Sunday, July 30, 2006

Mmmmm, elastic loaves
Via Mike the Mad Biologist, we see that the leader of Iran has decided to take a cue from some of the great silly nationalists of history.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday.

The presidential decree, issued earlier this week, orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported.

The logical next step will be to get rid of non-Persian personal names, like Mohammed. He can lead the way by changing his name to Mobutu Sese "Freedom Fries" Ahmadinejad.

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