A Condom by Any Other Name...
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: The Killers
So apparently, South Korea has put plans on ice to replace the English word for `condom' with a Korean word after a string of complaints from people with identical or similar sounding names.

Originally, I was shocked as I had no idea that `condom' was not a Korean word... Anyway, that point being made, I found out that the suggested Korean replacement word was "ae-pil," derived from the Chinese characters for love and necessity. (Makes sense but jeesh, how literal can you get...)

Ae pil was actually picked from over 19,000 suggestions sent in by the public that included "Soul Mate Sheath (동조자 담보), In Safe Hands (에 저장실 손대다), To Protect The Sacred Scrotum (막다 신성하다 음낭) and I am just kidding (막 유머)...No really, I am just kidding about the other three...but those are their Korean translations.

The new name has prompted complaints from many South Koreans who have similar-sounding characters in their names hence why everyone should just stick with a regular alphabet, Cyrillic or otherwise. One old lady even called to the Public Health Department to complain, saying she was worried about her grandson being teased due to her name being 'condom." I can see it now--"Hey, your grandmother's a condom...na, na, na, na, na,na...You're Sum Young Condom...

It would seem that South Korea, much like Brazil, doesn't have enough to worry about with the current economic and other socio-political issues on their hands...