Engrish

I know it's not PC, but I suppose, with the Radish Girl thing, I need to discuss my obsession of Engrish (i.e., the misuse/misspelling of the English language by other cultures). Now, I'm the first one to admit that the only "foreign" languages I speak are French and German (and poorly at best), so to laugh about other people's misuse of English could sound mean/unfair/etc. But if you know me, it's more about being a nerd than being mean--I love all cultures, REALLY want to visit Asia sometime soon, etc. etc...

And it's so damn funny! I encourage everyone to check out Engrish.com as a place to start.

And I must also share my latest Engrish find. I've taken to doing much of my household shopping at the recently-opened Japanese discount store called "Samurai" on 8th Avenue between 39th & 40th. It's chock full of wonderful stuff, and I enjoy purchasing toilet bowl cleaner with a label entirely in Japanese (I don't really even know if it's toilet bowl cleaner, but it seems to do the job nicely, so...). I popped in Tuesday night looking for travel-size plastic containers, and as I was mulling about found some pouches for keeping water bottles cool. On them was sewn a little plastic label with a cute animal that reads, "Clickety Click [Copyright] Lube Sheep 2003."

Perhaps this isn't a water bottle cooler at all...maybe it's for shepherds...

Why Radish Girl, You Ask?

My cohort Apple Half and I visited the "Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture" show at Japan Society last weekend--and it was AMAZING! Though the show closed on the 24th, everyone should check out the catalouge... I'd never really thought about the atomic bomb and how it truly affected things. It was amazing to see artists my age dealing with something so horrendous that pre-dated their lives by so many years. It was a sad show with a sense of humor...if that makes sense.

But who is Radish Girl?

Well, it refers to one of the anime clips there, called Daikon IV. It begins with "highlights" from Daikon III, in which a little girl battles a variety of formidable foes to carry a mug of liquid to its final destination--a daikon radish growing in a field. She pours said magical potion onto the radish, and alas--it turns into a giant spaceship! We then jumped to Daikon IV, in which the little girl has grown up, and now fights for justice dressed as a Playboy bunny, and kicks the butt of the likes of Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and countless others...

As we stood there watching, Apple Half named me Radish Girl.