OBITER

Living Dead

A Malaysian has appealed for help after authorities ruled him dead more than four years ago, saying he has not been able to

 have a normal life and is unable to work because of the mistake. Official records show he died from head injuries and no longer exists. Not only that, the same records say his body was buried. But Minggu Mang, 40, has protested that he is alive and has been fighting for years to prove to authorities he is not dead. He suspects he is a victim of a conspiracy and has called for authorities to investigate the people who reported his death and find who was actually buried instead.

Playing Dead

On the other hand, a driver stranded on a remote stretch of Australian highway in Western Australia tried to summon help by playing dead in the middle of the road. A woman who was driving with her two children spotted the man, swerved to avoid hitting him and called the police, who arrived with an ambulance only to find the man alive and well, but with car troubles.

 The man apparently thought the best way to get a vehicle to stop was to lay down in the middle of the road and pretend to be dead. Police told him that lying in the road was ‘a stupid thing to do’ but did not charge him with any offence.

Freed Fries

‘French fries’ are back on the menu in the US House of Representatives, three years after the name was ditched in favour of ‘freedom fries’. House Republicans renamed fries and French toast in 2003 to protest against France’s opposition to the war on Iraq. The move followed the lead of a North Carolina restaurant whose owner said he got the idea from similar protest action against Germany during World War I, when sauerkraut was renamed ‘liberty cabbage’ and frankfurters became ‘hot dogs’. Interestingly, the Senate cafeteria never changed its menu.

 The patriotic name change hit the headlines at the time, but the change back is getting much less coverage. But the last word on the matter belongs to a spokeswoman for the French embassy who, when asked about current French-US ties, told the Washington Times that the two countries were working closely on the Middle East, and quipped, ‘Our relations are much more important than potatoes.’

A Pizza by Any Other Name?

More on changing food names. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words instead of foreign words, turning pizzas into ‘elastic loaves’. The presidential decree orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deigned more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi or Persian Academy. The academy has introduced more than 2,000 words as alternatives for some of the foreign words that have crept into the Farsi vocabulary, mostly western.