"When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.'' ~ George Bernard Shaw
Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,
It may seem that my posts often contain potty humor at a higher rate than usually found in polite discourse. I apologize up front for that but good stories are found where they live. Mere mortals have no control over where life takes them and what they may observe. At this point, parents may wish to do some parental control over any youngsters reading....
You may or may not remember this post (Cosmo Crapper) about high tech toilets frequently found in Asian hotels.
Surfing the web today, I found this link describing yet another Japanese potty innovation. If you have not as of yet clicked that link, you will find that some industrious computer and software engineers have invented a computer game that one controls by aiming at specific spots on a bathroom urinal. Let us not sink into recriminations about the unfairness of this totally male oriented and female excluding invention but just relax and enjoy the whimsy.
(Although, one might wonder if Go Girl might not soon see a rise in their fortune.)
The perspicacious reader will note that this invention is called the "Toirettsu". I thought that this might be a good time to indulge in another short Japanese pronunciation discussion. As the cliche holds, the 'l' and 'r' sound in Nihongo (Japanese) are the same. It is a sort of lightly trilled "lri" sound where you hold the tongue at the roof of your mouth and sort of mush the l and r into one blurred sound. Not, as many westerners think, a transposition or 'l' for 'r' and 'r' for 'l'.
So, one would pronounce this gadget's name phonetically - "Toy lret soo" - a play on words for toilet of course.
On that happy note, I remain,
Dad / Geoff
It may seem that my posts often contain potty humor at a higher rate than usually found in polite discourse. I apologize up front for that but good stories are found where they live. Mere mortals have no control over where life takes them and what they may observe. At this point, parents may wish to do some parental control over any youngsters reading....
You may or may not remember this post (Cosmo Crapper) about high tech toilets frequently found in Asian hotels.
Surfing the web today, I found this link describing yet another Japanese potty innovation. If you have not as of yet clicked that link, you will find that some industrious computer and software engineers have invented a computer game that one controls by aiming at specific spots on a bathroom urinal. Let us not sink into recriminations about the unfairness of this totally male oriented and female excluding invention but just relax and enjoy the whimsy.
(Although, one might wonder if Go Girl might not soon see a rise in their fortune.)
The perspicacious reader will note that this invention is called the "Toirettsu". I thought that this might be a good time to indulge in another short Japanese pronunciation discussion. As the cliche holds, the 'l' and 'r' sound in Nihongo (Japanese) are the same. It is a sort of lightly trilled "lri" sound where you hold the tongue at the roof of your mouth and sort of mush the l and r into one blurred sound. Not, as many westerners think, a transposition or 'l' for 'r' and 'r' for 'l'.
So, one would pronounce this gadget's name phonetically - "Toy lret soo" - a play on words for toilet of course.
On that happy note, I remain,
Dad / Geoff
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