Luck comes in waves
QUESTION What is the story behind the Chinese lucky cat? THIS cat is called a maneki-neko. It is Japanese in origin, not Chinese, though they are so popular with Chinese traders they are often considered Chinese.
Maneki-neko is Japanese for ‘beckoning cat’. To Western eyes, it appears that the cat is waving, but the Japanese beckoning gesture is made by holding up the hand, palm down, and repeatedly folding the fingers down and back.
They were first recorded in 1852 during the latter part of the Edo period in Japan, in the Buko
nenpyo (a chronology of Edo) and the painting Characters From Plays As Merchants And Customers by the Japanese master Utagawa Hiroshige.
There are several legends about its origin. One has it that a cat named Tama saved a samurai leader’s life by beckoning him with his raised paw just before a bolt of lightning was to strike him.
In thanks, the samurai’s family worshipped at the poor temple where Tama lived, bringing it great wealth.
Another story is that the cat appeared in the dreams of a kindly, poor old woman. The cat instructed her to make the
maneki-neko out of clay, resulting in a thriving business.
Another suggestion is that the cat replaced the large phallic symbol that once served as a signpost for a brothel.
The cat can have a raised right or left paw. A common belief is that a raised left paw brings in customers, while the right paw brings wealth.
The pendant on the cat’s collar says fuku, which means luck. The coin-like object it holds says sen
man ryou, which means ten million gold pieces, signifying that the cat will bring you great fortune. Keiko Webber, Reading, Berks. QUESTION Are lawn darts banned in the US? Are any other games banned there? LAWN darts, or jarts, was a popular backyard game in the US in the Seventies and Eighties. After laying down small plastic hoops, you throw weighted darts underarm, in a game not unlike quoits.
In 1987, David Snow, an aerospace engineer from California, bought a set of games that included jarts, which he stored in his garage.
One day, his nine-year-old son found the jarts and began throwing them around the garden with friends.
Snow’s daughter, seven-year-old Michelle, was hit in the head. She collapsed, was rushed to the hospital and died three days later.
The distraught Snow went on a crusade to have jarts banned.
‘I want to get these damned darts,’ he told the Los Angeles Times. ‘These things killed my child. If I don’t do anything, it’s just a matter of time before someone else gets killed.
‘I’m going to get them off the market, whatever it takes.’
It emerged that a number of incidents and injuries during the Seventies had led to a ruling that manufacturers had to place a warning label on jarts. Snow met the US government’s consumer product safety commissioners, who agreed to ban the game. Canada followed with its own ban. But they are available to buy in Ireland and the UK.
The irony of not being allowed to play jarts in the US while being able to carry an assault rifle has not escaped some social commentators. Arthur Chapman,
West Bromwich. LIKE Kinder Surprise, Nestlé Magic Balls in the US were hollow milk chocolate shells containing a small plastic toy.
They were banned in 1997 in response to lobbying by parents who claimed the toys were a choking hazard. The Kinder Surprise egg was also banned because it contains a ‘non-nutritive object embedded in it’.
Lots of other toys have been banned in the US The grotesque Snacktime Cabbage Patch Kid was a doll that boasted a ‘real chewing action’. Unfortunately, it had cannibalistic tendencies as some children got their fingers or hair caught in the doll’s mouth. Mattel withdrew the toy in 1997.
Worse still was the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab. Released in 1951 and costing a whopping $50 (equivalent to €425 today), it was the ‘ultimate chemistry set designed to educate children about this new and exciting form of energy’. Astonishingly, it used radioactive materials to demonstrate mist trails created by particles of ionising radiation. It was banned within the year.
Cashing in on the success of the CSI TV franchise, the Chinesemade CSI: Fingerprint Examination Kit was sold in US toy stores. It emerged that the fingerprint powder contained up to 7% of tremolite, one of the most dangerous forms of asbestos.
After the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organisation took out a lawsuit against the product’s distributor, it was quickly withdrawn from sale.
In 1977, the one-dollar Gun Fighter toy cork gun was a big seller, but was quickly demonstrated to be dangerous if the muzzle and plastic caps covering the gun’s barrel were removed.
A recall on the guns was issued in 1979 after a boy suffered an eye injury when he was struck by the exposed metal rod.
Peter Smith, Durham. QUESTION Did scientists predict the plastic pollution crisis? WHILE the previous answer was correct in identifying Thor Heyerdahl as one of the first to highlight the perils of plastics, he did not cross the Atlantic on Kon Tiki.
In 1947, he crossed the Pacific from the Peru port of Callao to the Polynesian Islands aboard Kon Tiki, a balsa log raft.
In 1969, he tried to cross the Atlantic aboard Ra, a papyrus reed-built boat. He left from a Moroccan port and was within 1,000 kilometres of Barbados when a storm forced him to give up. In 1970, aboard Ra II, he succeeded. Valerie Jordan, Norfolk. QUESTION Why do trucks here have engines underneath the driver’s cab, while in the US they mostly use trucks with engines at the front? FURTHER to the earlier answer, US trucks also have significant advantages for drivers. Since the engine is in front of the cab, drivers find that the trucks are much smoother to drive and far less noisy. American truck cabs are so big that they often have bunks, fridge freezers, microwaves, TV sets and toilets so long journeys are more comfortable for drivers. Pat Murphy, Dublin.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles.legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.