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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Scarier

I was wrong. I thought I had already found the world’s most ludicrously named chain of clothing stores.

However, the world is full of things that one has not dreamed of. In Hong Kong last week I found this.

13 comments to Scarier

  • John Louis Swaine

    Ah Wanko, terrible fashion, cheap prices.

  • Somewhere in the USA there is (was?) a diner called “Wanker’s Corner”.

    I just thought I’d spread it around.

  • Actually Michael, I’m not sure what your point is with this post.

    I suggested we all engage in a mass debate.

  • steve

    I trust we have all heard of the French sporting goods chain called “The Athlete’s Foot”.

  • John F. MacMichael

    My favorite example of this kind of unintended double entendre is “Servants of the Wankh” a 1969 science fiction novel by Jack Vance (the Wankh of the title are an alien race.) Vance did not know the British idiom when he made up the name and was rather embarassed when he found out.

    On the other hand, the first British edition enjoyed quite a spike in sales from pervs who assumed that the title meant that the book contained some bizarre new form of kink!

  • I saw Wanko in a Hong Kong shopping centre called Metroplaza back in Feb 2004. I think I have a photo of it lying around somewhere.

  • nick g.

    That’s nothing! Those are just foreigners what doesn’t knows any better. A Real Estate company here in Oz dared to call itself ‘Integrity’! I always get a laugh at the oxy-moronic ‘INTEGRITY- for sale’. Are we supposed to sneer at their cupidity, or applaud their honesty?

  • There’s a store in my local mall that sells bean bag chairs called ‘LoveSac’ that makes me wince whenever I pass it.

  • nostalgic

    Nick M – ROFL

  • When the computer company Wang decided to set up their back up and maintenance arm they had the tshirts printed up and everything for “Wang Cares”.

  • That $190 price tag is frightening.

  • There’s a brand of soft drink here in Central America called ‘Squirt’. There was a giant advertising mural of happy people having a nice Squirt in downtown San José. Made me giggle every time I saw it.

  • Alan: You do realise there are a about 13 Hong Kong dollars to the pound?