A professor sparked outrage last week among young women studying at a college in Kerala, India — and may have sparked a powerful new feminist symbol in the subcontinent. Professor Munavvir T criticised young Muslim women at his school for, in his eyes, improperly wearing their hijab, exposingtheir chests to men like 'slices of watermelons on display'. The students were not having it and in the proud tradition of the maligned: they reclaimed the insult. The young women led what media in India widely called a 'watermelon march' outside the college, brandishing slices of watermelon as they demanded action against the professor and treatment as persons, not sexual objects. The protest received a fair amount of attention in the West, too, where melons have long been derogatory slang terms for breasts. (Via OxfordWords blog)
The customer is not always right
"In high school I worked at a local hardware store. We also refilled propane tanks for BBQs. After a summer or two you get good at guestimating how full a tank is just by picking it up. One particularly hot day a customer comes in and sets his tank down next to me and asks for a fill up. I pick up the tank and inform him that the tank is full. He says that he checked that it was empty and would I just fill it up. I asked how he checked (there are several ways to check — by the weight of the tank, the thermal strip on the side, which his tank did not have, or to pour hot water down the side and feel where it gets cold). He said he checked it by holding his cigarette lighter in front of the valve and opening it. To this I replied: 'You ought to write to your congressman and representative because they saved your life today. This tank has an OPD safety valve on it that prevents the gas from coming out without anything attached.' He walked out without another word and with a very red face."
