I saw something pretty funny at the carwash last week. A young couple was washing their new yellow subcompact in the stall next to mine. The girl was scrubbing the hood of the car with a white rag and noticed it was picking up yellow specks, so showed it to the guy. “Stop!,” he exclaimed, and began inspecting the hood for damage. “This carwashing soap we bought is stripping the paint…” When I told them it was just yellow sand from China, they looked at me like I was crazy. So I showed them my car, which is gunmetal grey and looks like a yellow-speckled trout after the rain dries…

So I have this female coworker, right? She’s off for a year on maternity leave now, but she has been working at the company from before I joined, and we’ve always been tight. She’s always had my back, and I have hers, too. So it kills me to say this, but she has given the stupidest name to her newborn baby boy, and that’s kind of unforgivable in my book. The name? “Shishimaru.” The kanjis used are for “lion” and “circle.” (I dare not write it in Japanese cuz this page will surely float to the top of the search results – for now filled with pets and monster movies…