Actually, when we visited several years ago, we discovered she’s not a bonafide mermaid, just a nude metal girl with what look like real legs resting on a blanket. The famed sculpture in Copenhagen harbor, based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, is actually a copy of the 1913 original.

The first cast of the statue is now kept at a secret location, which is probably for the best. While on public display, the mermaid has been too often defaced, vandalized, decapitated and blasted with explosives, sometimes by angry political nutcases.

You can pay a tribute to the author of the mermaid tale by visiting the Hans Christian Andersen statue in New York's Central Park. For those of us who can remember, the Danish story teller was portrayed by Danny Kaye in a 1952 movie musical. At the park, kids and grown-ups can climb on the Anderson sculpture for fun and photos. For more information, go to .centralparknyc.org