JUST DON'T CALL ME LATE FOR DINNER

A Chinese couple wants to name their child after the commonly used Internet @ symbol.


Because there are so many common surnames in China, Li Yuming, the vice director of the State Language Commission, said yesterday people are driven to find more individual names for their children.

The police, who are the arbiters, will have the final say whether to reject @ as a name for the child because they issue identity cards.

The unidentified couple chose @, which translates into "love him" in Chinese, because "the whole world uses it to write e-mails."

Sounds like a good enough reason to me.


And, if they decide to have another child, they could call him .com
notice I couldn't put a period at the end of this sentence without changing the kid's name)

Click here for more on the story.

FLUSHED WITH TOILET NEWS

Since yesterday's blog was full of manure, I thought you might enjoy these interesting items I found in the news today.



The Chinese opened a four story, 30,000-square-foot public bathroom in Beijing that's complete with uniquely shaped urinals resembling crocodile mouths and, OMG, the Virgin Mary. Outside it looks like the Great Sphinx of Giza, while inside, the world's largest state-run public bathroom is complete with soothing music and TVs.

Could be a contender for the eighth Wonder of the World.


In neighboring Japan, an anonymous benefactor is leaving packages of money in municipal toilets across the country with a note that says "Please make use of this money for your self-enrichment. One per person." Packages contain 10,000 yen or $82 dollars. Around $16,000 has been found so far.

This wonder is just ... why?


Here in the U.S., Kimberly-Clark has rolled out its newest product ... a touchless toilet paper holder that, with a wave of the hand, dispenses sheet lengths from 16 to 24 inches, or about five squares (I actually walked over to the rest room to measure it). The world can now rest assured Americans are curbing their gluttony for massive amounts of "untouched" toilet paper.

The user who can get away with only five squares has my vote for the ninth Wonder of the World.

(AP and Kimberly-Clark photos)

WE ARE SIAMESE IF YOU PLEASE

New Jersey educators want to add Chinese as a world language to their school's curriculum.

They deduce that since 67 percent of students already speak Spanish, why not give them an opportunity, at taxpayers' expense, to become trilingual?

Are they smoking crack?


Teaching kids to speak Chinese before they can speak English proficiently shouldn't happen until pigs can fly.

Then again, Pig Latin as a first language sounds kind of "iftyna."


P.S. Sorry, I have no pictures of pigs, but Canada geese should do the trick. They're almost as dirty, and they already can fly.