Why Nusse?

TL;DR: Nusse has been my nickname among close friends for coming up on 20 years.

Longer version:

It was a dark and stormy night in 1999 (*). And I was playing “Nuclear war” with a couple of good friends.

They were flirting. Less than a year later my favorite niece was born.

He already had a nickname. And during the game he called her “Babs”. It followed naturally that I should also have a nickname in the game.

Danes of a certain age, or a geeky persuation, will know a sketch with two, at the time (1958), extremely popular actors/comedians. It concerns a woman who wants to insure her two dogs “Babs” and “Nutte”. The insurance salesman thinks she is talking about her mammary glands instead. Much hilarity ensued. Extreme amounts of hilarity actually. So much that even to this day, 60 years later, “babs & nutte” is used in danish as slang for female breasts.

In other words, there was a very real danger that my nickname would become “Nutte”. The danger was averted, and it became “Nusse” instead. Nutte translates to something like cute. Nusse translates to cuddle. It seemed like the better choice at the time. Also it kinda-sorta-not-quite rhymes with my last name.

(*) Actually it was a hurricane.