Cartoon of the Day

Japanese new-borns visit relatives as rice bags

Tokyo, January 8: New-born babies in Japan who can't make it round to visit all their relatives can now send them proxies instead - cuddly bags of rice.

A small rice shop in Fukuoka, southern Japan, has been swamped with orders for 'Dakigokochi' rice-filled bags shaped like a bundled baby and printed with the new-born's face and name.

Each rice bag is tailor-made to weigh as much as the new-born and shaped so the rice fills the bag up. Holding the round-edged bag would feel like holding a real baby.

"Other rice shops sell bags printed with baby photos, but they use regular bags. People say they aren't good for holding," said Naruo Ono, owner of the rice shop, Yoshimiya.

"Rice for small babies would be stuck at the bottom of the bag, and the baby's photo would be scrunched at the top."

It is customary in Japan to give people gifts or money on occasions such as births, and the recipient then responds with other gifts, often worth half the amount they received.

The rice bags have made perfect 'half-return' gifts, Ono said, although relatives face a dilemma once they are done with the cuddling.

"People say they have a hard time opening them up and eating the rice," Ono said.

They Really Said That?

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with
the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that
won't last out the year."
The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what ... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968,
commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment
Corp.,1977

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
Bill Gates, 1981, commenting on size of RAM in computers

Man accused of stealing sex dolls

Calling it a "drunken, stupid thing," a DeForest man admitted breaking into a town of Burke sex shop last month and stealing several blow-up sex dolls, among them a $270 model that talks.

Jose A. Sandoval, 26, led detectives to spots where he had stashed the dolls and other items he allegedly took from Naughty Novelties, 6011 Highway 51, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Dane County Circuit Court.

Sandoval was charged with burglary for allegedly taking such things as sex dolls, thong underwear and lotion in the Nov. 10 break-in, according to the complaint. Naughty Novelties co-owner Roger Hellenbrand told police, however, that none of the money in the store had been touched.

According to the complaint:

Using surveillance video from the shop, Dane County Sheriff's Office detectives were able to see a large man get out of a distinctive-looking General Motors car, smash through a front door, grab items from the shop and drive off.

About 10 days later, a sheriff's detective noticed a car with similar distinctive features, which included a missing hubcap and a taped-up front passenger window, parked behind the Truckers Inn, 6162 Highway 51, not far from Naughty Novelties.

When detectives stopped the car a short time later, the driver, identified as Sandoval, at first denied committing the burglary. Then he began to cry. Asked where the stolen items were, he said, "hidden away."

Sandoval took detectives to the cab and sleeping compartment of an abandoned semi-trailer truck behind the Truckers Inn and a marshy area next to the motel's parking lot.

Among the items that were found was a Linn Thomas talking love doll, priced at $269.99, which is shaped to resemble the porn star of the same name. According to one review by an Internet retailer, the 5-foot-3-inch doll vibrates and blurts out recorded encouragements to its user.