps this would not be a good time to doze off.

It also explains why they removed hay piles and sticks from the newsroom a long time ago.

There’s German writing on the front of the card: “Was sich liebt, das neckt sich!” 

Google translates that to “The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love.” Switching that to “Was sich neckt, das liebt sich” changes it to “Teasing is a sign of affection.”

Either way, German hedgehogs look like they’re pretty high maintenance. Thank you, Karen, for sharing!